where to buy smilax / greenbriar
 

We're looking for smilax which have read here is also called
greenbriar. Where can we purchase bulbs?

Royce

Those who have have it would love to give it all to you but believe me you
don't want it. It is good wildlife habitat and that is about all the good I can
say about greenbriar (Smilax).

well, it is an east coast native, but not exactly what I would call a
friendly plant. Anyone who has taken a pleasant nature walk in an eastern
forest and had a tendril of smilax come swooping out of nowhere, like the
living apple trees in the wizard of oz, to scratch the living daylights out
of a face or an arm, knows exactly what I'm talking about......
That being said, the plants make a big tuber, like a potato, and it
would be an easy thing to clip off the nasty scratchy vine, and dig at the
base to get one of them to transplant into your yard.
"Christopher Green" wrote in message
om...
(Royce) wrote in message
om...
We're looking for smilax which have read here is also called
greenbriar. Where can we purchase bulbs?

Royce

Are you _quite_sure_ you want it? Roundleaf greenbrier or catbrier, S.
rotundifolia, is so invasive that many places have eradication
programs. It's not something people want taking over their garden.

See Uva et al, Weeds of the Northeast (Cornell University Press,
Ithaca, NY).

--
Chris Green

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 9:20:06 -0400, Royce wrote
We're looking for smilax which have read here is also called
greenbriar. Where can we purchase bulbs?

Smilax makes tubers, not bulbs. You can come to my place and dig all
you want. Happy to get rid of them.

The species I have are native here in Florida. (ISTR there are about
300 species worldwide.) So it's not something I rail against, just live
with. It gets in the way but knows its place too.

It can be pretty. When I was growing up, we used to cut the leaves and
berries for Christmas decorations. The rest of the year we cut it down
and dug it up. Don't have even a prayer of getting rid of it unless you
dig the tubers out.

The thorns can be nasty, but at least are not recurved like blackberry
thorns. Some species have large heavy serious thorns, but few enough
that you can find places to grasp the vine. Others are covered with a
mat of very small thorns, almost a fuzz. In general, if I have to push
my way through thorns, I'd much rather it be smilax than blackberry.

The new shoots are ... fascinating. Up to 1/2" in diameter, several
feet tall, and soft for the first month or too. Almost like a sick
asparagus. My wife and I once cut a bunch for a friend who was in
advertising and delivered them to his office, where he displayed them
to clients for several days.

Edward