Leatherleaf Mahonia Woes
So some of you may know Leatherleaf Mahonia as a nice ornamental shrub that you see in all the big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot. It's pretty, it looks kinda like a giant holly with very pretty blue berries, it's vigorous, it's tough, what's not to love?
If you live in the South, let me just beg you to back awaaaay from the plant. Please.
That stuff has invaded my woodlot this year. I live in North Carolina, I spend a fair amount of time fighting with invasives. It goes with the territory. I kill a couple hundred pounds of Japanese honeysuckle every spring, I tear down wisteria, I generally dedicate a whole day with saw and shears twice a year to removing autumn olive, and despite all this, I mostly count myself lucky that I don't have kudzu or English ivy on the property and that I've got the silk tree stumps kinda under control.
But the leatherleaf mahonia is new. I never planted any of it, I don't think any of the neighbors planted it, but all of a sudden it's popping up everywhere. It's being spread because birds are eating the berries and, um, depositing the seeds with a nice little dollop of fertilizer, the way these things usually spread, and apparently people are reporting this all over the South, but the way things move, Lowes and Home Depot and Wal-Mart will probably be selling them for the next ten years, even if we find out that touching the leaves makes your eyeballs fall out a week later.
It's kind of alarming to actually watch the rise of an invasive species, let me tell you. We've have kudzu and whatnot forever, so you just kinda roll your eyes, but this stuff is new, and in one year, suddenly there's another Major Garden Chore on my plate getting rid of it.
I know that a lot of people won't remember this plea in five minutes, or I'm going to get twenty replies of "But it's so pretty! I love mine! What's wrong with it in the woods?!"* so just consider this a plea and a reminder--stuff you plant doesn't necessarily stay in your own yard.
On behalf of all the gardeners who are gonna have to add "Fighting Mahonia" to the list over the next few years---PLEASE pick a different shrub if you live anywhere in the South, or you're forcing a whole lot of OTHER gardeners to add it to their yards, whether they want to or not. And that's just...unkind.
Thank you, that is all. Now I have to go douse myself with OFF and try to take 'em down.
*The answer is that a woodland full of mahonia is not full of anything else, because it's a crowder. It makes dense shade. I would rather have my trillium and my wild ginger, thank you, and not have my woods look like the plant sale aisle of Lowes.
If you live in the South, let me just beg you to back awaaaay from the plant. Please.
That stuff has invaded my woodlot this year. I live in North Carolina, I spend a fair amount of time fighting with invasives. It goes with the territory. I kill a couple hundred pounds of Japanese honeysuckle every spring, I tear down wisteria, I generally dedicate a whole day with saw and shears twice a year to removing autumn olive, and despite all this, I mostly count myself lucky that I don't have kudzu or English ivy on the property and that I've got the silk tree stumps kinda under control.
But the leatherleaf mahonia is new. I never planted any of it, I don't think any of the neighbors planted it, but all of a sudden it's popping up everywhere. It's being spread because birds are eating the berries and, um, depositing the seeds with a nice little dollop of fertilizer, the way these things usually spread, and apparently people are reporting this all over the South, but the way things move, Lowes and Home Depot and Wal-Mart will probably be selling them for the next ten years, even if we find out that touching the leaves makes your eyeballs fall out a week later.
It's kind of alarming to actually watch the rise of an invasive species, let me tell you. We've have kudzu and whatnot forever, so you just kinda roll your eyes, but this stuff is new, and in one year, suddenly there's another Major Garden Chore on my plate getting rid of it.
I know that a lot of people won't remember this plea in five minutes, or I'm going to get twenty replies of "But it's so pretty! I love mine! What's wrong with it in the woods?!"* so just consider this a plea and a reminder--stuff you plant doesn't necessarily stay in your own yard.
On behalf of all the gardeners who are gonna have to add "Fighting Mahonia" to the list over the next few years---PLEASE pick a different shrub if you live anywhere in the South, or you're forcing a whole lot of OTHER gardeners to add it to their yards, whether they want to or not. And that's just...unkind.
Thank you, that is all. Now I have to go douse myself with OFF and try to take 'em down.
*The answer is that a woodland full of mahonia is not full of anything else, because it's a crowder. It makes dense shade. I would rather have my trillium and my wild ginger, thank you, and not have my woods look like the plant sale aisle of Lowes.