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Gardening in Oz

Lantana and Gaura now are weeds !

20 years ago

I read in the paper, SMH, that Lantana and Gaura are now on the noxious weeds lists, and your local nursery is not allowed to sell them anymore. So dont buy them if you come across them.

Its okay to have them growing in your garden, but they are not allowed to be sold.

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Comments (11)

User
20 years ago
Popi you are joking, did I read that right like its OK to have a noxious weed growing in your garden so it will disperse seeds everywhere even into the bushland, or the dear little birds will get in and do their bit too, but not OK for nurseries to be allowed to sell it. If its a noxious weed it should not be in the garden either.

That does not make sense, and what about Sunday markets as I find those places sell more noxious weeds than nurseries will ever sell, now if I knew I had a noxious weed growing in my garden did not matter how pretty it looked, it would be pulled out, put in plastic bag let to cook for a few days in the sun then into the wheelie bin it would go. So all we can hope is that most people will do that when they realise it is a noxious weed, before it gets to be a bad problem.......Cheers..MM.
Sparaxis
20 years ago
Ha! I have never trusted gaura. I knew it was going to turn out to be a bad egg the first time I saw it. I could never understand all the fuss people made!
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I am very surprised that they aren't flowering yet. Have you given them fertilizer? These are plants that require very little if any fertilizer, and too much might cause them to produce all leaves and no blooms. Just a tip. Yes, it is very easy to underestimate how much space lantanas will need. You don't want them to be so crowded that they require pruning to stay in bounds. First, they won't like it, as you have seen, but secondly, it will ruin their natural form and beauty, and you'll just have a bunch of sticks. I usually set them three feet apart in the ground. I would not recommend that you move them right now if your weather is like mine. They are tough, but it is so dreadfully hot and dry. On the other hand, if you have a spell of weather coming where you will get regular rain and/or clouds for a few days, then you should be alright. If you decide to go ahead and move them now, water the plants well the night before they will be dug. This will get them fully hydrated before you cut their roots. Be sure to prepare their new homes before you dig them up! Loosen and amend the soil with some good organic material in a three foot diameter area for each plant. The roots will easily spread as wide as the branches do. The good news is, you only need to dig one spade's depth. Once the soil is soft and loose, dig a good wide hole for the plant and fill it with water. The water will soak in deep and be available for the new roots for several days. At this point, plunge your spade straight down in a circle a foot (or as far out as you can get) from the center of the plant all the way around. Then lever and lift the plant out, keeping as much soil as possible around the roots. Having watered the night before, this shouldn't be too tough. Quickly plant it in its new home and instantly water it thoroughly in the entire area you prepared for it. Add a good thick mulch around it, and if it's hot and sunny, put a cardboard box over it (open to the sky) for a day or two to help reduce transplant shock. Since you have so many to move, you might do them one at a time just to make sure you have success. Then if you lose one, you don't lose them all. Typically, if a newly moved plant lives the first week, it will be fine, but you will need to keep an attentive eye to its moisture needs for the first season. Don't over-water though! Make sure the ground around the plants is nearly dry before you grab the hose. If you lived further north, I would caution you about waiting too long since the roots would need to establish before winter if you want it to live through till next spring. But since you live so far south, I assume that will not be an issue. One other tip. It's really quite pleasant working outside, even hard digging work, from sun-up to about 9:00 a.m. If you decide to move them now, I would definitely advise that you try to use those early morning hours.
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popi_gw
Original Author
20 years ago
Yes, SMH Domain section, article by Jennifer Stackhouse. Page 7.

I think it may only apply to NSW, though.

The plants have been given a schedule 5 listing, which means they cant be sold or distributed. This is the lowest category on the schedule and it has been imposed to prevent the spread of a weed or its introduction.

I am glad, they are both very weedy, and I am sick of clearing lantana from bushland !
sterculias
20 years ago
Lantana and ALL its hybrids have been declared a weed of national significance. This was done by the Federal Govt about 2 years ago. From memory it was classified as a P3 (or Class 3) weed.

And about time too.

Doug.
gardenlen
20 years ago
they won't promote lantana or even grounsel to the noxious must be removed at land owners cost list, because there is much more of those 2 growing in state forests and council reserves than anywhere else and they don't want the cost of having to clean up their back yard first.

no good declaring something a weed and banning its sale in registered nurseries when it can be sold in markets or even kept in gardens it will just keep spreading regardless.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
hilljill
20 years ago
Does this include the different lantana, the stuff that nurseries have been selling that is a ground cover, doesn't get berries and doesn't spread very quickly? If so, why? Does it mutate into something more aggressive, or what?
sterculias
20 years ago
Hilljill,
As I stated above: All lantana and its hyrids have been declared a weed of national significance.
Lantana is an environmental weed. ie. a plant that can be invasive and become naturalised in the environment.
Noxious weeds are poisonous so I would think Lantana is a noxious environmental weed.
There are many classifications of weeds and it is interesting to see the list and see what is banned and what is not.

Apparently the hybrids themselves are sterile but the pollen is still viable back to the parent plant. This is hearsay so I cannot categorically say it is correct.

If you want more info there is plenty on the web. QLD and NSW Govts have done a lot of research into this or so I am told.
Liatris
20 years ago
HillJill, although the hybrids are supposedly sterile, they can still pollinate the wild stuff. It surprises me, the number of council-owned places that still have the ornamental lantanas growing.
robyn5760
20 years ago
I guess my Gaura knew it had been declared a noxious weed, because it comitted suicide over the summer...
Rose_Qld
20 years ago
len, when the gov't first put lantana on a list after, as you know, years of legislative inaction, many home gardeners here were defensive about the ornamental varieties. But I don't hear that now and I haven't seen any in a market etc for ages. Sure there are weeds sold, last one I saw was water lettuce.

The lantana hilljill mentions would be creeping lantana, L. montevidensis. Wild CL has made a major mess of natural places like Kroombit Tops and is also a significant weed of productive land. Even vegetatively, it spreads aggressively and doesn't mind droughts or flood scoured ground....this is what I observe on our place. It's the same species as the one you describe and allowing a 'tame' version wouldn't make sense to weed scientists. A most dedicated bunch imo.
Rose
macbirch
20 years ago
I unwittingly inflicted gauras on my in-laws. They loved them at first but fortunately decided to eradicate them. I'm sure I've seen a smaller pinker gaura at the nursery, I wonder what the story is with that? Just yesterday I went for a walk at the local park and there in the high grass around the pond lurked a gaura. Nearest houses would be at least 50 metres away and I'm not sure if any of them have gauras. How far can they travel?

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