I dunno--maybe it has something to do with the region you live in, but in Zone 6 Kansas, Sweet Autumn Clematis is a weed--self-seeds prolifically and grows everywhere you don't want it. I swear I get hundreds of "volunteers" popping up all over my backyard every year. As pretty as the bloom can be, I hate this aggressive spreader so much that I cant even enjoy its bloom for more than a minute or two. Kate

I think the term "invasive" gets thrown about too much without a good understanding of what it means. I know which forum and thread you were referring to and few of the plants discussed are truly invasive - that is, able to spread at will, usually by seed, and colonize natural areas to the detriment of native plant populations. Aggressive is another feature altogether and is typically used to describe garden plants that grow rampantly, spread easily or are difficult to eradicate once established in your garden, but do not pose a threat to natural habitats. I'd describe SAC as an aggressive vine in that it grows rapidly and is big. Allowing insufficient space for it in a small garden could pose problems :-) And while it may generate a few seedlings (mine never has), it certainly cannot be considered invasive in the correct use of that term.

I was a warm zone SAC grower (zone 7) and it did seed all over. It was a prolific grower, would be cut to the ground each year, and the next season it would throw out 30' of regrowth. The biggest problem you'll have in a colder zone is it will potentially (100% guarantee it will) flop over onto your neighbor's side of the fence and you'll run the risk of having it hacked down. There are quite a few threads on Sweet Autumn Clematis on the Clematis forum, as well as the Vines Forum - check them out. And from what I can remember, while cooler zone growers marvel at its luxuriant growth, they don't find it to be freely self-seeding.

Gayle, We have 10 acres of woods filled with poison ivy and virginia creeper too. We cleared the poison ivy away from the 'edges' where the woodland meets the open pastures and we cleared the poison ivy away from the yard area around the house, but left the rest for the bees, butterflies, birds, etc. We manage to more or less cut pathways through the woods every year so we can walk through them and that involves removing a little poison ivy too, but otherwise we leave it alone. We leave all the wildflowers we can too. Sometimes it drives Tim crazy that he has to drive around patches of wildflowers while mowing, but he does it. After moving here, it didn't take me long to learn that every native plant we have here feeds something, so we have left most all of them in place. And, when landscaping the yard, often we just dig up a native tree sapling or ground cover or collect wildflower seed and add the native plants to our landscape. To me, it wouldn't make any sense to take out the native plants, and replace them with imported non-natives that don't feed the wild things. We don't have a bee hive like you do but we have tons of native bees around year round. When food is sparse in the winter, they seem to feed at the deer corn. I remember you mentioned a while back that you were taking a bee-keeping course. We need a bee update! Dawn