A walk along our country roads is not what it used to be. Instead of a diversity of plants along our way, we are often faced with a wall of vines and a monoculture of shrubs. We all know that these are invasive plants and we have seen exhibits, read articles and maybe attended lectures on the issue. Taking action to address the situation is another story.There is a long list of problem plants and that may be a problem in itself. It seems to me that it’s kind of like learning bird songs — there are so many that some people get overwhelmed and scared off. When teaching classes about bird songs we usually concentrate on a small subset of birds and build from there. This way, people learn gradually and enjoy the process.Many of the invasive plants we are now plagued with were actually planted as ornamentals for gardens, for erosion control or for privacy shields decades ago at the recommendation of horticulturalists and wildlife agencies. I have several pamphlets in my office from the 1960s and 1970s that recommend things like autumn olive, honeysuckle and Japanese barberry for their wildlife and soil stabilization value. We now know that these nonnative plants are extremely invasive, spread rapidly and take over native vegetation at an alarming rate.The offspring from these original plantings are largely what we see invading our roadways, hedgerows and backyards and they are making their way deeper and deeper into our forests. By becoming aware of what you have in your backyard and removing the invasive plants, you can help stop their spread. Of course identifying the 96 plants listed as invasive by the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group can be as overwhelming as learning bird songs — unless we focus on a suite of plants that would make a huge difference if kept at bay. Here are my top three: oriental bittersweet, a vine that eventually kills mature trees by choking them to death (so to speak); common barberry, a thorny shrub that provides a safe haven for mice that host deer ticks; and multiflora rose, an even thornier shrub with a nice white flower that is its only redeeming quality.Helping to abate these three plants will make a huge difference. There are many websites that have photos and describe appropriate control methods. I am not a fan of herbicides, so I prefer mechanical means of control: Dig them out! Sometimes this isn’t possible, especially in the case of large bittersweet vines that will simply resprout if cut. Cutting the vine and painting the stump with only the required amount of herbicide does the trick.The more we can reduce these three easily identifiable plants from our own yards, the closer we will come to slowing their spread. I am happy to help with identification, and more information can be found at the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group website, www.hort.uconn.edu/cipwg. Scott Heth is the director of Audubon Sharon and can be reached at sheth@audubon.org, (subject line: Nature Notes).
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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