Invasive Species!

I am a big fan of perennials and one thing I need to be mindful of is that some perennials can be considered an invasive species. One common question I get at my markets is "is this plant invasive?". Now here's the thing what you might consider invasive, I might not consider invasive. There are only 3 plants I would tell people never to put into their garden: husk/ground cherries, tomatillos, and mint. Other plants their spread can be carefully managed by being very mindful when you're gardening.

Milkweed it is very important to pick off the pods and put them in the garbage (don't compost them!). Pick them off before they go brown and explode. Catnip make sure you don't allow it to flower. If you do see flowers cut the plant down to about a foot and it shouldn't self-seed. Yarrow, Shasta daisy's, bee balm, coneflower, delphinium, hyssop, and lamb's ears I find they spread really slowly so they are quite manageable.

Every province and state has a list of plants that they consider to be invasive. These are the plants that Manitoba considers to be invasive. This is another list from the government of Manitoba on what they consider to be invasive.

The plant I had no idea was invasive was Baby's Breath. It's very important to note that their are many different types of Baby's Breath and it's the perennial Baby's Breath (Gypsophila paniculata) that is considered invasive. Annual Baby's Breath (Gypsophila elegans) is not considered an invasive species.

The other plant that surprised me was that milkweed was on the list. I sort of understand why they are on the list (farmers don't like the plant in their crops or pastures). But the monarch butterflies rely on milkweed so that is why I continue to offer milkweed plants.