Blue Ridge PRISM

08/28/2026

The proposed land swap would allow easy access to the crown jewel of the national park system. Democrats and former Park Service officials are incensed.

08/28/2026

🌺 It's a great weekend to pick up some fall plants—and do a garden center survey while you're at it.

🌿 SWEEPSTAKES: For each survey you submit from May 1-September 30, 2026, you receive one entry into our sweepstakes drawing for a $100 gift card for the native plant nursery nearest you.

📌 If you're in one of the areas without pins, we especially encourage you to help us out. Just use our simple form to look for invasive plants at your local nursery.

And let us know if you've seen burning bush or Japanese barberry for sale!

🏼 Learn more and submit a survey at the link in the 1st Comment.

👉🏼 Rules:
• You must submit a 2026 Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition Retail Garden Center Survey to enter. No purchase or payment is required to enter or win.
• You will receive one entry for each survey you submit between May 1 and September 30, 2026.
• You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
• Blue Ridge PRISM staff, interns, and Board members are not eligible to win.
• Retail garden center sweepstakes sponsored by Blue Ridge PRISM.

Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition

08/27/2026

🌺 We need more surveys! Please include a visit to a retail garden center in your plans for the weekend. You can use our simple form to identify invasive plants in stock.

🌿 SWEEPSTAKES: For each survey you submit from May 1-September 30, 2026, you receive one entry into our sweepstakes drawing for a $100 gift card for the native plant nursery nearest you.

👉🏼 Rules:
• You must submit a 2026 Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition Retail Garden Center Survey to enter. No purchase or payment is required to enter or win.
• You will receive one entry for each survey you submit between May 1 and September 30, 2026.
• You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
• Blue Ridge PRISM staff, interns, and Board members are not eligible to win.
• Retail garden center sweepstakes sponsored by Blue Ridge PRISM.

👇🏼 Learn more and submit a survey at the link in the 1st Comment.
Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition

08/26/2026

🌳 W**d It Wednesday: Nandina (Nandina domestica)

Also known as "heavenly bamboo," this popular evergreen shrub was introduced from Asia in 1804 as an ornamental and remains widely available at nurseries. The leaves and berries may be toxic to birds, livestock, horses, cats, dogs, and humans. Cedar waxwings that gorge on berries can die by cyanide toxicity.

🔎 ID

Habitat: Nandina thrives in full sun to partial shade and adapts to a wide range of soils, but prefers moist, rich, well-drained loam. It's highly tolerant of drought, heat, and heavy shade once established.

Form and size: Cane-like growth can be 3 to 8 feet tall and 2 to 5 feet wide.

Leaves: Alternate, bi- or tri-pinnately compound leaves are typically 1 to 2 feet long, with reddish new growth and fall foliage. Leaves emerge pinkish bronze in spring, turn green in summer, and shift to rich red or purple-red in fall and winter.

Stalks: Unbranched, cane-like woody stalks resemble bamboo.

Flowers: Tiny white to pinkish-white blossoms with yellow anthers, grouped in large upright terminal clusters, bloom in late spring and early summer.

Fruit: Clusters of shiny, spherical red berries about ⅓ inch across appear in the fall and persist through the winter months.

Spread: Nandina spreads by underground roots and wildlife that eat and drop seeds, so control before berries ripen.

🪏 Control

• Nandina seedlings can be hand pulled when soil is moist.

• For small infestatios, use a shovel, mattock, or w**d wrench to dig up small to mid-size shrubs, removing as much of the root system as possible.

• Avoid simply cutting established shrubs to the ground; they will resprout, often more densely than before.

– Cut-stump can be used to control shrubs from May through February, and basal-bark from June through February.

– Foliar spray can be used to control small shrubs (below shoulder height) after blooming until shortly before leaves change color.

• Forestry mulching can reduce large, dense infestations but requires follow-up — typically foliar spray — when new growth appears.

• Monitor treated areas for stump sprouts, root sprouts, and new seedlings.

👉🏼 Further information in the first comment.

