They're tough and pretty, but they're too invasive

KATHY WEBB
The blue and white agapanthus flowers in full bloom all over Hawke's Bay could soon be added to a national list of pest plants.
BioSecurity New Zealand is planning to add 50 more species to its list of plants banned from sale.
The popular agapanthus is among them, along with phoenix, bangalow and Chinese fan palms, Norfolk Island hibiscus, and English ivy.
Gardeners with banned species on their properties would not have to remove them, but garden centres and nurseries would be forbidden to sell them.
A co-founder of the Hawke's Bay Chrysanthemum and Garden Club, Guy Phillips, of Taradale, said he did not consider agapanthus noxious weeds.
"They are a lot of colour for a lot of the time and they don't take much looking after.
"You can't put them in small gardens today, because they grow so big, but out on the big properties and farms they look beautiful."
The retail manager of Oderings garden centre in Havelock North, Andrew Taylor, said banning the sale of plants considered a pest, but not requiring their removal from gardens, was a strange way to handle the problem.
If they were enough of a pest to warrant a sales ban, they should also be removed, but the Government would face anarchy if it tried to enforce that, he said.
Agapanthus were particularly popular because they could stop hillsides eroding, and required little attention. They were also spectacular when grown en masse and in full bloom, he said.
He could understand official concern about the uncontrolled spread of plants such as agapanthus, "but where do you draw the line - every single thing that's not a native plant?"
Hawke's Bay Regional Council biosecurity manager Andrew Wilke said some of the plants on the national plant pest list would not spread in Hawke's Bay because the climate was too cold, but that could change if the climate warmed.
"Plants that don't grow here could take off. You have to look at the future before you let some of these things go."
People would not have to remove agapanthus or any of the other plants on the national list.
"It's not retrospective. It's saying 'we have enough of these. Let's stop selling it to try to limit the damage already done'."
He said agapanthus would cause problems in the future. Biosecurity New Zealand is taking submissions on the plant pest list until February 10.