Growing Non-Native Plants: TLC or Tough Love?

My herbology teacher and I got into a debate about growing non-native plants in our gardens. Not about growing nasty invasives, cuz' we don't do that, just useful plants that didn't evolve here in the New World tropics. We have different Philosophies of Gardening.

Her opinion was that the non-natives should be thrown in the garden and left to live or die under natural conditions. If they didn't make it, it wasn't meant to be, and if they adapted, all good. She doesn't like to garden much. I love to garden and so I took the opposite approach. Give the non-natives tender loving care and observe them for awhile before making a decision on whether or not to cultivate them long-term. I mean, with the crazy, non-traditional weather we're all having, maybe that's an approach for the natives as well. She strongly disagreed. Her point was that the human gardener is only a temporary advantage and eventually any plant outside will have to live on its own, without assistance. Long-term, she's got a point there. On the other hand, my sand dune will be underwater in about 10 years, so that long-term view isn't particularly relevant except in the case of seaweed and seagrass....

Beauty Berry, a Native

Passionflower, Another Native (But don't grow it on the beach.)

Natives like Beauty Berry and Passionflower don't need any particular care. They're easy-peasy.

Gynura procumbens, a Useful Non-Native

Gynura procumbens, an Asian medicinal plant, is a non-native, non-invasive, but grows splendidly here. Or so I thought until the Siberian Express showed up. We actually hit the freeze mark this morning. We'll see if my non-native, tropical medicinals survive. What do you think about taking special care of useful non-natives? Do you think they should "sink or swim"??

Two Amazing Asian Plants for the Herbalist

During this spring's local Orchid Show, I didn't just buy an orchid. I bought two intriguing plants for herbologists/herbalists that are grown extensively in SE Asia. They are growing in pots on my sand dune right now. I'm not growing them outside of pots until I know how quickly they spread, as they are not native plants and I don't want them growing wild.

The first, Murdannia loriformis, is known as both Angel Grass and Beijing Grass. It is a prolific shade grower, and my small mother plant now has 5 daughter plants!

Murdannia loriformis, "Angel Grass", MR, 2014

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is interested in Murdannia.
In an NIH study, M. loriformis inhibited colon cancer. The leaves provide antioxidants and seem to modulate the immune system. In Asia, the leaves are used to counter the undesirable side effects of chemotherapy. In TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), chemotherapy is considered very hot and yang, while Murdannia is considered cold and yin, so it helps to balance the body during chemo.

As far as growing it, it is a grass and in filtered sun and plenty of water with rich soil, it grows very fast. You can break up the clumps and repot individually, or grow it like a spider plant- when stems with root nodes appear, place it in a new pot. You can cut the stem immediately, or keep it attached to the mother plant until it roots. The only pest I've noted on this grass is scale insect. But it seems very hardy to scale, so if you spot a few on the plant, it's not a tragedy.

The next plant is Gynura procumbens, aka Longevity Spinach or Cholesterol Spinach:

Gynura procumbens, MR 2014

It's grown extensively in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. This woody-stemmed, wide-leaved plant also prefers filtered sun and plenty of water. It is showing promise in lab research to be an anti-HSV (herpes simplex virus) agent, and is used in Asia to lower bad cholesterol levels in the blood and ease hypertension. In TCM, G. procumbens is also considered to have cool, yin energy. The leaves are eaten in salads or as a lettuce replacement in sandwiches. I haven't seen any pests annoy it, and it seems very happy in Zones 9-11.