One of my small projects in the next few weeks is to get rid of these invasive Nandina plants, but their berries look pretty in the snow...for now. I think I'm going to replace them with native elderberries 🌱 #nativeplants #permaculture
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I'm curious if you ever see any local fauna foraging or Browsing on it? How about pollinators? Anything eating or reproducing at the base or in its detritus?
The bees definitely go after it, but I'm sure they'd go after the elderberry flowers too. Honestly, I think the fauna are not interested. I don't see evidence of broken twigs or gnawed bark. I'm sure there's bugs reproducing at the bases, but probably because I let oak leaves pile up under them.
Yeah, I was looking into Winterberry. Though I kind of want a berry I can eat and I've got tons of American Holly trees around my house, so I'm looking for something non-hollyish.
I have pulled several hundred (at least) winged euonymus at our place. We had no idea what that was when we moved in, chopped it quick but they were *everywhere*.
And when I was planting some trees nearby I found an absolutely huge, clearly old and still alive root coming from the main trunk. Ugh.
I once planted dwarf nandina as a landscape plant, to bring winter color. It was only years later I learned it was invasive. In high school I worked for a landscape design and installation company- and privet was considered a hedge. But I can tell you years later I witnessed the invasiveness.
I have native elderberries. They’re everywhere on our fence lines and in the roadside. They’re sort of weedy looking. I have lots of Nandina too, both the red and the yellow. I like them really, but I do clip the berries off in the early spring and destroy them.
Interesting...Do you make anything with the elderberries? My wife is very into canning/jams and pie making, so I figure they'd be good to grow. Also, how do you destroy the nandina berries?
Not so sure about your elderberries but here in Europe they are used often . In jams - usually along with something else like apple, to make wine , and the flowers are eaten - fried in batter and also the flowers are used to make a cordial . Oh and the wood is used to make whistles
Yeah, it's a love/hate relationship. Canning is definitely time consuming, though we typically shy away from recipes that require a lot of time to boil down, like tomato sauce.
I get the flesh off them and grind the seed up in my garbage disposal. I’ve never made anything with the elderberries. I also have huckleberry bushes and I have made jelly from them. I love huckleberries.
I'm not sure we're you are located, but wintergreen is an evergreen ground cover that has beautiful berries as well. I bought one as a holiday plant, but in the spring, it's going into the ground.
Thanks! I was looking at Winterberry, since I would rather have red berries than black or blue berries (my front door is red), but it's berries aren't edible like elderberries. Maybe I'll throw some wintergreen in front of the taller elderberries!
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It's much more about its interaction with other aspects of the econosystem than how annoying it is to get rid of.
(I don't know this plant so I'm not suggesting either way, but I've learned to be skeptical)
Also elderberries ftw!
And when I was planting some trees nearby I found an absolutely huge, clearly old and still alive root coming from the main trunk. Ugh.
Thankfully this plant is now illegal to import to Maine but I have seen several other of them around that must’ve been planted before the ban.