Didn't think there was any near to me ...

[ShaneR]

How wrong that assumption was, went to an old wild plum tree I normally relieve of several carrier bags of plums every year ( this year it is bare ) and came across this smothering about 150 yrds of steepish bank above a stream and it's less than a mile from my house .. guess who's got a boat load of seeds

 

[E1M]

You tease, guess you're not letting on where exactly it is!

Not that I blame you!

 

[Legs]

I'd be very, very wary of attempting to cultivate HB on your land. If you allow it to cross outside your boundaries, you are breaking the law. Bear in mind that it grows like the clappers! I used to work for the Environment Agency and a considerable amount of our manpower was put into the control of invasive species in our watercourses.

If you've got a stand of it near your home, be quietly thankful for the bees' sake, but I'd leave it where it is.

 

[madasafish]

I'd be very, very wary of attempting to cultivate HB on your land. If you allow it to cross outside your boundaries, you are breaking the law. Bare in mind that it grows like the clappers! I used to work for the Environment Agency ...

Well of course, this is another law which brings the law into disrepute .. like ragwort.

Ragwort is more dangerous than HB - it kills animals - and yet its spread is unrelenting - even on land owned by the very councils who should be eradicating it.

But as the poster will know that already, I take it as a wind up.

 

[Legs]

But as the poster will know that already, I take it as a wind up.

Really? Nothing in the OP suggests so...

 

[Polyanwood]

I was amazed at the amount of ragwort at Hadleigh Farm on the Olympic MTB racing track. It was brazenly being shown off on international TV.

 

[E1M]

It probably hasn't been removed as officially the area near the Salvation Army site is known as ADDER HILL!!!!

 

[tonybloke]

I was amazed at the amount of ragwort at Hadleigh Farm on the Olympic MTB racing track. It was brazenly being shown off on international TV.

and what a fantastic plant! vital to several native species of insect.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ragwort is a problem but the bodies with the statutory obligatin to enforce its control are also the biggest culprits (local authorities) but there is a big difference in allowing it to grow and purposefuly spreading it - only a fool would cultifate it on his land, apart from being nillegal, because once it takes hold............

 

[Chris Luck]

Ragwort is native, it belongs there.

HB isn't and should be destroyed.

As I asked before, would you like some Asian Hornets?

Chris

 

[Haughton Honey]

I think, perhaps, that the phrase 'more recently introduced' would be more appropriate.

There are plenty of plants on this isle that the population might regard as being native, but which in fact aren't.

Along the same vein as our farming landscape being almost entirely man-made.

 

[Chris Luck]

So will you be happy to have Asian Hornets as recently introduced and look to be spreading them all over the place?

Like **** you will.

Chris

 

[ShaneR]

Amazing the direction a thread can take, predictable though for the record I will not be recklessy sowing the seeds and any I do propagate will be controlled to prevent spread

Chris, not being argumentative but comparing HM to Asian Hornets is a bit extreme, the implications for both scenarios are totally different and far removed from each other imo.

Asian hornets WILL reach our shores, it's just a matter of when not if.

 

[madasafish]

Well if we go down the "introduced" = bad scenario, we should exterminate:

Rabbits
grey squirrels
rhododendrons
Oriental poppies
macaws and parakeets.
red currants
beet sugar
sweet corn
oil seed rape
wheat,
potatoes
tomatoes
etc


not to mention Brussels Sprout..

 

[Nic Rhodes]

Hasn't HB been on these isles since the 1830s?

 

[ShaneR]

Hasn't HB been on these isles since the 1830s?

Yes and is now classed as a naturalised species

 

[Into the lions den]

What is native or not seems very much to depend where you draw the baseline.

If you start with the plain sheet after the last ice age then most lifeforms on these isles should be eradicted. Ourselves and our bees included.

Hard line viewpoints do not do anyone any good and attempted eradiction of HB is both futile and not universally popular. Eradication plans of all sorts are rarely effective, even for species easier to get rid of due to their lesser spread rates, such as Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed, have not been eradicated yet.

Much is made locally of HB choking out the native plants that were there before, prominently listed is comfrey. As it is almost all the blue/prurple for that would be the RUSSIAN comfrey then? An earlier invasive species that is literally everywhere. Also quite unfazed by HB too btw...it has grown, flowered, and gone down, before HB is anywhere near its full height, and is back just as strongly next season.

Wonder when something new comes along that then chokes out the, by then naturalised, HB, and does the job FOC that people seek to spend many millions on, if it will be considered a good thing or a bad thing?

 

[cjhart2]

Well if we go down the "introduced" = bad scenario, ..

not to mention the introduction of varroa , April 1992 .

 

[Chris Luck]

Rabbits
grey squirrels
rhododendrons
Oriental poppies
macaws and parakeets.
red currants
beet sugar
sweet corn
oil seed rape
wheat,
potatoes
tomatoes

Are all those now living in the wild in the UK? I don't think so.

Chris

 

[Chris Luck]

Yes and is now classed as a naturalised species.

Not according to fera / defra. A quick search will tell you that.

Himalayan Balsam. Impatiens glandulifera. Control of invasive non-native
species.

Chris