Safe to plant Japanese barberries?
Christmas roses - long before Christmas

Another fiery fall invader

Euonymusalatus600 For much of the season, Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus/burning bush), is unnoticeable along the roadside. It just doesn’t stand out from all the other roadside shrubs along the Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey byways. But come October, it suddenly reveals itself - the distinctive pink tinge to its red fall color catching the eye and marking it out from its neighbours.

Like the Japanese barberry I discussed last time, its dramatic fall color also outlasts that of most native trees and shrubs. It produces a great mass of seed, much loved by birds, yet under our two plants, set by our predecessor here, sheets of seedlings appear. Unlike the Japanese barberry seedlings, however, the deer eat them. The deer also reach up and eat the branches. See the guilty party in the second picture.

EuonymusalatusDeer600 Seedlings have often appeared in the woods nearby and in this rare case the deer do us a favor by eating them – after thirty years there are no established offspring of the two original plants.

The University of Connecticut, who are working to create a sterile Japanese barberry, are also using genetic engineering techniques to develop a sterile Euonymus alatus. But will gardeners want to plant a genetically engineered burning bush, or a genetically engineered Japanese barberry- even if it is sterile?

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