Sandy said:

Hi folks,

I have a gardenia bush that was "taken over" by a delicate thorny fern I
can't identify. It is very bright lime'ish green with soft "bristle"
type leaves that grow out from the slender shoots in all directions. (I
assume it's a fern but don't actually know.) The "bristle" leaves are
less than in inch in length. The shoots grow tiny but very sharp thorns.
I was doing some weeding around my gardenia bush and wanted to take this
fern out (which came from 'nowhere') because it seemed to be growing out
of the very root ball of the gardenia. When I cut back the shoots (some
of them a few feet long) and got pliers to try to pull each shoot out by
the root, but they just break off at the base of the gardenia, which has
a V-shaped branch configuration at the root ball. This fern seems to be
imbedded in that V. I can't distinguish it's root ball from the base of
the gardenia.

Anyone know what this plant is, or how to get rid of it? Thanks so much
for any info!

Sounds like /Asparagus densiflorus/.

--
Eggs

-A comfortable falsehood will always win out over an uncomfortable truth.