Crassula helmsii - seek out and destroy?

[AshLee]

Years ago, in an "enthusiastic but naive" phase, I introduced Crassula helmsii into my garden pond. I created another pond, and tried to get it to grow there too - I liked it that much! I had aquired a bit when I took my "starter culture" from a local "wild" pond and it was such an obliging plant. So easy to grow (at least in the original pond). Over the years, I really became quite fond of it.

Now I know it to be one of the pond plants of the Devil himself

I actually garden with a lot of consideration and nothing is ever done that cannot be undone. When my taddies have hatched and hopped it, and the newts have crawled away, just before winter sets in, I will be able to remove every last strand of the stuff and monitor until I'm sure it will never return to darken my shores again (the other pond is having nothing much to do with the "evil" that I have introduced so I wouldn't have much to do there).

Now here's the "but". My frogs love it. They hide in it. They used the mat of the stuff to lay their spawn on (without exception - there was not a single clump laid that wasn't intentionally attached to the stuff). And I love my frogs. So do I remove it? Or do I learn to love it? And will this put me in league with the Devil, in wildlife-gardening terms?

If you had the same problem, what would you do?

PS People of a nervous dispostition please rest assured that I really do understand that I must never introduce this plant to any watercourse or body of water other than on my own land. And I don't intend to introduce it to any new pond again. Any barrage of abuse that I receive for being so dumb as to introduce it in the first place will be completely ignored by me

[AshLee]

Decided just to cut it hard back occasionally. I guess this is the least drastic and most sensible solution.

[The Woodman]

You're a brave man, admitting that!

The Devil's weed in now in Cumbria hopefully not carried in on a frog's back!

[metalfish]

Hi Ashlee,

if it was my pond I'd go for mass destruction of the C. helmsii, frogs migrate so could easily carry the stuff somewhere unwanted, or birds that come down for a drink and snack on you're froglets could do the same as I'm sure you realise.

You could introduce other oxygenators then and the frogs'll be perfectly happy with whatever you have in the pond

Good luck

[Purplepixii]

Hi AshLee, I personally would get rid of it too and replace it with something native. I get my pond (and 'normal') plants from the Wild Flower Shop and they have a great selection of native oxygenators. I've had no problems with any plants they have supplied and really recommend them

Sarah

[posie]

Hello Ashlee, you have aroused my curiosity, shall I google it and see what it looks like ? ? ? or will this turn me into a 'Devil-Woman, when I too become obsessed with it, will I then be posessed to go on a hunt for it, and bring it to my domain, to flourish and grow...? ? ?...

Posie

[AshLee]

Hi People,

This thread was posted a while back, and no one commented so I didn't think anything more of it.

I'll take everyone's comments on board now. I'm slightly perplexed that I've just got such a big response now, but in a nice way. [Posie - you crack me up sometimes ].

Thanks all for input. Checked pond number two last night and it was hardly present still. Might hand weed occasionally. Pond number one will now have the weeding of its life this autumn.

To put people's minds at rest - there isn't another pond for kms. I had to introduce everything including water boatmen. I had the pond for years - no frogs, I introduced frogspawn. BUT I do remember that a little girl down the road got excited when she saw my pond, so just in case there is a chain reaction () I'll do the decent thing.