Wha!!! Do you have a web address for the USDA list? I'd be really curious to see it. We've got the dreaded Hall's honeysuckle in our yard, and I know I've seen loosestrife in a lake nearby. Aren't they on the list?

Here it is..... there's no New Jersey :
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=noxious.cgi

Here is a link that might be useful: ........

I think there should be! In the meantime, I use the web to do my homework on this. I use the following sites for information.

Dendrology at Virginia Tech site's list of woody plants found in NJ with information on if non-native found in wildlands
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/map/nj.cfm.

The New Jersey Native Plant Society article on invasives
http://www.npsnj.org/invasive_species_0103.htm

The page below is part of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worst Invasives in NY Metropolitan Area

I was glad to see on the news and in the paper a couple of days ago that Westchester (?) County in New York might finally be beginning to tackle oriental bittersweet and porcelainberry vine along one of the parkways. Maybe if one entity starts controlling it, others will follow their example.

I wish the state of New Jersey would address the trees of heaven along Route 78 - although I guess maybe that's under the pervue of the feds, isn't it?

Our township has a newsletter that has a couple of times mentioned tree of heaven as being a noxious weed and urging property owners to get rid of it.

On my property I've got the bittersweet and tree of heaven under control - but still need to be vigilant. However, it's the Japanese stilt grass that is driving me crazy and the last two wet summers haven't helped. There's not enough Round-up in the world to eradicate it, there's too much to pull and the time-frame for cutting before it goes to seed appears to be very small. Wish to heaven someone could find a biological control for it.

The tree of heaven is a nightmare. I am obsessed with the trees! Everytime I see one I want to cut it down. I hate seeing them along rt. 78. My husband now is obsessed with them and says they are even growing in NYC - where he works. My father hates them also so we diligently cut every female tree down as soon as possible but they seed so rapidly you can't keep up. Our neighbors don't cut theirs down so they end up seeding our property.

My husband thought that since it's such a hard tree to cut down (seeminly like a dense hardwood) he would dry it and burn it for firewood. It was worthless. It's a totally useless tree - it stinks when you cut it or pull a seedling out of the ground and sucks up all the water out of the ground - stealing it from other plants!

About the Japanese stilt grass. It's a nightmare to control. We just can't keep it under control at all and hope that the sheep we are going to get will eat it. It chokes out all of our redwood oak seedlings we plant for our reforestation activity. I'm wondering if crown vetch will choke it out or if the stilt grass with choke out the c.v.

We used to have multiflora rose growing in abundant but we finally got rid of them.

Thanks for letting me vent! :) Any help you can offer with control ideas - please pass on. thx.

Found this at the NJ Agriculture site - probably why they aren't listed with the USDA:

"At the present time, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, Division of Plant Industry does not classify any plants as "NOXIOUS WEEDS."

Here is a link that might be useful: NJ Dept of Agriculture

I suppose people sometimes confuse noxious weeds with invasive plants. I just pulled up what I believe is Mile-a-Minute (Polygonum perfoliatum), and I suppose I made a mistake when I added it to my compost pile. I'm guessing that any ivasive will set seed in the pile and will wind up all over my garden when I spread my compost. AAAUUUUGGH!! I've been doing this since early spring(my first time trying composting).

JB

Hey, Danandcar, that ailanthus *is* the tree that grew in Brooklyn! They have had them in NYC for more than a century---they were brought there & planted as ornamentals. They invaded the rest of the country from NYC. It's not "even in NY"---they came from NY.
Does Roundup work on them, too? Cut the tree, when it suckers, paint the leaves & put them into a baggie & fasten with a twist-tie? Of course, you have to pull the seedlings.
When the girls were younger, we gave them fifty cents per grocery bag they filled with stilt grass. It worked; the yard was cleared of it. And I didn't have to do the pulling.
They hated the job, though. They still refer to it as a form of child abuse.

When I lived in New York, we (gardeners) used to call
ailanthus "The Tree from Hell" - it would literally grow
up OUT of the subway grates and between the cracks in
concrete sidewalks! When I owned my first house in New
York, I was utterly astonished when I made my first visit
to the roof: there was a mini-forest of ailanthus growing
out of gutters, cracks in mortar, even from under asphalt
roofing. Boy, the Chinese won THAT war!

NJ certainly does have its share of weeds. Check out the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Weed Gallery.

http://www.rcre.rutgers.edu/weeds/

Hah, now I know the NAMES of those hateful plants. But what is the difference between a weed and just a wild native plant? Asters, for example - they're a pretty wildflower and (in my experience) aren't invasive to lawns or crops, so why are they classified as a weed?

We used to call Alianthus the Urban Sh&t Tree.

Does poison ivy count? That is the official weed on LBI.