Just throw out the plant??

May 28, 2019 6:49 AM

I just found out butterfly bushes are invasive in the Mid Atlantic area! Do I just dig it out and...toss it? Give it away, far away?

As a new gardener, I picked up three small butterfly bushes last year from our local nursery. I didn’t even consider that they would sell something invasive or bad for the local area. But I found this university page here.

They’re growing well in our garden, which has mostly native plants. Should I dig them out? What do I do with them?

posted by inevitability to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

I would dig them out (though make sure to do it in a way that doesn’t propagate more plants)! If you can burn them, that’s good. I’ve heard people leaving invasives in the sun to have them bake to death.

I’m not an expert, but there are a lot of invasive plants in my town. Don’t be that person who introduces an invasive.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:14 AM on May 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I would first be sure that you don’t have one of the seedless/sterile varieties that were bred in response to the invasiveness. In Oregon only the seedless varieties are saleable. Here’s an explanatory page from OR dept of agriculture. I would guess your area has something similar.
posted by janell at 7:21 AM on May 28, 2019 [9 favorites]

Go talk to the nursery and if they are not sterile, ask for credit on replacements.
posted by theora55 at 7:23 AM on May 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: They are not aggressively invasive. I work with invasive species for a living, and I have a few butterfly bushes in my yard.
posted by Patapsco Mike at 7:31 AM on May 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

What Patapsco Mike said. If this was aggressive ... say like wild chervil ... then I would recommend eradication. But if you planted them and will manage and maintain them you should be fine. However, do check to see if they are seedless/sterile and check with your local Master Gardener program -- university extension.
posted by terrapin at 7:55 AM on May 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Abundant nectar is attractive to adult butterflies, but no native North American butterfly caterpillars can use butterfly bush as a host plant food source.

If you keep them, this part is easier to mitigate. ID the butterflies that are nectaring in your yard, and add some host plant food sources for their caterpillars nearby.
posted by desuetude at 8:17 AM on May 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you all!! I was feeling so so guilty. I will check with the nursery and also add some host plant food sources nearby (any recs here would be great).
posted by inevitability at 10:54 AM on May 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

In case it comes up in the future, the people from the local Native Plant Society chapter told us the best thing to do if you *do* take out an invasive is yes, to throw it away, bagged, in the trash. Don't try to compost it or send it to your city's green waste program -- you're just helping it spread better that way!

Also, your local native plan society (are you in Maryland? If so, this is their page: https://mdflora.org/) can usually help you ID some good host plants for your neighborhood, and they probably have interesting speakers at their meetings, too!
posted by itsamermaid at 2:37 PM on May 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I haven't dug through these links yet to see which is the most useful, but there sure are a lot of great organizations on this list.

https://choosenatives.org/resources/native-plant-resources/
posted by desuetude at 3:59 PM on May 28, 2019