Wikipedia tells us that witch-hunting is the persecution of a perceived enemy with extreme prejudice and disregard of actual guilt or innocence; it’s a type of "moral panic." Okay, I think I have the right term, but you be the judge.
I saw this item on a garden writers Yahoo group. The Columbus Dispatch published a story about "Invasives and their Alternatives." Unfortunately, it included "day lilies" (sic) in the list of bad guys and even showed a photo of a lovely red one above the caption: "New aliens climbing out of the bed, into the wild." Trouble is, only the species daylily - the orange "ditch lily" - is a problem, not the untold thousands of hybrids that are available - you know, the ones we might actually buy and put in our gardens, like the lovely and falsely charged red one in the story.
Well, of all the places to malign daylilies unfairly, Columbus has gotta be the worst. Not only is it the home of prominent daylily hybridizers and nurseries, but the site of this year’s American Hemerocallis Society Convention, for god’s sake, so you could say that notice was taken of this article and its misdirected accusations. The Society jumped on the case immediately, seeking a retraction from the Dispatch, but you know how effective that will be. Damage has been done.
My second example is from a talk I heard recently by a plant expert from the University of Maryland. When asked if ornamental grasses are invasive she declared that Miscanthus sinensis is, yesiree. At which point I jumped into the fray to ask, "Isn’t it just the species, not varieties like ‘Morning Light’"? And to my surprise she responded that yes, in our area it’s just the species that’s a problem. So why the hell didn’t she say that in the first place?
So like the listserv member who raised this interesting item and suggested that perhaps the Columbus Dispatch writer could learn to "pay more attention to her research," I wish everyone who uses the dreaded "i" word would at least try to get their facts right. Like exactly what plant, where, and under what growing conditions. After all, when that label is directed to gardeners and the plants we grow, isn’t the purpose to induce us to rip them out and toss ‘em? And I may be going out on a limb here but in my experience, we’d rather not.
[Photos: I promise this is the last of the tulip shots, both from the Tulip Library on the Mall.]
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Alice 04.20.06 at 5:49 pm
Well, wouldn’t you know it. We bought the orange daylily years ago from a stall and it became such a nuisance that I vowed I’d never have any more. I didn’t realise that it was the only ‘rogue’. I must see about getting more in other colour because I do love the flowers.
Nelumbo 04.20.06 at 11:17 pm
Good point!
I recently heard about a similar goof…a picture of a native plant ended up on the cover of a book about invasives.
Pam L 04.20.06 at 11:27 pm
I have my orange day lilies in a somewhat contained space and so far, not a problem, but I will rip out what tries to travel too far. In the meantime I just added a bunch of mixed Asiatics, some smaller Stella D’Oro’s and some Stargazers, along with more Glads and some Liatris Spicata for texture . It should be a colorful year, the tulips are going crazy this year.
John Peter Thompson a.k.a. Ioannis Petrus 10.28.06 at 11:42 am
Having found your comments in a search, I have included them in my continuing effort to expand the discussion of invasiveness. Interested parties may disagree at:
http://ipetrus.blogspot.com/2006/10/invasive-miscanthus-challenge-of-use.html
Faye Hiller 01.13.07 at 8:01 pm
8 years ago I moved to a mountainside and put in slowly over several years what resembles a garden border. During these years we had many downpours and I witnessed first hand the amount of water coming down the hillside. In the meantime I “tamed” several beds of the “native” lilies. Over the years I have had to dig alot out, but the stips that I left have more than made up for the labor to maintain them to a managable size as they are great to use to establish a slowing of water down hillsides. I have also noted in PA that there are alot of high ditches with these growing on them with absolutely no erosion!