Boston Ivy

[Wyoming Gardener]

We just bought some Boston Ivy to grow up our stucco house...after researching how to attach them to our house, we now are convinced we aren't going to let them stay by the house because of their destructive nature. So where could we plant them? Would they be good ground growth for our beds or would they destroy the trees and shrubs in the beds? Or could they grow up a plastic fense or would they destroy that too? Other than those two places we don't have a lot of options...Thank you in advance for your advice and help on this! I hate to not use the plants, but I don't want to be paying for the costly damage in the future either!

[bullthistle]

A wise choice not to put them near the house but I don't beleive the plastic fence would mind unless you have a slope and erosion problems, but don't put them in your garden beds because eventually all you'll have is ivy.

[Gnome]

Wyoming Gardener,

I agree with bullthistle, be careful where you plant this. I have some of this in a bed that has two other beds as neighbors, the house as a third side and concrete stairs as the fourth. Even though it is relatively contained it is a yearly task to keep it from the adjacent beds. The side with the stairs is pretty easy to maintain, whatever hangs over gets cut off. But the side next to the house is a problem. I have to trim it at least once a year. It evens tries to grow under the vinyl siding.

Choose a location where it is confined and prune it yearly and it is manageable if a bit aggressive. Oh, and don't let it get into your lawn.

Norm

[tomf]

This plant is an invasive one and in Oregon is on the list of bad plants. Do not plant it kill it, kill it now it is a tree killer and it will take over and kill other plants. Bad plant bad bad bad plant. You should see some of the distruction it has done and the work it takes to save the trees it is killing.