Great topic, and it points out once again that one man's treasure is another man's garden pest. I've said it before, but apparently it bears repeating. There is a COMPLETELY STERILE, non-invasive, Florida Friendly Mexican petunia. It does not spread. Period. I've had them planted for YEARS, and still have exactly the same ones I put in the ground at THIS house four 1/2 years ago. It would be a shame to rule out this beautiful purple plant, which butterflies thoroughly enjoy, because some varieties are invasive. If you like how it looks, but don't want it to spread, go to Home Depot and look for the Florida Friendly label. I will NEVER be without Purple Showers again. It's a must-have in my garden for a tall, willowy plant with lovely rich purple blooms. Do not buy "Katie" (the dwarf one). It spreads. Do not buy any that don't say Florida Friendly and STERILE on the label. But DO give this beauty a place in your garden. It's a winner all the way around. As for my worst invasive problems...definitely the Roots At Nodes syndrome of a certain kalanchoe-type thingie I once had. (I think it might have been called Mother of Thousands...or maybe MILLIONS). It has a coral bloom and scalloped leaves, and every single leaf node got a new plant, which ended up taking over my entire backyard. You could not possibly pull them fast enough. It would have taken a 55-gallon drum of heavy duty RoundUp to kill this particular Mother! (Did I say that?) Marcia

Sadly, I'm reading this to get ideas for plants I CAN use in this zone/region/area. We are what my mom calls "high and dry". You dig and get 6" or less of acidic topsoil (thanks to all the oaks), then the rest of it below is sugar sand (or "blow sand"). We are about 2 miles inward of Lake Michigan, but still have way too much sand in a heavily forested area. The years-long established woodland areas have typical wintergreen (teaberry), wild blueberry, wild violets, some kind of resilient fern, some dry-loving moss, a small non-violet purple flower, and others I can't remember names. But around my mom's house (built about 6 years ago) has nothing but sand under 1" of any kind of topsoil. Maple seedling from the few trees she has seems to be the worst weed in my beds. She's struggled over time to grow any kind of lawn and is just now starting to succeed in her back yard. We haven't found ANY plant so far to be invasive besides crab grass and dandelions. Snow-on-the-mountain died after first year somehow. Vinca minor (creeping myrtle) has grown (a little) over the years, but been struggling down a north slope. Lily of the valley will work around her deck area, but spreading VERY slowly. I purposely planted a sweet autumn clematis (paniculata) just to see how invasive it can be. I doubt it will survive and/or thrive. We do have some native weed of sorts in patches in the lawn which resembles a green, creeping jenny but we leave it because it's better than just plain dirt or failing-looking, patchy grass and it stays low to the ground. Her buttercup is still very slow to spread in her part-sun back rose garden. Spread like 3' dia in several yrs. We have a place to fill with something low between the west house wall and fence that will fair well (with no watering) and/or deal with regular lawn mowings. Was looking at tansy. Just want something that didn't fly over spans to faraway beds. But I can't STAND any wild violets in my flower beds, though. I moved away from the stuff at old house. It consumed all but some roses and bulbs no matter what I did to get them out. Pulled and dug for days to no avail. Then left bed to nature... and how ugly it got! Brought a few plants with me to my mom's house and nabbing any and all violet sprouts I see popping up around them. I wanted to refresh this thread for this list anyways. Maybe I can get suggestions along the way... Otherwise, great read!

Susan, Gardening isn't easy because it is a dog-eat-dog world, to use an old phrase. Remember that every living thing in nature eats something or is eaten by something. From that viewepoint, your best natural control will come from other insects, bacteria, fungi, bats, birds, etc. that feed on cucumber beetles. In my garden, the argiope spiders and wolf spiders seem to do most of the cucumber beetle control, but I am sure lady bugs, tachinid flies, green lacewings and other beneficial insects do their share of it too. There are six kinds of cucumber beetles and the methods that work to control (note, control doesn't mean total elimination) them will vary in effectiveness depending on which kind you have. If you were worrying only about a field crop, control would be easier to achieve because you could use management techniques like aluminum reflective fabric-type mulching material, floating row covers or Surround to either exclude the beetles from your crop or to repel them. In a home garden, those methods are not as easy to use, especially when you garden for the butterflies. Because their larvae are soil-dwellers in spring, you might be able to gain some control from applying beneficial nematodes to the soil, if you can carefully monitor soil temps and apply them at the right time. You also might have success using a product that contains beauveria bassiana. You might have some success using neem oil on the beetles. It doesn't really kill them, but since it functions as an anti-feedant, you likely would see much less damage from them. You might have success with a trap crop that would lure them away your desirable plantings, but the use of trap crops seems less effective (to me) when used in a home garden setting. Sometimes trap crops attract more pests than you'd otherwise have. If you can move quickly with a hand-held cordless vacuum cleaner, you might be able to vacuum them up off your plants and dispose of them. However, they'll see you coming and take off so this may be of limited effectiveness, and the overall issue is that more of them just keep coming. You possibly could catch a lot of them on yellow sticky traps. Instead of buying the pricey little yellow sticky traps, you can paint plywood or something similar yellow and then apply a layer of Tree Tanglefoot to that yellow-painted wood. When it is covered with beetles, wash off the dead bugs and tree tanglefoot (I use orange oil to clean off that type of messy, sticky residue/bugs), recoat the painted wood with a new layer of Tree Tanglefoot and put the yellow sticky traps back out. In commercial agriculture they use yellow sticky traps more as a monitoring device, but they can be somewhat effective in home gardens in urban areas (though much less effective in very rural areas with incredibly high populations of these pests). In an area where cucumber beetles are a pest, it is best to clean up your plant debris in fall and I know that isn't necessarily the best option for you given that you have overwintering cats and chrysalises. Because the most effective way to control cucumber beetles involves following a structured program of Integrated Pest Management, I'll go find ATRA's IPM pages for cucumber beetles. This document will go into great detail about the organic control of these pests and cites some of the most recent research, including research done in Oklahoma. You might notice that they even have lists of cucurbits and rank them from being 'most attractive' to cucumber beetles to 'least attractive'. That info can be helpful for a gardener wanting to chose cucurbit varieties to plant. If I were seeing large numbers of cucumber beetles now in a home garden, I'd hit them with neem oil, figuring it would reduce their feeding and plant damage. And, since we can assume that beetles that stop/reduce their feeding would be less healthy, maybe they'll reproduce less. I also wonder (but haven't researched it) if the 'San Diego' form of Bt that is effective on Colorado Potato Beetles might also give some control of cucumber beetles. One of the newest products on the market---Spinosad---might or might not be effective. I only use it in granular products: Slug-Go Plus for control of sow bugs and pill bugs, and in organic fire ant baits. The liquid form of Spinosad you spray on plants might work on cucumber beetles. I haven't tried liquid Spinodas and likely will not try it because I avoid all broad-spectrum liquid pesticides due to their effects on some beneficial insects and bees. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: ATTRA--IPM of Cucumber Beetles

I love my periwinkle!! Yes it is aggressive but I have not found that it chokes out any of the larger perennials that it shares space with. I do pull gallons of it each spring to keep it away from the hosta and astilbe, but still I do not think it would choke them out. I am struggling to remove the pachysandra. It comes up from the tiniest root, like Lily of the Valley. Lily of the valley has been the toughest to eradicate. Its web of roots is near impossible to cut through with a spade. Be VERY careful where you plant that. The blooms smell HEAVENLY and I grow it for that but it has its down side. Ajuga is also very invasive given time but easily torn from where you don't want it. Not sure if this includes the grass..I have some that gets a squirt of weed killer when I make my rounds....