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If I look straight out my windshield at the last red light on my way home, I spy a tall stately perennial with a purple flower. I saw the same plant on my last summer visit to New York State. There you could look out any window and see this beautiful plant for mile after uninterrupted mile.

Of course I'm talking about purple loosestrife. This beautiful plant can be a thug and bane of the natural landscape. In fact, it has turned islands in the nearby Susquehanna River into near jungles. It is bad enough that the researchers are trying to introduce natural predators (loosestrife eating insects) to slow or reverse this plant's advance into our native landscape.

The plant, I believe, has disappeared from the nursery trade in the last five or 10 years. It has been long enough that I forget the cultivar name. It may have been Robert's something. It was represented as sterile.

I had it in my garden until five or six years ago. I can verify that it was only near sterile and that occasionally seedlings escaped. These seedlings appeared to be more vigorous than the mother plant.

I never viewed it as a problem, but then I had it planted high and dry. Those conditions are the opposite of where it is a problem. It loves to take over wet areas.

In my garden it was so pretty that everyone wanted to buy one, so I finally destroyed it to avoid the hassle of telling people that it was no longer available. I am not positive that its sale is banned in Pennsylvania, but I am sure that the plant police from the Department of Agriculture are on the lookout for it in nurseries.

Usually I write these articles in one frantic burst as I rush to meet deadline. However, this week I got started three or four days early. Ironically, a few hours after writing the first several paragraphs I found myself face to face with a rather large and nasty looking patch of loosestrife near where the headwaters of the west branch of the Octoraro crosses the remains of the low grade railroad.

It was the first time I had seen a wild stand of loosestrife in the area away from the Susquehanna. To me that was a sobering sight. My fear is that in a short time purple loosestrife will filter down that scenic valley at the expense of the native plants.

I realize that the above will spark the debate about what to plant. The advocates of natives will say only natives. Unfortunately, that is but a small part of the palette that is available for our gardens.

The other response is to be careful with the plants that find their way into our gardens. Here the nursery operator and the gardener both have responsibilities. Stay tuned for some more friends or thugs next week. You will be surprised at some of the suspects.

It didn't come as a surprise when I recently saw a report stating that hostas are now the best selling perennial in the country. After all, there have been a lot of houses built in my lifetime and a lot of little trees planted around these houses.

Lots of these trees grew quite large as my hair thinned and grayed. There are now a lot of shady gardens, and hostas have always been a stalwart in the shady gardens. Before I give a wrong impression, the shade requirement varies from variety to variety with hostas. Some hostas will take a lot of sun.

Still, I would avoid the direct afternoon sun. Such sites are often dry and hostas like soil on the damp side of average.

The many people that collect hostas fascinate me. I frequently hear people say that they have hundreds of different ones in their yards. I don't, but I have planted a number recently and will continue to add more.

I planted several mid-sized varieties several years ago. To my surprise, they now top out somewhere between my knee and waist. A bushel basket would need stretching to fit over them. Of course I planted them too close together.

There are also varieties that are big compared to the ones that I have planted. On the other hand, there are varieties that after several years would maybe fill a small soap dish.

Several days ago I was asked if it would be ok to move some hostas and peonies before a construction project destroyed their garden. Under such circumstances I try to relocate them most anytime. Most likely you can move or divide hostas at your pleasure any time in the growing season.

In reality, now is not too bad a time. All our rain would help, and the best time to divide and move hostas is rapidly approaching. Usually, the last half of August is considered the best time to do it. If you are thinking of dividing some hosta, each clump should keep several eyes or shoots. Foliage should be cut back hard to give the plant time to re-root without the pressure of excess leaves.

One small fault of young hostas is that the leaves will develop faster than the roots if the soil is cool and the air is warm. Actually, this is true for any perennial that is being planted, divided or moved.

In the fall the soil remains warmer, promoting root growth while the top growth slows as the air cools. That is the opposite of what is occurring in the spring. That makes fall a wonderful time to plant and divide.

I mentioned hostas to my 90 plus year old mother and she remembered that as a child they were green and very fragrant in the garden at her home. The fragrant ones are still in the marketplace along with hundreds or probably thousands that offer some unbelievable leaf color variegations.

If you have deer problems, they will like your hosta. Deer problems can never be eliminated, but can be managed. That is material for another article, but deer control must start with the first hint of spring before they form their feeding habits.

Slugs are also reported to be a problem, although I have not noticed slug damage in my limited plantings.

