05-31-2013, 06:35 PM
Julia, there are rhododendron nurseries in your neighborhood, as I explained in the last post (White Clouds web link is here, with many of their varieties: http://www.whitecloudnursery.com/ ) & people have planted them, but these are not likely to ever get our of hand....& are not on the invasive list (too bad the HEAR list is no longer supported, so it will be harder to check plants in the future)
If it is Tibouchina ('Glory bush' as Lee stated), then yes, that has a very invasive nature... It looks like this (and my sneaking suspicion NOW is that this is what you have, based on the height you gave):
http://www.hawaiiinvasivespecies.org/pes...china.html
Are any of these images like your plants?
If not, perhaps giving a little more info than just color of flowers, even shape of leaf, arrangement of leaves, look of the flower, # of petals, color of bark... these are things that you normally need to ID a plant.... & of course an image is always helpful... otherwise all you will get are guesses, and my vireya guess was only because you stated "rhododendron gone wild"... but if the flowers are not trumpet shaped with 5 petals that form a scalloped rim, long stemmed stamen appearing out of the trumpet throat, flowers arranged in a whorl or ball & the leaves are not ovalate, dark green & glossy... might not be the vireya...
If it is Tibouchina ('Glory bush' as Lee stated), then yes, that has a very invasive nature... It looks like this (and my sneaking suspicion NOW is that this is what you have, based on the height you gave):
http://www.hawaiiinvasivespecies.org/pes...china.html
Are any of these images like your plants?
If not, perhaps giving a little more info than just color of flowers, even shape of leaf, arrangement of leaves, look of the flower, # of petals, color of bark... these are things that you normally need to ID a plant.... & of course an image is always helpful... otherwise all you will get are guesses, and my vireya guess was only because you stated "rhododendron gone wild"... but if the flowers are not trumpet shaped with 5 petals that form a scalloped rim, long stemmed stamen appearing out of the trumpet throat, flowers arranged in a whorl or ball & the leaves are not ovalate, dark green & glossy... might not be the vireya...