08/25/2026

🌿 Register for our next "Brown Bag" webinar: "Herbicide Heroes: Volunteers Dabbing Invasives"

🍃 Join guest speaker Patricia Pearl Greenberg, Invasive Plant Management Program Manager, Fairfax County Park Authority and learn about the Invasive Management Area (IMA) Volunteer Program and how staff and volunteers collaborate to tackle invasive. Topics will include the IMA Program, the introduction of HB 320 to allow volunteers to use herbicide under supervision, and the way Park Authority staff prepare and train volunteers.

👉🏼 Thursday, September 17, noon - 1 pm

👇🏼 Register at link in 1st comment

Join Blue Ridge PRISM and guest speaker Patricia Greenberg to learn about the Fairfax County Park Authority’s Invasive Plant Management Program and the extent of work to manage invasive species in collaboration with volunteers. Topics will include the Invasive Management Area Program, the introduc...

08/24/2026

🌺 We need more surveys — please get out this week Tidewater, Virginia Beach, Lynchburg, and Blacksburg! Just use our simple form to look for invasive plants at your local nursery.

🎉 SWEEPSTAKES: For each survey you submit from May 1-September 30, 2026, you receive one entry into our sweepstakes drawing for a $100 gift card for the native plant nursery nearest you.

👉🏼 Rules:
• You must submit a 2026 Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition Retail Garden Center Survey to enter. No purchase or payment is required to enter or win.
• You will receive one entry for each survey you submit between May 1 and September 30, 2026.
• You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
• Blue Ridge PRISM staff, interns, and Board members are not eligible to win.
• Retail garden center sweepstakes sponsored by Blue Ridge PRISM.

👇🏼 Learn more and submit a survey at the link in the 1st Comment.
Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition

Help us survey Virginia retail garden centers for invasive plants. In 2025, the Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition conducted the first statewide survey of invasive plants* for sale at retail garden centers. Have you seen invasive plants for sale at your local garden center? Let us know by filling out...

08/22/2026

🌻 Partner Spotlight: Garden Club of America — Restoring, Improving, and Protecting the Environment

🌿 The Garden Club of America (GCA) is a nonprofit national organization with 199 clubs and 18,000 members who work to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and actions in conservation and civic improvement.

🪏 The GCA traces its conservation roots to its founding in 1913, initially focusing on protecting native wildflowers and roadside beauty, and saving the California redwoods. In 1992, the GCA’s focus on invasive plants evolved into its Partners for Plants (P4P) program. P4P directly funds and organizes members to monitor native species and remove invasive w**ds on public lands, protecting biodiversity and preserving native habitats. In Virginia, P4P projects include the following:
• Albemarle Garden Club invasives removal from a wetland micro-habitat in Booker T. Washington Park
• Mill Mountain Garden Club removal of invasives from a 2.5 acre park atop Mill Mountain
• James River Garden Club and Tuckahoe Garden Club collaboration with a botanist and the James River Park System’s Invasive Task Force to identify and remove invasives on Chapel Island
• Garden Club of Norfolk removal of invasives in the Olmstead200 Tribute Garden, a previously blighted area.

“Through its national position papers, hands-on grants, and public-lands partnerships, the GCA combines policy advocacy with grassroots actions,” said Eva Clarke, GCA member. “For the last several years, GCA members worked with Blue Ridge PRISM to develop strategies and legislation to educate legislators, landscapers, and the public about the problem of invasive plants and to stop the sale of invasive plants in nurseries and other retail outlets in Virginia."

Photos:
GCA member Eva Clarke of James River GC educates Delegate Betsy Carr and staffer Luke Sweeney about the proliferation of and problems with invasive plants.

GCA members remove invasives from the banks of the James River.

James River GC and Tuckahoe GC members learn to spot native plants amidst the many invasive plants..

Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition The Garden Club of America

08/21/2026

🌻 Partner Spotlight: Garden Club of America — Restoring, Improving, and Protecting the Environment

🌿 The Garden Club of America (GCA) is a nonprofit national organization with 199 clubs and 18,000 members who work to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and actions in conservation and civic improvement.

