Interesting subject. I have several old varieties of Rose of Sharon, a double white and a double blue...they are agressive in that they spread and have formed a hedge but I like that where they are. My newer varieties are not, Diana and a double pink, Lady something or the other. I do have a pink one that is a monster, cut it down with a chain saw and it still came back, finally poured diesel oil on top. I think it may be gone, but its seedlings keep popping up. I have Obedient Plant, but it is confined between the drive and a building in a narrow 18 inch wide bed. Then there is the lonicera purpurea, aka purple honeysuckle that I planted on the porch to vine up the railings....it has got to go! For one thing, it has maybe 10 tiny blooms that you can barely smell. I will just plant it in a fence row somewhere. It is covering the entire bed and trying to choke out the Jackmanii clematis. I will also move the more restrained red and gold honeysuckle....I have to keep it pruned so you can walk up the steps and that cuts back on the blossoms. I am going to put it on a trellis in full sun because the hummers love it. Lythrum I love and it certainly isn't even agressive here. I just have one plant of it; wish I had more. I had a Kolreuteria tree and loved it. Lost them due to an ice storm. They have little lanterns that contain the seeds. Lost the tree a few years ago but they are still coming up everywhere. I am actually letting some grow! I will live to regret it. But you get a nicely shaped 20 foot tree pretty quickly and we have lost so many so I succumbed to temptation. Cameron, if you are talking about eragrostis, I have it too and agree with you. It reseeds way too much for my taste. I have two by the front steps and they are going to be relocated out front.

Living in Wisconsin I do adore so many different trees. But my Mom had a gorgeous flowering mini crab apple tree that in spring would smell so wonderful, like almost a musky Hibiscus type scent that would last about 4 weeks. The fruit on this tree was about as small as a pea and was very abundant as the tree itself in bloom would look like one big huge flower on it's own. But most of the pea sized apples that would never have any issues with scabbing or insects would stay on the tree through the winter that would be a #1 staple of the bird life that never flew south for the winter time as my Mom would also have bird houses and Cardinals would stay along with Red Winged Black Birds and others. When the trees were flowering they would attract so many butterflies, humming birds and honey bees, that the next door neighbor would surly get his fill from, and even offer up honey to my Mom, otherwise he wouldn't have had so much honey and bees wax to sell at the farmers market. But unfortunately in 2012, my Mom's condo association voted on removing her wonderful bird and furry ground fellows tree (Yes! Also the squirrels of at least 3 to 5 different kinds would take advantage of all of the tiny apples that had fell to ground, along with chipmunks and some other furry ground animals, so I never did see what the big deal was. They had said that tree had made a mess. Well I beg to differ, and the closing vote was neighbor that actually got kicked out by the banks foreclosure no more than 4 months later. Now my 2nd favorite tree would be the lilac tree, not the bush but the actual tree. I remember when I had one right outside my bedroom window and the scent of lilacs would come in through out the lilac season, and my Dad had planted them to flower 2 weeks apart from each other, so I had that scent in my bedroom going for a good 4-6 weeks long at least! Now Wisconsin has a law in place that no one is allowed and will be fined if they are to plant any sort of troublesome tree. One big one being the darn Cotton Wood Tree. And for those that have them on their land that are in neighborhoods that clog up gutters and fly over to parks in which the fire departments HAVE to do a controlled burn to keep them from growing out of control every single year. This junk get into your air filters and in your cars, garages, homes and all over the place. I really hate these trees, and I just don't understand why people would take advantage of free removal by the city, especially if they have a fire place, free wood to burn for them for the winter time. And now these trees are huge! It's just unreal what you pull out of your gutters every year. Even though we want to enjoy our spring times and not have our usual floods as that is what usually happens here, but when you have Cotton Wood trees, you almost beg for rain every day so these seeds will only drop on the owners home and not yours when floating through the air and causing allergies with watery eyes, sneezing and being all stuffed up from just trying to enjoy the outside, which is impossible when you have a cantankerous neighbor that just won't take down that damn tree, even though it almost looks like it's 1/2 way dead anyway. Maybe some day it will get hit by lightning, and then he will have to use his home owners insurance to fix what ever damage it has caused and Karma will win in end. Just because he didn't do right by others. I know if I bought property, I would surely call the city and have them come and take it down as soon as they were able. And one more tree I don't care for all that much for at all either, is the Maple tree and for some reason, the seeds or what some people call whirly birds or helicopters I think they are a real pain in ars and for some reason the are falling off all year long and are green and slimy. Leaving the steps and landings all stained with this slimy mess so you can't even sit down and dry your hair naturally in the nice weather. And sometimes they even drop in clumps but when they do that they are too heave and drop onto the lawn, or what ever is left of it, when it rains it's a muddy mess on that side. I am doing my best to get the heck out of here, but I have some issues I need take care of right away! Heath issues that are stopping me from doing the simplest tasks. I never thought I'd need to be calling the HDRC for help like this. But I need to get out of here. Plus I just got a letter from my land lord that my rent is going up (only by $5.00) but still, I've been here for 14 years now. And I have been so unhappy and haven't had a single update done since I move in here. Sorry for over sharing, but she knows she has me over a barrel here, I have 3 auto immune disorders and many other medical issues that she used to be very empathetic to and I don't know what's happened to her now. She just no longer cares anymore at all! Now my Thyroid is effecting me. I knew years ago they found a nodule on my thyroid, but I went to a specialist and he said it's very common. My Dr. then always kept up with the testing. He now moved and I'm left with this flippent woman of a GP that is only in it for the money. Need to get rid of her now, and see if I can get a blood test tomorrow while I'm at the hospital anyway with 2 appts. back to back. I did feel so sorry for my Mom, she not only had a shade tree that she loved watching her birds every morning, but it was also a tree that gave her some privacy from her kitchen window and I think that was totally unfair for them to just take that away from her. She loves wildlife and birds, and loved waking up to it, watching and hearing the Cardinals and seeing all of the beautiful butterflies and other germinating creatures. Even the honey bees seemed very docile and as if they were trained to be non violent and just be busy worker bees along with all of the humming birds of every color of the rainbow that would stay still just long enough to make out their colors, I even saw a turquoise one, my favorite color. I went on google maps and they really need to update their pictures. That tree is still there on Google maps. I couldn't believe that when I saw that. Oh well, It's been awhile and they must have taken that picture right before they took that tree down. All I see is people raving about how much the love those trees and how glad they are they chose them. Mom moved in when that tree was a bit young yet. I wish I could turn back time, and announce her neighbors were being kicked out by the bank. That would have changed things a lot back then. They wouldn't have had a voice or a leg to stand on. And I believe the bank would have said "Keep that tree!" It only adds to the curb appeal and beauty for the next buyers. Oh well, to late now, Thanks for taking the time to read this. And God Bless to all those that have or have chosen the Mini Crab Apple Trees, you know what I'm talking about!

