Ok, I am sorry I made what I thought was a tongue-in-cheek remark, barely serious... "Ironically, you have probably eaten unlabeled genetically modified tomatoes from the supermarkets." There are no labels that indicate the presence of GMO ingredients. If they were for sale, I'm sure somebody bought 'em, just like all of the other unlabeled GMO food. "Some genetically modified corn, complete with BT insecticide genes, inadvertently got into the food supply as corn chips. " Any food in a package is likely to have GMO ingredients, if you understand what all of the code words are for the various wheat, corn, and soy products. "As far as I know, all of the soybeans and most of the corn grown in this rural area are GMOs." Likely unless it is an organic farm, which is impossible to have in close proximity to a non-organic farm. "Many millions of Americans have already eaten GE food without knowing it." No doubt, unless every bit of their food says "organic" on it. "In contrast to that, I don't know of any garden seed companies that carry GE seed." GE seeds are made for large-scale farming, not home gardeners. Unless/until patents expire... "In fact, many seed companies include a pledge in their catalog that they will never offer any GMO seed." Easier than explaining the situation, but good to know people have a general aversion. I still assert that such aversion is unlikely to extend to ornamental plants for most people, but certainly only know what I think. There is a huge difference and I don't even understand why the food issue was brought up, unrelated as far as I'm concerned. "They do that because organic gardeners have already wrongfully boycotted seed companies that they feared might be offering retail genetically modified seed.... I think any seed company that offered GE mildew-resistant Impatiens walleriana would find themselves instantly boycotted. " Knee-jerk hysteria is almost always bad but fortunately all too common in our sound byte atmosphere. Hopefully those concerned will maintain their interest long enough to become more familiar with what is going on in this area. "...it will probably be restricted by a plant patent." That's the whole point of spending the money to produce this result. To make MORE money, as is already the case with Impatiens. Under the umbrella of what Rhizo said, that selective cross-breeding is the standard way to produce disease-resistant cultivars, it's really a moot point.

It occurs to me that if you plant another invasive herb to 'fight' the mint, alabamanicole, you would still end up outcompeting the other plants, and as you say, you want to see what else grows up there. I understand that you don't want to use Roundup, but maybe you could containerise those plants you want to keep temporarily (making sure there are no trailing bits of mint root mixed up with their roots) and then use roundup on the mint and leave it a while before replanting. I don't usually bother with weedkiller but I found it effective to vastly reduce the amount of bindweed in my garden, which used to be highly problematic when I first bought this property, and for any bits I missed I now just dig up the roots. If you have to leave any plants in situ, I used a paint-on type of glysophate instead of a spray and then tied plastic bags temporarily over the leaves I'd painted if they were in danger of brushing against other plants. I don't know if that version would be available or not in your country. Flame-weeding might be an alternative to using Roundup but not having tried it myself, I don't know.

Hi Folks, I just wanted to throw in my $.02 on the subject of controlling Japanese Knotweed. This past week I spent two days removing the knotweed from hill along the side of my driveway. The infestation had been growing for about two years and spreading rapidly. In my case, the hillside that was covered in knotweed also had some plants that I wanted to save- some sugar maples, four varieties of ferns, and some viburnum, so using a foliar spray was out of the question. Instead, I used the "cut stem application" as outlined in this document: http://www.pullman-wa.gov/content/WYSIWYG/Recreation/Japanese%20knotweed.pdf The document recommends cutting the canes between the first and second node and filling the "well" with concentrated herbicide (I chose plain Glyophosphate, you choose your own poison). The document claims this method is 95% effective. Another method involves injecting the plant with herbicide using an injection tool. The upside to this method is that you don't need to dispose of the cut canes. In all, it took me just about two days to clear the hillside. I cut enough canes to completely fill my 8' truck bed two times. I'll keep an eye on the area for the next year or so in case any survivors pop up. -Josh-

I live near LAX and have a Royal Lee and Minnie Lee. The Royal Lee is a big vigorous tree entering its 5th year. My first Minnie Lee died in its 3rd year, but its replacement is now 2 years old and also vigorous. There is a very brief overlap in their flowering periods. Both trees start blooming in February. The Minnie Lee finished blooming in early March, while the Royal is just finishing end of April. The Minnie Lee was quite productive, the Royal Lee less so. Pity, because the Royal Lee produces better fruit. There is a new self-fertile low cherry called Royal Crimson which also serves as a pollinator whose bloom period reportedly spans Minnie Lee and Royal Lee. I drove to the Green Thumb nursery in Simi Valley to find them, but I bought and planted two Royal Crimsons last year. They are still practically twigs, but one of them actually bloomed and produced a single cherry.