| This is a wooded lot that I walk by on the way to the
grocery store. Here along the coast, in protected hollows like this,
there’s a deep blanket of insulating snow left over from our last big storm.
Safe under the blanket are dozens of marsh marigolds getting ready to bloom in
April, along with a few squirrel-planted daffodils. And there’s a
miniature tunnel city, created by mice and other little critters, allowing them
to forge in relative warmth, hidden from the red-tail hawk that I often see
here.
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The red berries are rose hips of a rosa
multiflora that, over time, will create an thick barrier of thorny
brambles. Once a native of China, rosa multiflora started its
career in the Americas as a “natural fence”, and it is a low maintenance way
to keep livestock in one place. I have not heard that it’ll stop a
desperately hungry deer but, then, what will? Anyway, rosa multiflora
escaped and now is usually seen in well-drained sunny spots where bird roost (as
here).
Key to being a successful invasive plant is to attract
birds since they spread the seeds that they eat. And the rosa
multiflora feeds a lot of birds in late winter. So do other aliens
like juniper, holly, Indian
bittersweet, Rosa rugosa, English ivy, and barberry. In contrast,
the only native bush that I’ve observed locally on untended land that still
has its bird-edible berries at this time of year is the bayberry.
Unlike porcelain vine,
rosa multiflora is not an overwhelming nuisance in my area.
However, it does need to be controlled. It is among the federal
government’s top 20 invasives and has achieved noxious weed status in several
states. To get it out of the garden, dig it up or cut it to the
ground at least 3 times a year.
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