My grandfather called it "Cut Sue" and it was just getting started on covering the landscape when he was young. Kudzu is from Japan and was, the story goes, introduced into the US by an enthusiastic lady gardener who loved the fragrant purple flowers.
Oh, the damage we enthusiastic gardeners can wreak! Kudzu, English ivy, bittersweet, multiflora rose, Japanese spirea,burning bush . . . to name a few, some of which I introduced to our place.
Here's a hint: if it's really cheap at the garden center or in a catalog, then it's super easy to grow and probably invasive, as I now know, to my sorrow.
5 comments:
Grrr
And here we also have Virginia creeper all over trees, shrubs, utility lines, everything. I have watched roadside trees disappear under the shrouds of vines and die and eventually fall into the roads during thunderstorms and winter ice and snow storms. And of course power lines come down with them. It maddens me and saddens me and I can't do a thing about it.
Oh, I'd overlooked Virginia Creeper which we also have in abundance.
When we lived on 8 acres in MD it was a constant battle to control multifloral. rose and bittersweet. Then something called Japanese knot grass showed up! I decided to ignore it. I wonder if the owners of the property are doing the same?
I'll say one thing in favour of Virginia Creeper, however -- my mother had a rose garden, which naturally attracted positive hordes of Japanese Beetles (another invasive species) that turned their leaves into lace. Unless you had Virginia Creepers, which those beetles obviously found much more tasty. Thus we ended up with lace-leaved creeper and very little damage to the rose bushes.
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