Lavender is popular for many reasons. Not only does it look good in your garden, but the scent is intoxicating.
But not all lavender varieties are created equal. In fact, one species (if left to its own devices) can do a lot of damage to the environment. It’s even been declared a weed in some parts of Australia.
Why Italian lavender is a high-risk plant
Authorities have declared Italian lavender, native to the Mediterranean region, a weed in both Victoria and Western Australia.
It is naturalised in South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Tasmania. This means it has escaped the garden and is now spreading in the environment, potentially eliminating understory species such as small trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, and mosses.
How to limit weeds in your garden
That’s where the Gardening Responsibly initiative comes in.
The initiative aims to educate people about how to keep healthy, beautiful gardens that reduce the risk of impacting biodiversity and limit future landscape-scale weed invasions.
It includes an online resource to help identify and select low-risk plants, and an eco-label certification applied to low-risk plants across cooperating retailers.
Where do weeds come from?
People accidentally introduced 72% of the weeds found in Australia today as ornamental plants.
Scarily, the six most common weeds cover an area three times the size of Tasmania, which shows how fast these plants can spread.
Aimee Freimanis is the Program Manager of the Gardening Responsibly Initiative. She says, “The definition of a weed is a plant in the wrong place. Nobody wants weed in their garden.”
She adds: “For the first time ever, we can predict what can be an invasive weed and what’s not.”
Common invasive weeds
Alongside Italian lavender, gardeners originally introduced Broad-leaf Privet (Ligustrum lucidum), Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and Lantana as ornamental plants — and they are now causing significant environmental damage.
“Invasive weeds are a big environmental problem that costs billions of dollars every year to manage,” says Aimee.
“If a big patch of lantana gets loose, it smothers and outcompetes thousands of native plants that are homes to animals,” she says.
“We really want to get gardens to be aware. We don’t even know what the next weed will be.”
Five ways to check if your plant is low risk
Gardening Responsibly offers tips for assessing whether your plant is low-risk.
1. Check the list of low-risk plants here.
If your plant isn’t found:
- It may not have been assessed yet
- There may be a spelling error in your search term
- You may have entered an incorrect scientific name
- It may be out of scope (e.g. an aquatic plant),
- It has been assessed but was found not to be low risk.
2. Search by growth habitat to see low-risk plants that are similar to the type you’re looking for.
3. Set up a free login to the Research Portal, where you can carry out an advanced search on your plant to see if there is any data on it, or submit a request for your plant to be assessed.
4. To quickly check more than one plant – upload your plant list into the Research Portal for instant results.
5. Contact Member Suppliers to get advice on your preferred plants for your garden.
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