I do love mine. It planted itself: must have known it would have a good home. The same thing happened at our previous house. It took a while to get going (a few years) but now itÂs just beautiful. Many people have told us it will eat away at the mortar between the bricks, but we have seen no evidence of any damage. It has been growing on our brick house for maybe 15-18 years now. Occasionally we have had to cut it back to paint the wood trim, and I have checked for damage carefully. It turns a brilliant deep red color in the fall.

A stucco house I used to rent had Boston Ivy growing on it and I loved it. Unfortunately the people who moved in after me didn't and pulled most of it down. It didn't do any damage to the stucco. My understanding is that if the stucco or mortar or whatever it's growing on is in good shape, it won't cause damage. If the mortar is old and/or crumbly though, you have to be careful.

I planted mine 16 years ago and absolutely love it. Ditto everything linnea said.

Little birds crawl under it to eat the berries (fun to watch.).

The roots stay on the outside. It has little sticky feet so it doesn't dig under or into anything.

Not sure how hard it would be to remove entirely. But I don't want to!

It saves on heating and AC bills, too.

I know it has a bad reputation, but I bet 90% of the naysayers have never grown it.