I cut out a ton of blackberry, climbing roses and thistle
today. Can I just throw it on my mulch pile? I usually throw it on the
burn pile but was wondering if the thorny things mulch down well.
Lisa in Ca.
everything rots/composts eveentually ...just need some greens to help it out
Probably the thorns willll be the last things to go.
Behalf Of ljmccrea
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 7:41 AM
To: OGL@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: ROSE BUSH, BLACKBERRY AND THISTLE
I cut out a ton of blackberry, climbing roses and thistle
today. Can I just throw it on my mulch pile? I usually throw it on the
burn pile but was wondering if the thorny things mulch down well.
Lisa in Ca.
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I hesitate to put blackberries in mulch or compost
because I worry that they will take root.
=====
Merry Luskin, Oakland CA
Reference librarian and handspinner
Weeder, Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://lii.org
__________________________________________________
Arghhhh, I hadn't thought about that!!! Thanks for everyone's
help!!
lisa in Ca.
> I cut out a ton of blackberry, climbing roses and thistle
> today. Can I just throw it on my mulch pile? I usually throw it on the
> burn pile but was wondering if the thorny things mulch down well.
> Lisa in Ca.
Blackberry will soften, so that the thorns don't hurt if you bury them, in soil or in the compost heap. I found out accidentally, as I have piles and piles of blackberry pruned, which I had no idea what to do with. Thistle I would throw in the garbage and roses are like blackberries.
(My own real thistles go in a black garbage bag along with buttercups, docks, nettles and other stuff).
Carol
Carol Jensen wrote:
Carol
Do you find any tendency for your blackberry vines to re-root and grow?
They seem all too easy to propagate, so i just wondered.
Two spiky things I have found whose prickles last awfully well are holly
and Mahonia leaves. Just try sometime weeding in a bed where these
leaves commonly drop
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata - at the Southern tip of North Island, NZ,
Lat 41??15'S, Long 174??58'E (Antipodes of Spain/Southern France)
> Arghhhh, I hadn't thought about that!!! Thanks for everyone's
> help!!
I've composted lots of aggressive blackberry briars, and they haven't
taken root. I think it depends on how rotty and hotty your compost is.
I am pretty lazy about blackberries. They don't need cutting down in fall, as their old shoots die out. These I take out or not, as I don't usually have gloves on. Anyway, I donu't actually do very much pruning of living vines. My daughter does that and they go into a pile right where they are cut - and don't root.
It is, I think the edges of the fruit-bearing vines that bend over in fall and grow roots, giving us poor gardeners a million new blackberry plants each spring. The rest of the vines don't root at tall.
Roses are something else again - they will root just about anywhere under soil, right??? I'm thinking about the in situ method with a hairpin.
Carol
Carol Jensen wrote:
> Roses are something else again - they will root just about anywhere under soil, right??? I'm thinking about the in situ method with a hairpin.
Carol
What you are describing is layering, whee as you say a stem is bent down
and partly buried withiout being cut off from the parent plant until it
has rooted. This is a marvellous way of reproducing many plants which do
not root easily from ordinary cuttings. I use it for instance on
creeping heathers and also on thyme bushes in the herb garden, and for
miscellaneous small shrubs around the garden.
While quite a few roses do root easily from detached cuttings, I doubt
most of them would do it from bits cut off and buried in a compost heap
so I think the roses buts would be safeand it looks from your experience
as if the balckberries would mostly be too.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata - at the Southern tip of North Island, NZ,
Lat 41??15'S, Long 174??58'E (Antipodes of Spain/Southern France)
Yes, blackberries root only at the tip! And there are two types of stems =
and therefore two types of tip, and only one will send out roots. So what=
ever you cut will mostly be bare stem and thorns and okay.
Right now, clearing a big bit of the north forty, I find loads and loads =
of blackberry that has lain on the ground for two years or so, and, while=
the stalk still is woody, the thorns no longer "bite". So I am putting s=
ome blackberry in the compost now, making sure it will be completely cove=
red.
Carol
