Phragmites is running rampant in Mathews County, and the county’s master gardeners want residents to help put a stop to the invasion.

A one-hour meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 1, at Kingston Episcopal Church parish house to provide information on the threats the plant presents and on ways to control it. Paul Clark, Eastern District Manager of the Virginia Division of Natural Heritage, will give a talk and answer questions.

Bev Holmberg of the Mathews County Master Gardeners said she recently discovered a half-acre stand of the invasive European strain of phragmites (the American strain is acceptable) on her property at North. Because it is behind a piece of woodland, she hadn’t noticed it before and only saw it when she took a stroll along the shoreline. Her husband, Neil, mowed it down with the lawnmower, but Holmberg said that is only a temporary solution.

Phragmites, pronounced "frag–mite–eez," is a threat because its lon...