Most plant buyers pay little mind to the fine print on plant tags. Believe it or not, even plants come with fine print these days. What is said is that the plant with the tag is property of the patent holder, and the purchaser is buying the right to grow that plant until it is dead. It is true: you can do just about anything you want with the plant, except propagate it. In the ornamental industry we feel that we have gained by this explosion of patented plants available. Twenty years ago lantana and verbena were considered exotics; now hundreds of new varieties are introduced each year. All these new plants have certainly been fun for us gardeners.
For those looking for a down side; there are certain factors that could be viewed as disturbing. In the ornamental horticulture industry, large corporations have come to dominate a once mom and pop industry. Starting a small plant business is not easy, as most plants are now sold at big box retailers and grocery stores. So the neighborhood plant store is a thing of the past; not exactly the end of the world, just a little more homogenized.
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There’s no question that as urban sprawl continues to grow, replacing fields with houses, filling in streams and building new roads, we’re losing a bit of nature every day. There is always a trade off between the conveniences of modern society, and the peace the countryside brings. The good news is that there is a way that you can bring the tranquility of nature right in your backyard, and immediately make you the envy of the neighborhood.
In many ways such as architecture, interior designs and arts, the balance of nature is being revived and preserved in our very busy lives. At the beginning of the 20th century, domestic architecture tried accomplish this goal— to have a more rapid combination of home with its environment.
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You have been weeding your little green patch out front, dreaming to have rows of beautiful flowering plants after a few months. But, to your utter frustration, you found that a small area at the corner of your garden has been invaded by the notorious Japanese knotweed. Finding a patch of weeds in a garden is not a reason to be alarmed. It is but a common incident to find some unwanted wild plants growing amongst your flowers every now and then. You can just weed them out if they pose too much of a threat. However, this is not the case with the Japanese knotweed. Weeding them out as well as completely eradicating them from your little green patch is one big challenge.
The single characteristic that makes this plant very hard to control is because of its underground stem system, or rootstock, which has the ability to produce new plants. A small part of the rootstock, one weighing 0.7 grams and as big as the nail of your little finger, is a viable plant and very much capable of growing into a four foot plant by the end of the summer.
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