<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Verdana color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>Just to be accurate....the article is written by George Ball...send your
letters to the editor! ma</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>March 19, 2006</DIV>
<DIV class=kicker><NYT_KICKER>Op-Ed Contributor</NYT_KICKER></DIV>
<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">Border War
</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" ">
<DIV class=byline>By GEORGE BALL</DIV></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>Warminster, Pa.</P>
<P>THE horticultural world is having its own debate over immigration, with some
environmentalists warning about the dangers of so-called exotic plants from
other countries and continents "invading" American gardens. These botanical
xenophobes say that a pristine natural state exists in our yards and that to
disturb it is both sinful and calamitous. In their view, exotic plants will
swallow your garden, your neighbors' gardens and your neighbors' neighbors'
gardens until the ecosystem collapses under their rampant suffocating
growth.</P>
<P>If anything suffocates us, though, it will be the environmentalists'
narrowmindedness. Like all utopian visions, their dream beckons us into a
perfect and rational natural world where nothing ever changes — a world that
never existed and never will. </P>
<P>Native plants are the survivalists of the botanical world, and in the
appropriate settings — wilderness areas, home and botanical gardens, public
parks and sidewalks — they bless us with their beauty and awe us with their
tenacity. Our lives would be poor and grim without the strawberry, cranberry,
columbine and trillium. They've always been here, in the same way that Native
Americans have been; only their arrival and settlement are more ancient. </P>
<P>Their presence illustrates a geologic time, about 8,000 years ago, when the
glaciers receded and unimaginably vast deluges swallowed the surface of the
future United States — an airplane ride over the Midwest reveals enormous lakes
formed by even larger melted ice masses. As the landscape changed, the botanical
world sorted itself out, leaving us with the hardy "natives." (It should be
noted, though, that many plants now considered natives — like sycamores,
magnolias and cinnamon — arrived from other continents, just as we did. They are
products of adaptation.)</P>
<P>Like human survivalists, natives are also subject to exploitation by the
horticultural equivalent of radical fundamentalists. The anti-exotics argue that
gardens should be populated exclusively by native plants, as if the exotics were
trying to enter the flower bed illegally. The consequences of such a stand could
be dire. Should we eat no onions or garlic, apples or lemons; feast our eyes on
no magnificent tulips or roses — all exotics of Eurasian origin? Should Asians
not enjoy their distinctive peppers, tomatoes, beans, squash, sunflowers and
corn — all from the Americas? </P>
<P>Indeed, the world's most popular root crop, potatoes, started life as a
staple of the Andean people and achieved its first international fame as a slave
food. By the time it reached France, the "earth apple" was a delicacy likened to
truffles; their flowers were featured in tiaras of court ladies. Exotic
indeed.</P>
<P>Should we deprive ourselves of petunias, begonias, impatiens and hollyhocks —
not a one of them "native"? Must we, on pain of being cast out of the garden as
horticultural pariahs, deny the elephant his peanuts? This wouldn't be merely
ridiculous. It would compare with the denial of human immigration on grounds
that certain ethnic groups breed in numbers "too prolific" for the existing
elite to tolerate. Imagine, then, a horticultural ruling class. No "invasives"
need apply: let the lily find another valley. Such prohibitions of exotic plant
species demonstrate only an elitist snobbery that is as dangerous to a free
society as it is to a free botany.</P>
<P>No one, and certainly no gardener, grows truly destructive invasive plants in
his garden. The devastating kudzu in the South, star thistle in the West and
purple loosestrife in the East were accidental introductions from Asia, most
often mixed with the feed and bedding of livestock. Yet the pro-native,
anti-exotic partisans also wish us to stop enjoying the charms of harmless and
beautiful plants like Queen Anne's lace, yarrow and chicory. Aside from
requiring a bit of weeding, exotics are safe as milk, unless one considers
gardening a chore rather than a passionate hobby. If so, forget the
forget-me-nots.</P>
<P>Let's welcome, as spring arrives tomorrow, as many huddled masses of flowers,
herbs and vegetables as can fit in our unique melting pot of a nation, unrivaled
in its tradition of lush diversity and freedom to grow
rampantly.</P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<P id=authorId>George Ball, a former president of the American Horticultural
Society, is the president of the seed and plant company W. Atlee Burpee &
Company.</P></NYT_AUTHOR_ID></DIV></NYT_TEXT><BR>
<CENTER><NYT_COPYRIGHT>
<DIV id=footer style="WIDTH: auto">
<UL>
<LI style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000 1px solid"><A
title=http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html
href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html"><FONT
color=#000066>Copyright 2006</FONT></A><A title=http://www.nytco.com/
href="http://www.nytco.com/"><FONT color=#000066>The New York Times
Compa</FONT></A></LI></UL></DIV></CENTER></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>