NOT Heavenly Bamboo!!!!!

Question

This plant is an invasive from Asia. Please don’t have it listed on your website as having ‘many uses’. It spreads by rhizomes, seeds and suckers. The US Dept of Agriculture has classified it as an invasive plant. Cedar Waxwings will eat the berries and die of cyanide poisoning. The whole plant is poisonous.

Please remove the article: Nandina Plant Pruning: Tips For Cutting Back Heavenly Bamboo Shrubs By: Teo Spengler

and Growing Heavenly Bamboo – Tips On Caring For Heavenly Bamboo
By Becca Badgett, Co-author of How to Grow an EMERGENCY Garden

Instead, post an article about Alternatives to Heavenly Bamboo

Answer 1

Thank you for sharing your concerns. I will forward your comment to the editor. I was concerned about the cedar waxwings and checked our wildlife attracting articles to make sure we didn't include nandina in the lists and I didn't see it. Upon further research I saw that cedar waxwings fall victim because of their habit of gorging on the berries they eat. Other birds don't eat so many at one time so are not bothered by the berries. And fortunately nandina is not a favorite of cedar waxwings and they only eat it if nothing else is available.
I did see in our article about nandina to remove the berries to prevent the indiscriminate seeding but that will also prevent animals from getting to the berries.
I had several nandinas at my previous home and liked them because they would grow in dry shade. I didn't know then about the cedar waxwing issue or I would have removed the berries, but fortunately nothing ever ate the berries during the winter and I ended up removing them in spring.
Thank you again for your comments.