Invasive blackberry bushes

Question

I have Indian Hawthorn plants (with the white blossoms) all over my backyard. Some of them are half the size of me and I’m 5’4. In the last couple of years, I’ve started getting the blackberry bushes invading my hawthorn plants. The invasive bush is growing up from under the hawthorn through the middle and I cannot reach the area where the root of the invasive plant is coming up from the ground. I don’t want to lose my hawthorn plants but I’m so aggravated with these blackberry bushes and their thorns. What can I do to get those invasive plants out of my hawthorn without just cutting the Hawthorns down to the ground? I’m also having the same issue with what I call Torpedo grass…not sure of the correct name for it though.

Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Belinda Gomez

Answer 1

For the berry plants and the grasses, you must get down under the shrubs to cut the invasive plants at the ground, and then pull the plants out from entwinement with the desired plantings, or hire someone to do it. Trying to pull or cut or spray from above won’t work, you’ll only get pieces.

If you want to eradicate the undesirables, you will need to use an herbicide on the cut stumps. Use straight RoundUp concentrate in an ironing spray bottle or a jar with a small paint brush. As soon as the stump cut is made, spray or paint the cut surface. (Be careful not to get the material on the foliage of the desirable plants.) The herbicide will be absorbed and kill the roots.