Russian Olive shrub will bring bees,butterflys,birds to your garden,
CLOSED: Russian Olive Tree-shrub
Will also invade your land, your neighbor's land and everywhere for miles around. This is a true invasive, Maineroses.
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/elgum.htm
wow I didnt know this I got it for bee butterflys birds to help pollen plants
if you are talking Eleagnus or as we call it in the nursery industry, "Ugly Agnus" it is definitely a problem in the south! Maybe it's different up in the north, many things are invasive in one part of the country and a good thing in the other
I'm certain this is considered a problem in the north and the south.
I dislike the tendency of calling anything that will spread invasive but this stuff really is like the kudzu of the shrub world. If you have any you want to get rid of, don't give them any time to grow either or you'll need a chainsaw to cut them down.
From the Maine extension office
http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/2525.htm
This message was edited Sep 18, 2006 9:48 PM
I've never seen Autumn olive before, but Russian olive is completely naturalized here. Difficult to remove, impossibly thorny, and a source of much allergy misery. I've been doing battle with one in my backyard which keeps coming up from the roots amidst my lilacs (together with a volunteer mulberry--I'm about ready to take out all of the lilacs just to get the two others out).
It's a shame, because they are beautiful trees and I've always enjoyed seeing them on the shrub-steppe.