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Rocky Mountain Gardening

Tree/tall shrub ID

12 years ago

My neighbor has a tree/tall shrub growing right up by our fence, and shoots of it keep coming up on our side. I believe this is the stuff that was completely overtaking the garden area on this side of the yard when we moved in about 2 years (wow, time flies!) ago. We spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears tearing this stuff out of there, along with the aspen roots, so we could plant our fruit trees and other more desireable plants.

It's a real struggle to keep this stuff pull up so it won't take over again. Any ideas what it is?! Any ideas how to get rid of it?!! If it's a plant that someone loves, come and get it!!!!!! ;^D

Here is a pic of it as it looks above the top of our fence, in bloom right now:

And here is a shot of the suckers coming up under our fence:

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Comments (5)

Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
All I remember is its the native Prunus. Don't care for it so don't allocate any memory space to it. Glyphosate will kill it.

Dan
mtny
12 years ago
Actually it is Prunus virginiana .....aka chokecherry has its good side and problematic side.....it is much loved by tent caterpillars so be careful if you have more desirable fruit species close by....its leaves particularly after wilting or early drop are toxic to ungulates(prunus cyanide issues)...on the other hand nice habitat plant in less manicured sites...
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Ok, if that's really smokebush then I am deciding to cut mine in spring before it leafs out. I think my 2 smokebush shrubs are currently between 4 to 5 ft high. I just finished reading a thread about cutting back the smokebush back to 1 ft from ground. I am thinking of doing that in spring to have a spectacular foliage. I don't care about those smoke effect anymore. I'll post a picture of how it looks like later and I'll put a label on the area where I am planning to cut it. Then I'll just ask for approval from here. :D Sounds good? Thanks!
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If you could KEEP it in your garden, it would be fine to keep it... but the reason it's all along the roads throughout Connecticut (smelling lovely, I agree!) is that it is a horrific invasive that is driving all the native flora out. Russian olive and Autumn Olive are slightly different (my guess is you're seeing autumn olive), but both are invasive and should be removed. In Connecticut, for instance, the law states ' Notwithstanding the provisions of any ordinance adopted by a municipality, no person shall [import,] move, except for eradication purposes, import, sell, purchase, transplant, cultivate or distribute any of the following invasive plants: '... and both are on the list that follows. There are many native plants with lovely fragrances that you can substitute for it, including a native honeysuckle. Check with your extension service for recommendations... but please, for the sake of the native flora, TAKE IT OUT! Here is a link that might be useful: Alternatives for invasives
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Judy- Warning. Warning. Warning. Many here in the Southeast despise Elaeagnus. Authorities differ as to whether E. x ebbingei or E. pungens reflexa are worse regarding this problem: If sheared, they must be sheared WEEKLY for about 8 months of the year, like Medusa's head. Do not EVER let shears touch your Elaeagnus. Virgin Elaeagnus (those never touched by shears) are lovely. But the long, running, shoots it produces in the growing season will need to be deep "pocket -pruned" down into the canopy of the plant, to an established side-shoot. Use hand-pruners like you would prune a rose with, for this duty. Depending how neat you want the plants to look, this will need to be done from one to eight times a year. That is not a happy frequency, but it sure beats weekly. If Elaeagnus have already been power-sheared, you may need to hard-prune them almost to the ground (6-8" is tolerated by these vigorous plants). Do it in very early Spring (probably the last week of February for you.) Then let them grow back and treat them like virgin shrubs. As to the difference between the two species (actually I think ebbingei is a hybrid, one of whose parents is pungens reflexa), I believe the hybrid ebbingei to be better-mannered and therefore more desireable.
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I think it is an Acacia, perhaps A. longifolia, being grown in an atypical manner.
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mstywoods
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you for the ID - it definitely looks like chokeberry!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_virginiana

And I have 3 fruit trees on our side right near this shrub/tree :^( I wonder if it has anything to do with why my apple tree is looking funny. I haven't noticed any caterpillers, though.

Any tips on how best to eradicate the suckers that keep coming up on our side would be appreciated - although I will look for the glyphosate that Dan recommended. My neighbor does not do anything with her yard, so if it inadvertently kills the tree on her side, she'd probably not even notice or care! And I will look for some type of pesticide for the caterpiller as well, just in case.

Thanks!
Marj
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
Yup, I couldn't recall the virginiana part. As to the suckers, that is what that plant does. It is one of its reproductive strategies. In order to eliminate the suckers, you must eliminate the plant.

Dan
mstywoods
Original Author
12 years ago
Ahh, ok - so I've figured out why they call it 'choke' berry. Because you want to choke it for putting up all those suckers!!!!!

Yeah, when we moved in, that whole garden area was taken up with this stuff - it was like a solid mass of shrubbery about 2 ft high. As we started trying to dig it up, we discovered a whole network of roots. Between the chokeberry and the aspen trees (which we cut down), it was a massive system that took many man hours to hack through - this was my DH project he took on. He even used a heavy duty plow to dig into the cable-like roots. What a mess!!!

But he was successful at getting most of it on the surface and several inches below pretty cleaned out. We kept after it by pulling up the new shoots that kept coming up, and then covered the whole area last fall with some rough tree limb mulch that the city of Westminster makes available from the tree limb dumping site. I thought maybe that would help smother the stuff, but don't think so. I've pretty much decided only to have the fruit trees there (hopefully they will grow and the tent caterpillers won't take them out!) and some daylilies and a few other plants bordering the outside of the bed - nothing planned for the middle area (except maybe some pumpkin vines this summer/fall) so we can continue to get in there and dig more roots out. Maybe eventually we have it under better control.

Marj

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