Be Careful What You Rescue

A few years ago we found a climbing rose deep in our woods wrapping itself around a big sweet gum tree.  We trimmed it back and transplanted it to a spot in our yard.  It covers itself with beautiful, white, flat roses for a couple of weeks in the spring.

Turns out, though, that this thing is called multiflora rosa.  It was imported from Japan many years ago as an erosion control plant, but is now considered a pest weed and is very invasive.  The big bush below is our current dilemma.  While the flowers are beautiful for the short time they last, the thing is getting way out of hand.  It's already two feet into the driveway, and headed toward the house back behind it.  I think we're going to chop it down and dig up the roots and hope the little rose hip seeds haven't taken hold.  Roundup works, supposedly, but kills other stuff you get it on.  There's no grass growing under this thing to worry about, though.