Post a reply

Image
Feb 13, 2015 3:40 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Removed by OP
Last edited by mellielong Dec 21, 2015 1:20 PM Icon for preview
Image
Feb 13, 2015 4:03 PM CST
Name: Lin Vosbury
Sebastian, Florida (Zone 10a)

Region: Ukraine Region: United States of America Bird Bath, Fountain and Waterfall Region: Florida Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Birds Butterflies Bee Lover Hummingbirder Container Gardener
It reminds me of the Southern Sword Fern (Nephrolepis cordifolia) that we had invading our yard at our old house. It was almost impossible to eradicate!
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/par...
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!


Image
Feb 13, 2015 4:13 PM CST
Name: Donald
Eastland county, Texas (Zone 8a)
Raises cows Enjoys or suffers hot summers Region: Texas Plant Identifier
The weeds in my part of the world aren't nearly so beautiful!
Image
Feb 13, 2015 9:27 PM CST
Name: Cheryl
North of Houston TX (Zone 9a)
Region: Texas Greenhouse Plant Identifier Plant Lover: Loves 'em all! Plumerias Ponds
Foliage Fan Enjoys or suffers hot summers Tropicals Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages Million Pollinator Garden Challenge
I guess I should be happy I only pull them out of the unwanted areas of my flower bed and not in my trees?! Blinking And guess what? I PLANTED IT! Crying
Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh
uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile.
Image
Feb 14, 2015 12:14 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Lin, I'm going to wait to mark it as solved because I'm one of those people that likes a consensus, if that's okay. I just want to see if anyone else chimes in. Plus, I really don't want it to be an invasive plant. I am so against invasives and that would let me unleash my full fury on it but I know how hard it is to manage other invasives. Skunk vine is the bane of my existence. I was sort of hoping this was native so I could at least think, "Well, it does belong here even if I don't want it right where it is." I also don't use many chemicals in my yard because I raise caterpillars but these things are very hard to get rid of so I may have to pull what I can and then do some selective application. Luckily, they're not really near my butterfly host plants so that will help.

Donald, unfortunately Florida (and other states, I'm sure) ended up with a lot of extremely invasive plants because someone thought it was "pretty" and didn't think about the fact that things just grow too darn well down here! We have a freeze warning tonight in the two counties directly north of me, but it often doesn't get cold enough to really kill things off like it would in other areas. For example, I was freaking out one time when visiting my grandparents in WV because nearly everyone had Castor Bean growing in their vegetable garden. I understand why, but here in FL it's an invasive plant and you find it growing on the side of the road because it doesn't get cold enough to kill it every year like it does up north.

Cheryl, the ones in the tree are way harder to get rid of than the ones in the ground. The roots are so much stronger than you would think. In the ground they're connected so you can kind of tug on one and get a bunch of others to come up sometimes. But the ones in the tree just end up breaking off their roots and then they come back. It doesn't help when they're spread by spores! It's not like I can get them before the seeds pods turn ripe like on other plants. And when I attached my bromeliad I cleaned out that tree first and tried to get rid of everything else in it. But as you can see, they keep coming back!
Image
Feb 14, 2015 12:58 AM CST
Name: Dave Paul
Puna, HI (Zone 10b)
Live in a rainforest, get wet feet.
Plant Identifier
I agree with Lin.

It is Nephrolepis cordifolia. a common indigenous fern in warm habitats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
Image
Feb 14, 2015 9:42 AM CST
Name: Lin Vosbury
Sebastian, Florida (Zone 10a)

Region: Ukraine Region: United States of America Bird Bath, Fountain and Waterfall Region: Florida Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Birds Butterflies Bee Lover Hummingbirder Container Gardener
Melanie, it was just a guess on my part ... I'm not good at identifying plants by comparing photos, the fern just looked a lot like the invasive ferns I had at our old house.

Cheryl, I have to admit that the invasive ferns in our yard was my fault! Back in the mid 70's a friend had them growing on their property and I thought they were so pretty I asked if I could have a couple. I didn't know about invasive plants in those days but my plan was to keep the ferns in hanging baskets; I hung one of the baskets in a backyard tree where it escaped and spread to the point that they became almost impossible to eradicate.

I was working 15-16 hour days in those days and the Sword Fern, Cape Honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) and Four o'Clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) took over more than a quarter of our backyard! We'd try to keep it all cut back on weekends but it became impossible. We finally got the ferns out but the Four O'clocks and Cape Honeysuckle were still pretty thick on the other side of the fence on county property. The county folks would come once a year (at best) and mow everything down but the roots were still there and the stuff would sprout back tenfold. About eight years ago I worked from sunup to sundown, every day for a month or more, digging up huge and very heavy Four O'clock tubers and some of the runners from the Cape Honeysuckle. I finally gave up because they all seemed to multiply overnight, especially during our summer rains. I'd use the riding mower in our yard and get as close to the fence as I could to mow down the runners in the lawn but since the county didn't keep the property clear I couldn't completely eradicate it. We sold that house and I drove by there a couple of days ago and noticed that the Four O'clocks are about 5 feet tall and the Cape Honeysuckle has taken over, growing way up into the trees and along the fence ... it was in full bloom and really beautiful but oh what a headache it is to try and control!

Melanie, Are you in or near Hillsborough County? There's a UF Extension Service office in Seffner: https://www.google.com/maps/pl... and I bet if you could take a fern to them, they'd be able to correctly ID it for you.
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!


Image
Feb 14, 2015 3:05 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Yup, I'm in Hillsborough County. Pretty close to the Pasco County line, but not quite there. You know, I've never visited the extension office, but I do know a Master Gardener on this site who volunteers there.

I trust you guys about the fern. It's definitely aggressive, but I don't like to call anything invasive unless it's non-native. I know a lot of people get frustrated by native plants that can be aggressive, but it's like, hey, they were here first. At least now I know it's full on war! And I can tell my dad they're "bad ferns" and that he can do whatever he wants to them (within reason). I'll have to be very careful about chemicals, like I mentioned. I do have those super cool "Resurrection Ferns" and I wouldn't mind some more of them. Have to get rid of these guys first.

Thanks for the help, guys! I love this site! Lovey dubby
Only the members of the Members group may reply to this thread.
Member Login:

( No account? Join now! )

Today's site banner is by Zoia and is called "Volunteer"

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.