![]() ![]() To remove Daphne, use gloves and pull small plants by hand, especially when the ground is moist. Please don’t plant it in your garden! Rhododendron or hellebore are good garden alternatives, and there are also other species of Daphne that are safe to plant in gardens. Birds and rodents spread Daphne when they disperse the berries. It bears tiny clusters of yellow-white flowers early in spring, followed by black berries. It has thick green leaves that grow in a whorl and can be up to 1.5 meters high, with multiple stems. The evergreen shrub can look superficially like rhododendron. New broom seedlings are there too though, so it’s a constant battle. A few Garry oak (Quercus garryana) seedlings can be found in the grass where broom was cut over the last few years. It’s always a pleasure to see the lovely spread of blue Camas lilies ( Camassia quamash) and yellow Spring Gold ( Lomatium utriculatum) blooming on the broom-free meadow. Gabriola’s regular broom-bashingĮach May, dozens of enthusiastic broom-bashers (volunteers from GaLTT and the Lions Club) meet at Drumbeg Park to continue the major (ongoing) task of cutting out invasive Scotch broom which threatened to overtake the Camas meadow. MORE RESOURCES: Invasive Species Council of BC Scotch broom factsheet(pdf). It’s very effective to pile it on top of another invasive like blackberry or periwinkle, killing it too. If you cut higher, remove any green shoots from the stump.ĭISPOSAL: Chip it and use it for mulch, but don’t spread the seeds! Or just pile it up and leave it to rot. Do NOT pull older plants -CUT them below ground level if possible. If you do pull very young shoots, tamp the soil down afterwards to avoid light getting to seeds in the soil. Pulling first-year shoots is easy but may encourage seed germination. If you need advice or access to the right tools email broom below ground level is by far the best way to remove it. In May and June the broom’s easy to see because of its beautiful yellow blooms. Here is a link to that includes a useful video about broom removal. Wherever you see Scotch broom on public land (or your own!), do the whole island a favour and remove it before it goes to seed. Get rid of your own broom-cut below ground level if possible! Broom prefers acid soil and good drainage, but is not particular about soil fertility. It out-competes indigenous plants in reproducing, in taking over space, chemically inhibiting neighbouring vegetation, discouraging browsing, and holding viable seeds till the opportune moment to germinate arrive-sometimes decades later. Its seeds are distributed through our highway network by the tires of off-road vehicles and into isolated open areas by birds. Seeds can remain viable in the ground for many years, so the work seems endless.Īfter 10 years it begins to die but new generations of seedlings usually replace mature stands. Our work at first focused on Scotch broom, but grew drastically in recent years, to include Tansy ragwort, and more recently, Daphne laurel. #DAPHNE AFTER SHOOTS HOW TO#GaLTT’s Invasive Species Committee leads our work, calling on a large and dedicated team of members and volunteers to manage invasive plants on public lands, and educating islanders about how to best deal with them on their own properties. ![]() American bullfrogs have decimated local tree-frog populations in Hemer Lake, near Nanaimo. It’s not just plants that are a problem: abandoned pet goldfish and rabbits are a serious problem on Vancouver Island and could easily become so on Gabriola. They are spread by natural means but also through inappropriate plantings by gardeners, people feeding birds, and increased travel and trade along transportation corridors. Some of them are so aggressive they even invade concrete foundations, others are toxic to people or livestock. Invasive plants are spreading aggressively across Gabriola and all of BC, crowding out local native plants. ![]()
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