Carla Emory has a couple of paragraphs about home-grown rabbit food: "The old-timers who wintered their rabbits on food they'd grown themselves fed them such things as stock beets and cabbage in winter as well as their grain and hay. So can you. Pea and bean vines can be cured like hay and make an excellent hay substitute or supplement. "In season, rabbits like anything green, but you must be careful not to feed them plants that are outrightly poisonous, such as chokecherry or rhubarb leaves, or potato peels with sprouts or the ones that have been in the sun long enough to get even the slightest touch of green. Other greens are only mildly poisonous in the uncooked state such as pigweed, amaranth greens, spinach, comfrey, and Swiss chard--but for a creature with a small body weight like a rabbit, especially a young rabbit, these can be a problem too. Much of the reason that people develop a fear of growing their own rabbit food, or have had bad experiences with home feeding of rabbits is that they don't understand how very many greens, wild or domestic, are not fully safe to feed rabbits, and which are. Before feeding a leafy green or herb for the first time, check the list under "Edible for Rabbits" below, to see if there is a warning of any sort about it. Stick to feeding them human-type salad greens unless you know for sure a wild one is safe. If cooking is advised for a green or category of greens (the amaranth family), don't feed it to rabbits who, of course, would be eating it raw. If it's in the least toxic, don't feed it to them. If it might have chemical residues in it, don't feed it to them. "I plant extra rows of lettuce for them. And when I weed in the summer, I take along a bucket to put the pulled edible weeds for rabbits. Feeding this way you never have to buy a rabbit pellet and they do fine. When fed home-grown stuff, they'll grow a little slower (and more normally) to that 2-lb. butchering size. But it's far cheaper, and I have organic meat because conception on, they've been nourished with home-grown foods and greens, or hay and grain from a source I know is chemical-free. "Vegetables/Greens/Fruits: A combination of grains is better than a single one. A combination of veggies and greens plus grain and hay is better yet. Let your rabbits do some of the picking and choosing. They'll choose what they need. They'lll love much of what you offer of this sort, and it's a nice way to tame them--hand-feeding them some veggie treats. For pregnant and nursing does, variety is especially important. Offer the vegetables or leafy greens in season (the longer the season, the better). Garden and kitchen vegetables and fruit scraps can be included also, as long as they're not on the unhealthy list. If you're just starting to supplement a rabbit's diet in this way, go slowly at first until your bunny gets used to it. Limit what you feed so that surplus doesn't rot in the cage. Rotting surpluses are good for chickens or pigs, but not rabbits. In fact, rabbits can get sick from eating partly spoiled greens. Garden vegetables for rabbits, as for people, are mostly water. Greens are water plus lots of minerals and vitamins. Root vegetables are higher in energy supplied, lower in the mineral-and-vitamin department."

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.

Ginger: The medium Weed Wrench takes a 2 inch diameter trunk, and these were really jammed into the jaws to fit. Most of these had been topped to make them less conspicuous till I could dig them out, so I can't say for sure the height. Since you have a business and mine's just for home use, I'd think you'd need both the medium and large. The instructions say that if a root doesn't come out easily, you're supposed to "pump" the handle, "rhythmically pulling hard, then relaxing the pull." If I'd done what they told me I probably wouldn't have had a problem. But I tried leaning on it with my weight, which is what I had seen my husband do to another one, and that's where I failed. So I'm pretty sure it's a malfunction in the user instead of any problem with the tool not being able to be used by a normal-sized person. I've got a couple of other saplings to pull (I hope tomorrow) and I'll post the results when I've done it. Melanie: You're supposed to have your HANDS in the dirt. You've got them mixed up with your mind... :o)

Some of Robin's comments (about the Nicotiana and Impatiens) bring out a point that I probably should have made in the original post. Salvia enthusiasts and other plantspersons need to work with government agencies to help control weeds for our own benefit. They need us for our expertise to determine the level of risk that potentially weedy species present in all the different climatic zones we try them in. We don't want a ham-fisted one-size-fits-all argument from ignorance approach applied to our efforts. By demonstrating cooperation and maturity in working with them, we can enable both our interest in trying new species and their interest in preventing nasty plants from escaping. We need each other. Right now NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society) is cooperating with APHIS on regulations for the import of seed into the USA. Here is a quote from a post on Alpine-L from Joyce Fingerut of NARGS: "When our extended group protested the phyto requirements for seeds, and commented on the proposed regulation, we apparently gained a good name with the Agency for civility and reasonableness. I received positive comments from their staff members. I fully expect that this will continue through the upcoming discussion." The discussion she referred to is a period for email posts to APHIS. The APHIS announcement says that the topic is how to define invasive plants. On November 27, 2006 a link to the discussion will be posted on this website: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/Q37/revision.html Here is a link that might be useful: APHIS weed control discussion site (definition of weedy species)