Nine Invasive Plants to Exclude from Your Garden

Spring and early summer delight gardeners with flowers and flowering shrubs galore, as well as evergreen bushes and creeping plants. Truly, depending upon the time, effort, and money one is willing to put into them, the grounds of even the humblest of homes can become a virtual paradise. Yet, choose unwisely and grow invasive cultivars on your property and your dream can quickly become a nightmare.

The curious part is that invasive plants are not necessarily ugly, neither do they necessarily have a foul scent. Truth be told, many of the most invasive species are also quite beautiful to the nostril as well as to the eye. So let's identify some of the pests or invasive plants, following which we'll discuss a point or two concerning them. Please know that I am bound to have left some undesirables off the list. These are among those I am best acquainted with.

List

English Ivy
Japanese Honeysuckle
Chinese or Japanese Wisteria
Periwinkle (Vinca major)
Bamboo
Purple Loosestrife
Kudzu
Multiflora rose
Oriental Bittersweet

Kudzu may be the best known of the troublemakers. Kudzu was brought to this country to serve as cattle fodder. While it is eminently well suited for that purpose, it never caught on. The plant escaped and prospers along roadsides. It grows so thickly, blanketing trees so densely, the trees look like sculptures and eventually die from lack of light. Although the flowers can be used to make jelly, all that Kudzu has done is become a nuisance.

Japanese honeysuckle is an ever-spreading shrub that at least produces flowers that smell good and serve as the source of a single drop of pleasant-tasting nectar to those who partake of it. It should be noted that not all honeysuckle is invasive. One very pleasant variety of honeysuckle that draws birds such as Cedar Waxwing, and produces beautiful red berries is Morrow's honeysuckle.

English Ivy may be given suitable places in which to grow, but up the side of a house isn't one of them. The roots damage building materials and provide places for nesting birds, which may carry diseases or disease-carrying organisms. See the National Park Service reference below for further details.

Multiflora rose has small white flowers that are pleasant enough, and the plant has been grown to produce a hedge. The problem is birds eat the hips, which are not destroyed in their digestive tracts, and the plants, which are hard to eradicate, spot up nearby yards and fields such as cow pastures, where the plants are not desired. They soon overrun a property.

Chinese or Japanese Wisteria produce beautiful grape-like clusters of violet flowers in great abundance, with relatively little foliage. The difficulty is that it is soon everywhere, from the top of a large tree to the top of a nearby house. There is an American variety that is smaller and a lot less intrusive.

Oriental Bittersweet is likewise problematic, whereas its American counterpart is much less so. Producing a rather attractive flower and berry, the oriental bittersweet may at first fool its planter. Fortunately, the American Bittersweet is both controllable and a draw for wild birds. Both male and female plants are required to produce berries.

Bamboo has an attractive appeal and provides lovely eastern flavor to the landscape. Unfortunately, not only are some varieties horrifically invasive, they are difficult to kill due to underground runners. The runners easily go beneath a fence to annoy a nearby neighbor and cast a shadow on your mutual friendship. Recently a resident near the author's home had all his bamboo bulldozed and burned with fire. That's what it took to eradicate it.

Periwinkle (Vinca) is a ground cover with oval, glossy and very dark leaves and little periwinkle blue flowers. Not unattractive, it unfortunately can run away. At first it will creep into your lawn, then to the edge of your lawn where it joins with a woods. From there it creeps into the woods, preventing more desirable plants from growing and beautifying the forest.

Purple Loosestrife is different in that it is a water-plant. It grows in some ponds, and it produces beautiful purple stalks of bloom. The trouble is, the plant eventually completely takes over, turning a formerly attractive pond or lake into a marshy plot of pretty weeds.

Some References:

Moonshine Designs Nursery - American Bittersweet

National Park Service - "Least Wanted" - English Ivy

Texas A&M - Aggie Horticulture - Bamboo