Be Plant Wise

http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2010/100224a.htm

Check out this news release from Defra which calls on the nation's gardeners to help stop the spread of invasive plants.

The five plants to look out for are floating pennywort, New Zealand pigmyweed, water-primrose, parrot’s feather and water fern – all of which could be found in your garden pond. Mine had signs of water fern last year and I'll be keeping a sharp eye on that this spring and removing it as soon as it appears.

Parrots Feather is still being sold in garden centres and I know at least one person who has it in his pond, thinking that it's a good healthy oxygenator.

A cautionary tale

New to this pond lark I did a little bit of internet research with regard to pond planting and ended up with a list of suitable plants to make Pondy interesting to future residents.

When I got to the oxygenator section in the pond plant centre I just picked ones that looked pretty. One of them was a Myriophyllum aquaticum or 'parrots feather'. There was no label on it to say that this was a non-native plant or that it was invasive in the extreme and under no circumstances should be allowed into our waterways.


Needless to say, as soon as I found out how harmful this plant was it went straight into the compost bin. Aquatic plant centres don't always say where the plants are from so now I ask about everything before I buy it.

Just because it's pretty doesn't mean it's native... or harmless.