On your next trip to the nursery spend a few minutes with their hosta offerings. I'd bet you would find one that will improve a shady spot in your landscape.

Ever since one of the doctors, who regularly disseminates real wisdom a page or two from here, convinced me to surrender part of my girth, my lawn mowing has become more exciting. Even though I have created flowerbeds on the steepest spots, there are an increasing number of places where the mower balks at my commands.

As I have confessed in previous passages, I generally, or at least used to, think of the lawn as the space between flowerbeds.

First a review of history. It all started with a new house and a bag or two of grass seed 13 years ago. Each season it seemed that the mower got a little braver and wondered further and further from the house. In other words, much of my yard resulted as my mower reclaimed an old pasture bit by bit.

What we didn't have in quality we made up in quantity. The final step came last year when we convinced a waterway and gutter to become part of the yard. With that done, there was no place for the mower to go but into the woods, down vertical banks or across the road.At that point I surveyed my mix of grass, weeds, dandelions and white clover and vowed improvement. It was so bad that I sprayed a small section. To my joy, the weeds and white clover disappeared. To my chagrin, a bumper crop of crab grass replaced them.

In another area, I rented a fancy over-seeder and worked up a real sweat while going through several bags of grass seed. It was one of those that disturbed the soil rather nicely. It also awoke every crab grass seed in the area. Since my knowledge level forbade any spraying over new plantings, I confess that I must part the crab grass leaves to find the dainty seedlings I hoped for.

When I reworked the waterway/gutter last summer I knew that that area could take heavy flows of water during storms. After seeding, I applied several hundred dollars worth of jute matting to stabilize the situation. I was amazed at how well it worked.

Under the matting I got a beautiful stand of grass. I should have gotten another roll since, unfortunately, I did get a wee bit of erosion along the edges of the matting. It was one of those things that needed fixing, but was never so bad that the mower couldn't hop across.

Then we got the eight plus inches of rain, in three storms in four days, several weeks ago and the repairs were urgent. Again, I coated much of my patch up work with the matting. Again the results were much quicker and, I suspect, will be far superior to spots where the seed was just raked in.

Is my improvement plan moving ahead? Maybe. From a distance, my rolling hills look green and beautiful. Up close we have a varied and interesting mix of plants. Using the matting in difficult spots worked miracles. The chemicals and the reseeding have brought unintended results.

I hope our township officials make good on their promise to keep the area like it is and rural, because I fear it will be a long time before my lawn is ready to move to suburbia.

June has faded into July and I will confess that I still have a small flowerbed where I haven't won round one with the weeds. It will only take an hour when I get there, but I still need to get there.

Usually June is my month, but this year I didn't get the whole way around. I don't know whether to blame the weed's enthusiasm, a stiff knee, or the repairs made necessary with the eight inches plus of rain we had in four days recently.

Although I stopped counting at around 20 beds, it certainly can't be that I have too many flowerbeds.

Several days ago I inspected the bed to see how the desired plants were faring. The bed rings a small clump of trees. One plant caused me to pause. It wasn't any of the ferns, perennial geraniums, astilbe, bleeding hearts or broadleaf evergreens that I planted there.

It was a blue-purple tradescantia that wasn't supposed to be there. It is a wow. I don't know how it got there, because this native is a plant I never seem to include on my planting list. If my weed pulling had occurred on a timely basis, it would have found itself on the weed pile. Now it gets to stay.

Tradescantia may be better known by its common name of spiderwort. As I think about spiderworts I am again reminded about the miracles that are being worked with our native plants by the plant selectors and the plant breeders.

Looking at the many plant catalogs I have, I found more than enough different tradescantias that I could have a different one in each of my beds and have enough left over that I could make even more beds.

Spiderworts have succulent, strap like foliage and will fall into a height range of one to two feet. My observation is that they do best in sites that are on the damp side of average.

It is a long bloomer that starts in June and continues into early fall. Colors range from shades of white to blue/purple with lots of reds and pinks in between. Flowers can be single or double.Until recently they all had green foliage. Recently I have seen one with a pale yellow leaf. As always, expect an off-green plant to be a bit smaller and slower growing. This one, as you would expect, needs almost full shade. The green ones will take morning sun or light to full shade.

With too much sun or too little moisture the foliage can get ragged in the hottest part of our summers. When that happens, cut it off. It will jump back and reward you with more blooms. I see the plant as vigorous, but not aggressive.

I guess I have just added a new plant to my list of favorites. I hope I won't need a thicker notebook to hold my list, just more flowerbeds so I can grow them all.