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| October 2013 |
So in 2013, we succumbed to an impulse buy at a nursery and took home a tree senna (Senna corymbosa), mainly because we loved our Lindheimer's senna (Senna lindheimeriana). The Lindheimer's senna is native; the tree senna's hails from Argentina. As you can see, the tree senna is lovely when it blooms.
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| August 2014 |
But NOW look at the tree senna (photo below). It's covered with ugly seed pods, it leans to one side, and it's NOT NATIVE. Plus, we're worried that we're going to spread little tree sennas in the neighborhood. Yes, alas, we regret our hasty decision so we're thinking of removing the senna. If we do that, we'll replace it with a native species, like a persimmon or rusty blackhaw viburnum, something that wildlife would enjoy.
I hate to kill anything, and the tree senna is pretty when it's covered with yellow flowers. I'm wondering––what would YOU do?
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| March 2015 |
2 comments:
Now that is a conundrum! I too hate the idea of killing anything that is so well adapted to our area, but the prospect of baby trees popping up all around your neighborhood does give pause.
My original thought was give it a prune up and remove all the seed pods and if that kills the tree, then your decision is made for you. Obviously pollinators are visiting to get that many seeds, so the flowers are working out beneficially. No easy answers there.
That's a tough decision and one I struggle with also. I'd probably remove it, but it's much easier for me to say that than actually do it with my own non-natives. But if those seed pods produce seedlings everywhere like a Chinese elm, I'd rather pull the plug on it now than dig out seedlings every spring for the next ten years.
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