Maintaining Wild Tip
by Besa Schweitzer, chapter member
Winter is a good time to scout out evergreen invasive plants for treatment like wintercreeper.
Wintercreeper, Euonymus fortunei, is easy to spot in the winter with its evergreen leaves. Wintercreeper likes to climb up tree trunks and then set fruit.
The first phase of wintercreeper attack should always be to get it out of the trees to prevent it from spreading to nearby natural areas. The vine can be cut at the base of the tree and allowed to die naturally.
Pulling the vine out of a tree can cause more damage to the tree by breaking limbs and pulling off bark.
Wintercreeper on the ground can be hand pulled or dug. Mowing a large patch of wintercreeper can keep it under control until there is time to kill it.
Learn more about wintercreeper on the MDC website
About our new Maintaining Wild series:
To help you keep up with your native garden care in 2026 we’re posting a maintenance tip each week on our website and on Facebook. These tips will include native garden specific tasks as well as some basic gardening advice.
A new tip will appear weekly on Facebook, on Friday at 1 pm.
To join the discussion, comment on our Facebook page.
Stay tuned for a new garden maintenance tip each week to help get you out into the garden and make 2026 a year for Maintaining Wild. Let’s have a discussion and share our knowledge!
View all tips on a single page: https://stlwildones.org/maintaining-wild-tips/
