Re: Purple Loosestrife and other Invaders

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Marilyn --

 

Yes, I've been out there and seen the English ivy.  Some spots I saw were like a scene from a Science Fiction movie.  I didn't want to stand still very long for fear that it'd cover me, too!

 

That's why I pointed out that while, as Marge said, English ivy does not re-seed itself the way ground ivy or garlic mustard do*, those other two plants do not crowd out the seedlings over other woodland plants that way English ivy does.  Where English ivy grows, nothing else survives.

 

*Not to say that English ivy doesn't make seeds, though.  As you know, it makes a berry which birds eat and then disperse throughout the wide world.

 

That doesn't, though, mean I'm going to discourage the English ivy from taking over my giant Siberian elm (a/k/a tree-rat high-rise).  Squirrels don't like climbing down ivy-covered trees, which means that the ivy helps keep squirrels from digging and destroying my perennials.   The tree's days are numbered, anyway; in three weeks it's going to be a 25' ivy-covered stob.

 

Dean Sliger

Warren, MI, USA

Zone 6B

 

 

On Sat, 12 Aug 2000 23:53:33 -0700 "Marilyn Dube" <maridube@teleport.com> writes: