Rosemarie -- thanks, I will go introduce myself in "The Face Returns" thread once I get myself organized around here (gotta find a good mug of myself, hah!). And the overgrowth and spiderwebbing happens to my plants all the time, but I do love a good "spring cleaning" now and then where I pick out the weeds and repot and give my plants a nice trim. Pennyhal -- oh, I know all about the "I'll just buy this one plant" because I get sucked in all the time! I'm more of a "growing things from seed" rather than buying ones from a store, but I always, always end up with way more plants than I can take care of. Unfortunately, that usually means that they don't do so well if I get busy:(. I'm in the process of rebuilding my garden, so hopefully I'll be able to share pictures in a few months once they get going.

Unfortunately, a HOA-resident relationship is often viewed in the same manner as a parent-child or teacher-student relationship. Even thought they are both just neighborhood residents and the issue is a matter of different opinion/taste/preference, the HOA (the board, president, whoever) is deemed to be "right" - after all, they were elected! The opinions are not weighed on equal footing. You, as the lowly target of power going to someone's head, can either knuckle under or take on all the burden of making the other neighbors realize what you are going through and the craziness that has come about. For years, the president of our HOA was the Neighborhood Bully. I had the unfortunate situation of living smack next door to her. (Never, EVER would have bought the house had I known.) She would pick someone to bully and bully and bully - just to prove she could. (You need to clean your fascia, you need to pressure-wash your roof, you need to bleach your driveway, no potted plants allowed - no pots of ANY sort in the front OR back yard, did you see how much so and so drinks - look in her recycle bin!, etc, etc, etc.) Just a busy-body, know-it-all, misguided waste of good energy, neighborhood bully president. This woman kept her house in A-1 condition, but expected everyone else to spend 40 hours a week doing that, too. (She blew her driveway and sidewalk with the blower TWICE a day, every SINGLE day - does that tell you anything? She pressure-washed her roof - the inspector told her she took 10 years off the life of her roof doing that. The roof leaked in the big rain from Barry two weeks ago.) I made sure that every neighbor knew my plight and realized, "hey - open your eyes, because YOU MAY BE NEXT!" It worked - once they realized what a kook she was, she was voted out at the next election. There's lots more to the story - maybe I will tell it one day. -Carol

The tree of heaven is a nightmare. I am obsessed with the trees! Everytime I see one I want to cut it down. I hate seeing them along rt. 78. My husband now is obsessed with them and says they are even growing in NYC - where he works. My father hates them also so we diligently cut every female tree down as soon as possible but they seed so rapidly you can't keep up. Our neighbors don't cut theirs down so they end up seeding our property. My husband thought that since it's such a hard tree to cut down (seeminly like a dense hardwood) he would dry it and burn it for firewood. It was worthless. It's a totally useless tree - it stinks when you cut it or pull a seedling out of the ground and sucks up all the water out of the ground - stealing it from other plants! About the Japanese stilt grass. It's a nightmare to control. We just can't keep it under control at all and hope that the sheep we are going to get will eat it. It chokes out all of our redwood oak seedlings we plant for our reforestation activity. I'm wondering if crown vetch will choke it out or if the stilt grass with choke out the c.v. We used to have multiflora rose growing in abundant but we finally got rid of them. Thanks for letting me vent! :) Any help you can offer with control ideas - please pass on. thx.

Jack, I can understand why an anonymous note would make you uncomfortable, and I can also understand why you don't want to name the plant because it's irrelevant to the discussion. However, if it is on your state's noxious list, should you as a responsible citizen continue to offer it for sale? If it is not on the list then there's no issue. Here's what I would do. Print out the "Severe Threat" list for your state from the Invasives.org website Vaccinium provided, post it in a prominent location and post below it your "Company Policy" that your customers will never find one of these plants for sale at your nursery. How many of your customers have actually ever seen that list? And, how many confuse "invasive" with "aggressive spreaders or seeders"? You'll be educating them. If a customer questions the invasiveness of a plant you sell, you can show them the list and explain the difference. I have never seen and never expect to see Japanese Honeysuckle, Kudzu, Tree of Heaven, Mimosa, Common Privet, or Chinese Privet for sale at any nursery in the South. However, I have purchased Variegated Porcelain Berry and have it growing on an arbor. That plant is not on my state's invasive list, but is on "Watch List B, plants that are severe problems in surrounding states, but have not been reported in Tennessee". I'll watch it. Interestingly enough on "Watch List A: Exotic plants that naturalize and may become a problem in the future", among others are listed Buddleia, Cosmos, Rose of Sharon, Spearmint, Peppermint, and Grape Hyacinth. All of these are commonly found in every nursery and most gardens. Where do you draw the line? Do you refuse to sell any plant that is listed on not only the Severe Threat List, but also the lower threat lists the watch lists? That's your decision and your conscience.