I'm always surprised by what a little bit of sunshine does for my disposition. Although still extremely cold, it has been a sunny day and I'm in a great mood! I'm starting to think about spring. I'm looking forward to spending more time outside, doing some spring cleaning and re-engaging in my mission to eradicate the multiflora rose from every square inch of our 120 acres.About the multiflora rose...it's a non-native, invasive species of rose that was brought to the United States from Asia to be used along property lines as a sort of living fence. The thinking at the time was that it would be an inexpensive and beautiful alternative to conventional fencing. But as you might expect with anything deemed "invasive", it has gone berserk.
Bushes with long, gangly, thorny canes blanket our forest floor, especially in areas that have been disturbed by Nature or man. Single bushes easily grow to be 8 to 10 feet tall, and if growing next to a tree, individual canes can reach 20 to 30 feet into the tree canopy. The bushes make great wildlife habitat (for birds and small mammals) but displace the native vegetation and make the forest impassable by deer and humans alike. I hate that there are many places on the property where I physically cannot venture lest I'm geared up in long heavy jeans, goggles, leather gloves and machete.
Having spent hundreds of hours tangled in its canes and wrestling it into submission, I am a self-professed expert on my nemesis. I can spot it a mile away, even when it's hiding amid other similar-looking vegetation (like blackberries) and even in the winter when it is leafless. I know how it grows and spreads and can sense its presence even before I actually see it.
There are a variety of ways to kill it, none of which are inexpensive or easy work. My preferred method depends on the situation. In the spring and summer in areas where the multiflora is dense and there's no other vegetation nearby, I spray the foliage with glyphosate (a systemic herbicide that works its way down to the rhizome through the leaves of the plant), wait until the bushes die, then cut down the brittle canes a few weeks later. If the multiflora is interspersed amid other desirable trees and plants, I cut each multiflora bush at its base using clippers or a gas-powered Stihl brush cutter (the best gift I ever got), remove the canes to a brush-burning pile, and return a few weeks later to spray the budding foliage.
In the fall and winter, when all the "good" vegetation has died back and there is no foliage on the multiflora, the rose bushes really stand out. With nowhere to hide, my enemy is easy to spot and easy to get to. So from October to March, I blissfully mow the suckers down with my trusty Stihl, leave the canes where they lay to rot over the winter, then go back in spring and spray the budding foliage with the glyphosate.
Over the past couple of years, I have destroyed about 10 acres-worth of the stuff. At that rate, I've only got 22 more years to go! Hey, it's a goal.
