This week’s column is dedicated to a few more spooky plants: invasive invaders masquerading as ideal landscape choices. In my garden this week, I will slowly continue to cut back spent perennials. That is my priority and what I did mostly through the weekend.
But I also picked carrots and beets and left a few undersized roots to continue growing. I might experiment and mulch these with six inches of mulch in December and see what I get in early April. Winters have been relatively mild.
As I do, I will also scout for troublesome, long-term weeds—the invasives. The garden centers in Massachusetts are prohibited from selling the following invasive plants. They are easy to spot in their garish, mid-fall foliage. Take note! Do not dig them up and plant them at your new home just because you remember them fondly.
I am reminding you that some vines, trees, or shrubs will escape your landscape plans to become immortal pests around your property. Do not be fooled by their calm, care-free, and easy-to-grow nature. These are nutrient thieves and squatters of the worst kind.
Oriental bittersweet has the prettiest autumn-colored berries. Who wouldn’t want a wreath of this on their door? They start yellow, and then the outer coating pops to reveal a red berry. Perfect! Except, no, this plant overwhelms shrubs and trees with its aggressive growth and overly productive fruiting. Birds consume the berries like kids do candy and proceed to expel the seeds, everywhere.
As mentioned last week, feel free to cut these fruiting vines for indoor decorations, but do not leave outside for wild birds to eat. Do not compost. Put the arrangement into the trash when you are done with it.
Norway maples (Acer platanoides) have finally changed into their fall foliage, a beautiful golden yellow. Unfortunately, these easy-to-grow maples have become too successful. They produce viable seeds throughout the summer. They leaf out early and crowd out the competition. They easily acclimate to different soils from moist to dry. They also spread maple leaf spot fungus.
Like many invasive plants, Norway maple was introduced as an ideal solution to homeowners wanting quick shade and tolerance to urban environments. Many were planted to replace elms after Dutch elm disease devastated towns. These qualities are warning signs that a plant could become invasive and overwhelm native plant communities. Do not encourage them. Remove them and replace with another, preferably native, maple. Choices include sugar maple (Acer saccharum), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), or black maple (Acer nigrum).
Another plant to avoid: burning bush or winged euonymus (Euonymus alatus). I remember loving this plant as a child. The twigs and bark were fascinating, the fall color brilliant! You can spot this plant easily now after all the native plants have dropped their leaves. The burning bush persists and appears in unplanted, unplanned stands in the forest understory. If you have it, dig it out and replace it with something equally as red but native—like blueberry, fothergilla, oakleaf hydrangea, or viburnum.
Like burning bush, honeysuckle filled the bill as a landscape planner’s dream. Thick growth with early fragrant flowers and fruit were supported by leaves hanging on well into autumn. Eurasian honeysuckle hybrids quickly dominated the woods with the tasty early fruit and adaptability. Now is a great time to identify this pest because most native shrubs have lost their leaves and the sickly lime-yellow of honeysuckle pops out of the landscape. Wrap the trunk with landscape tape or another marker that tells you this plant has got to go once you have the chance (or assistance).
I hate writing about “don’ts” and “avoids” without alternatives. One of my favorites for autumn red is oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia). The plant is slow to leaf out in spring, but the leaves are large and the flowers lovely. The fall foliage looks positively spray-painted the way it sparkles!
For fruit and color, try variations of shrub dogwoods. Shrub dogwoods are going through a name change. What used to be “Cornus” is now “Swida.” The red-twig dogwood (Cornus- Swida- sericea) has colorful, red branching from leaf-drop into spring with blue-black fruit. Gray dogwood (Cornus- Swida- racemosa) has gray branching but lovely red residual stems or stalks. The red stems are dried pedicels that remain after the flowers drop or white fruit forms.
I love the slower pace of autumn and winter. A gardener can see issues but wait to address them. The lazy gardener wanders the garden to identify the beautiful and the problematic. Wrap stems with landscape tape, or mark plants with a landscape flag. Then, make notes on your garden problems and plan to remove them when you have time over the next few months.
I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I am willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.
