Invasive Plants: Winged Euonymus

[Music Playing] Dave: Hi! I am Dave Epstein. This is Growing Wisdom. We are here today with Bill Brumback, Director of Conservation of the New England Wild Flower Society and we are actually at the Garden in the Woods, one of your conservation properties. Bill: That is right. Dave: And Bill, I want to start with, what is the mission of the place? Why do you guys exist? Bill: The Wild Flower Society started in 1900 and its mission is the conservation of temperate North American flora thru horticulture, education, research, habitat preservation and advocacy. We are the oldest playing conservation organization in the United States. Dave: For the average homeowner, what does an invasive mean? What can they do in their own yard and how can they help sort of protect their own space? Bill: When we talk about invasive species, we mean the species that are invasive in the wild. They are dominating and/or changing or altering our native ecosystems. Those are the ones we are worried about. Now, some of those plants also grow in gardens and those are the ones we want gardeners to be aware of. We do not want them to plant them. We also want them to remove them. Dave: One of the plants that we want to talk about today was winged euonymus. Bill: As you well know, it is used extensively in horticulture everywhere and unfortunately, the birds pick up the seeds and deposit them in the woodlands and the woodlands become an under story of winged euonymus. In some places, this plant is now banned from sale and in other places, it probably will be in the future. Dave: So, can you show me how to remove it? Bill: Sure. Dave: All right, let us go. Bill: We are using a weed wrench which is essentially a big lever that clamps onto the stem of the plant and pulls it out roots all along and the advantage of this is that you will get the entire plant and it is good for plants that tend to sucker much. Dave: And sucker means that the roots kind of travel and send up new plants. Help me to understand the difference between rare plants, invasives and natives. Bill: There are many non-native species here. There are species that come usually from Europe or Asia that are here and most of the species are no problem for us in the environment. Maybe a hundred species total are presenting problems. They are escaping from gardens into the wild and dominating our natural ecosystems and that is an invasive plant. So, we have native plants that are naturally here. Rare plants are the ones that are rare than those of the native plants and invasive species are the ones that are non-native but are as problem. Dave: How can folks if they want to get involve? What can they do to get involve with you guys? Bill: People from the mid-West, anybody can join by going online, become a member of us and help plant conservation throughout the country. Going to NewEnglandWild.org they will be able to help in conservation throughout the whole country. Dave: Bill, I appreciate your time and how the society is really helping on the conservation around not only New England but across United States. And I thank you for watching this edition of GrowingWisdom.com. Remember, you can always come back for all of our tips, hints, and helps, here at growing wisdom. [Music Playing]