Popping by the garden store on the weekend is a great way to find something new for your yard, but you might end up with a plant that turns into a big headache. Florida garden centers are selling invasive plants that can quickly escape and cause real problems for the local environment. Even big box stores sell plants like the asparagus fern (Asparagus aethiopicus) that are famous for spreading way beyond where they were planted and crowding out native species. Asparagus fern isn’t actually a fern, but a plant in the lily family that grows bright red berries that birds eat and drop elsewhere. Once it settles in a new spot, its thick roots take over, making it hard for anything else to grow. A lot of people assume that if a store sells it, it must be safe, but retailers often focus more on profit and popularity than the health of the local ecosystem. To keep your yard from spreading these problems, avoid buying plants like the asparagus fern, lantana (Lantana strigocamara), pothos (Epipremnum aureum), water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), wandering dude (Tradescantia zebrina), water snowflake (Nymphoides hydrophylla), and the mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) to plant in your yard. You’ll often see these plants labeled as hardy or fast-growing, which can be a red flag for a species that’s invasive. Since Florida stays warm almost all year, these plants never go dormant, letting them easily crowd out native plants. Knowing what to watch out for is important because stores generally aren’t required by law to stop selling every invasive plant unless it specifically makes the state’s prohibited list, so it’s up to the shopper to know what they’re bringing home. A plant might look small and harmless in the store, but once it gets in the ground, its ability to drop thousands of seeds or send out runners makes it a major problem for the nearby woods and wetlands.
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Buying these common garden center plants may harm the Florida environment
plew koonyosying/Shutterstock One of the most common plants to avoid at the nursery is lantana – it has those iconic colorful flowers, but this shrub produces seeds like crazy and can easily take over nearby wooded areas. It also tends to cross-breed with the native Florida lantana, which eventually wipes out the local version of the plant. These shrubs are also toxic to pets, livestock, and kids, and can cause skin irritation in humans if handled without gloves. You’ll also find pothos sold everywhere as an easy houseplant. While it’s harmless when grown inside, it turns into a massive vine if planted in the soil outside. It can climb straight into the trees, smothering them and making branches heavy enough to break. Its leaves can grow upwards of 3 feet wide in the wild, blocking sunlight from the tree’s own foliage and leading to a slow decline of the tree canopy.
If you have a pond, you should stay away from water hyacinth. This floating plant grows incredibly fast and can quickly take over a whole canal, blocking out sunlight and making it hard for fish to survive. Decomposing hyacinth mats also deplete oxygen levels in the water and can physically obstruct boat engines and drainage systems. Even the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) is a sneaky spreader. It drops seeds so fast in sandy soil that it can push out the native wildflowers that local bees rely on. This plant is particularly difficult to remove because it grows a deep taproot and can withstand extreme droughts that kill off more beneficial native species. Knowing what to avoid is important for anyone who lives in Florida.
Choosing native alternatives helps protect your local Florida ecosystem
Florent Martin/Getty Images Groundcovers like the wandering dude are often sold as a quick fix for shady spots, but they can easily turn into a thick mat that smothers your other plants. This species is tough to manage because every broken stem can take root and start a new plant, making it nearly impossible to pull out by hand without it coming back. In wet areas, the water snowflake does something similar by covering the water’s surface, which makes fishing or boating a lot harder. These floating mats grow so dense that they trap heat in the water, disrupting the natural temperature balance and killing local aquatic life. Trees can be problematic too – the mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) is popular for its pink, fuzzy flowers, but it’s a major self-seeder. Its pods drop hundreds of seeds that sprout just as easily in ditches and woods as they do in your flower beds. These seeds can stay viable in the dirt for up to 50 years, so even if you cut the parent tree down, you’ll be pulling up new saplings for a long time.
Some people wonder if there’s a difference between an invasive and just an aggressive plant, but the key is whether it causes harm to the environment. By picking native Florida plants instead of these aggressive spreaders, you can support the birds and butterflies that live in your yard. Checking the scientific name on the tag before you buy is the best way to make sure you aren’t bringing home a plant you’ll regret later. Instead of the wandering dude, try Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) for groundcover – it’s another leafy vine with pretty blossoms. If you have your heart set on a colorful flowering tree, go for the native flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) instead of a mimosa. There are lots of great native options that can keep your garden looking amazing while also staying healthy for the local ecosystem.
