Harboring an invasive

Many years ago a neighborhood acquaintance gave me a few plants that she called "Butter and Egg" flowers.  I thought they looked fun because the flowers looked like snap dragons, which is the flower of my earliest garden memories.  Snap dragons don't grow well in our hot Alabama summers so I thought that these little perennials would make a wonderful substitute, and they have!  My little patch of butter and egg plants takes care of itself and reminds me of my early childhood in my grandma's Minnesota garden.

This year has been a good year for my Butter and Egg flowers so I decided to share them in a blog post.  As is my custom, I usually do a little research before I write to make sure that what I share is accurate.  Much to my total shock I learned that my lovely little plants are actually considered a noxious invasive species in many states.  Linaria vularis is a native of Europe and Asia that escaped North American cutting gardens and has made itself at home from Canada to Mexico.

I had no idea that I've been harboring an "invasive alien" (according to the USDA plant database).  In fairness to my Butter and Egg plants, they have been very polite in my garden.