🪏 The GCA traces its conservation roots to its founding in 1913, initially focusing on protecting native wildflowers and roadside beauty, and saving the California redwoods. In 1992, the GCA’s focus on invasive plants evolved into its Partners for Plants (P4P) program. P4P directly funds and organizes members to monitor native species and remove invasive w**ds on public lands, protecting biodiversity and preserving native habitats. In Virginia, P4P projects include the following:
• Albemarle Garden Club invasives removal from a wetland micro-habitat in Booker T. Washington Park
• Mill Mountain Garden Club removal of invasives from a 2.5 acre park atop Mill Mountain
• James River Garden Club and Tuckahoe Garden Club collaboration with a botanist and the James River Park System’s Invasive Task Force to identify and remove invasives on Chapel Island
• Garden Club of Norfolk removal of invasives in the Olmstead200 Tribute Garden, a previously blighted area.

“Through its national position papers, hands-on grants, and public-lands partnerships, the GCA combines policy advocacy with grassroots actions,” said Eva Clarke, GCA member. “For the last several years, GCA members worked with Blue Ridge PRISM to develop strategies and legislation to educate legislators, landscapers, and the public about the problem of invasive plants and to stop the sale of invasive plants in nurseries and other retail outlets in Virginia."

👇🏼 Get more information in the first comment.

Photos:
GCA member Eva Clarke of James River GC educates Delegate Betsy Carr and staffer Luke Sweeney about the proliferation of and problems with invasive plants.

GCA members remove invasives from the banks of the James River.

James River GC and Tuckahoe GC members learn to spot native plants amidst the many invasive plants..

Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition The Garden Club of America

08/20/2026

🌺 Are you missing from the map? Lynchburg, Danville & Chesapeake, we're talking to you!

📌 If there's a big gap on the map where there should be pins, help us out. Just use our simple form to look for invasive plants at your local nursery.

🏼 Learn more and submit a survey at the link in the 1st Comment.

🌿 SWEEPSTAKES: For each survey you submit from May 1-September 30, 2026, you receive one entry into our sweepstakes drawing for a $100 gift card for the native plant nursery nearest you.

👉🏼 Rules:
• You must submit a 2026 Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition Retail Garden Center Survey to enter. No purchase or payment is required to enter or win.
• You will receive one entry for each survey you submit between May 1 and September 30, 2026.
• You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
• Blue Ridge PRISM staff, interns, and Board members are not eligible to win.
• Retail garden center sweepstakes sponsored by Blue Ridge PRISM.

Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition

08/19/2026

🌿 W**D IT WEDNESDAY: Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii)

🍂 Japanese barberry is a dense invasive shrub that can take over forest understories and crowd out native plants. Introduced to the United States in 1875, it escaped cultivation and has spread widely. Its dense growth and leaf litter can also change soil conditions, making invaded areas less hospitable to native plants.

🔎 ID

Habitat: Japanese barberry invades forests, woodlands, old fields, roadsides, and other disturbed areas. The shrub can grows in sun and shade and in both dry and wet conditions.

Form and size: This cmpact, densely branched, typically grows up to 4 feet tall.

Leaves: Small, thick, spoon-shaped leaves grow in clusters with smooth edges, usually bright green tinged with red or purple. Leafs out earlier and holds leaves longer than natives.

Stems: Deeply grooved and rusty brown stems have a single sharp spine at each node, and bright yellow inner bark and roots

Flowers: Small, creamy-yellow flowers with six petals appear in clusters of two to four

Fruit: Bright red, oval berries emerge in summer and can remain through winter

Spread: Wildlife eat berries and spread seeds and drooping branches root where they touch the ground.

🪏 Control

• Hand-pull or dig small plants, preferably before they produce seed, making sure to remove the roots. Wear sturdy gloves and protective clothing because the spines are extremely sharp.

• Mowing can reduce the size of dense growth before other treatment.

• Foliar herbicide treatments can be effective from mid-May until fall color begins.

• Basal bark treatments can be applied to intact stems throughout the year when weather permits.

• Cut-stem treatments can be effective year-round. Treatment timing after cutting depends on whether an oil- or water-based herbicide is used, so always follow the product label.

• Continue monitoring treated areas for new plants.

👇🏼 Further information in the first comment.