Will you be "mowing" or bush-hogging? (noting the "field") Seedlings on up to plants of a couple/few years of age are relatively easy to pull up by hand if the soil will "let go". While RoS are relatively resilient when/if damaged, there is still only so much even a RoS can handle before it will give up on resurrecting itself. If you have some that come up and even if you let them go for a few years and then decide you don't like them where they are - if they are too thick in diameter to weed-eat/whack, mow, or bush-hog to cut, then just take a hand axe to the base and whack it down - into the "crown" of the rootstock (so you don't leave a sharp stob above ground that can puncture a foot, hoof, paw, tire, etc.) to axe/cut it out - don't cover it back up with soil, let it dry out that way if at all possible, to inhibit it potentially coming back from the rootstock. RoS have a true taproot, though they (the taproots) are quite capable of adapting to their terrain and can grow "sideways" over bedrock, etc. if need be to get a hold, but severing that taproot has always been effective for eradicating an undesired specimen IME. The self-sown seedlings are *very easy* to identify - the seedling leaves are virtually identical (except for initial size) to that of mature leaves - so you can visually pick them out from even a radically mixed genera field, bed, etc. Think ahead of time how you would like them to look. If you want single-trunk tree-form for instance, be on the look out for multiples from a single seed early on, and prune any lower branches that you don't want before they get thick (saves pruning later and helps RoS to dedicate energy to upper level growth), etc. Consider whether or not you might want to "weave" top growth together for arches or other "designs". Do training when branches are new/young for the longterm. If you want each one to be an "eyecatcher" - provide them with plenty of space between one another. If you're not sure, you can always cull out specimens "in between" later on. Planted 3' between one another and either "woven" together or allowed to grow naturally, they can make a fair windbreak and/or relatively good privacy when in leaf and visual interest in the winter (another plus when they are trained or pruned with design in mind). You can prune one or both faces ("front" and "back") for a more uniform appearance if row-planted and encourage lateral growth along the "line" you decide upon. If you start from seed in containers, you can grow several in one container for a couple of years, protect the container/root area in winter (south side of a house, building, wrap the container, whatever) and then after a year or two (or longer if you like), transplant out into the ground and you shouldn't even have a need to mulch them. (seedlings do like to crop up in mulch - but are easy to pull out of it). The young plants don't seem to mind even rough treatment when separating multiple root systems when rootbound in a single container together. They will grow in the worst of rocky, clay soil with no water save rain, but growth is distinctly slower. The best specimens up here (best in respect to growth rate, etc.) have about a half-day of sun - one group mid-morning to early afternoon, another strictly afternoon sun, the most impressive group a couple hours of full sun and then dappled shade from towering Oaks. If you sow/plant near running water, they should be happy as larks, but you can probably expect some seeds later on to catch a ride with the water and not be surprised to find some RoS growing semi-aquatic along the banks. Birds don't seem interested in the seeds, but I have seen some curious type of insect in opened pods - not sure if they were eating seeds or just using the open pods to breed, hatch, or what exactly. I've only seen that once. No foliage damage or anything like that and no bad weather, so I don't think they were using the open pods for shelter. On insects and RoS though - nice plant to re-direct Japanese Beetles to in lieu of actual roses or other plants that don't recover as quickly when the JBs strike en masse overnight.

So glad you've joined the discussion, Abigail! IME the pine may rot sooner than some other types of trees, especially if the pileateds continue to pull chunks out of it, so you may find in 10 years or so that it's really crumbling. One vine that does well on tree trunks is climbing hydrangea, but it takes 5 years or so to get going and start blooming IME so I am not sure if it will be a good choice for your soon-to-be-crumbling trunks. Virginia creeper (a native) has berries for the birds, and since you mow the lawn around it, its tendency to sucker should be kept under control by the mowing. Both these plants climb by clinging with adventitious roots or holdfasts, both of which will cling to a broad surface link a tree trunk. VA creeper has lovely red fall color. Twining vines will want supports attached to the tree trunk to allow them to climb. Lonicera sempervirens is a native honeysuckle that the hummingbirds like. It twines its stems around supports, and there are several different selections available. Clematis twine their leaf stems (petioles) and come in a wide range of flower types (large or small open flowers or bells) and various colors. Insects like my bell clematis flowers, but I don't see a lot of insects on the more open clematis flowers. Avoid Euonymus since they can be invasive, and though it's a native with berries the birds enjoy, I assume you don't want poison ivy!