We have these huge (and I mean HUGE - 6-8 ft. tall and some are 6 ft across) wild rose bushes growing in our pasture. There are probably 40 of these bushes all over the place. There is a very old fence on the ground we need to clear out under some. In other places it is growing against a fence we need to take down and repair. Other places it is just in the middle of the pasture.

We have tried to cut them down, but they are too massive, all the branches are tangled togehter, and way TOO prickery! We have terrible cuts on our arms and legs trying to cut them. They are multipling and sending up new plants. The newer ones we were able to mow down but just come right back up. We have been tempted to try buring but they are everywhere and don't want to burn the entire pasture (it is really good grass). Any advice surely would be appreciated!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), April 25, 2002

Answers

Chain saw, then salt. It worked for our wild rose bushes.

-- shakeytails in KY (shakeytails@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

Get a long chain or piece of cable and rip them out. Use double strength Roundup on the new ones, it is a life long battle.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), April 25, 2002.

The only thought going through my head..Is why on EARTH would you want to get rid of them!! Then again...I live on sandy soil, and the thought of one wild rose bush would be ....a dream!

Good Luck...if I were closer, I'd dig them up for you and bring them here :)

-- Aimee (aimeegosse@hotmail.com), April 25, 2002.

I bet goats would take care of all of the little stuff, and make the larger stuff more accesible (eat up to a certain hieght). - borrow someones herd for a few weeks!

-- Chenoa (ganter@primus.ca), April 25, 2002.

If they are multiflora rose bushes... I pity you! They were brought here (US) to create living fences, but got out of control and now they are just a nuisance!!!

We had some here as big as a house when we first bought the place. Cale crawled under them and cut them off with a chainsaw. You can pull them out, but then you are left with a crater that needs filled in!!!! They will continue to grow, so you have to mow them off at least twice a year. We weed-eat around our fence line at least a few times a year to keep them from taking over. They say goats like to eat them so if you have goats it may help keep them from taking over once you get rid of the big ones...

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 25, 2002.

Goats!

-- CJ (sheep@katahdins.net), April 25, 2002.

I have a old 5 ft Bush Hog. (3 point hitch) I took the back wheel off and raise it as high as it will go. Back it over the bushes and set it down on them. Once I get them down that far I mow them about once a month. after about 2 years thay give up.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), April 25, 2002.

Yes, a life long battle if it is the multiflora........we struggle constantly with them. I have a pair of long handled clippers that I start clipping with until we can get to the main stalk. Roundup does work, but needs to be used over and over to finally kill them all the way and I don't like that cause everything around them dies also. Another thing that works is to cut and cut and pile all the cut stuff on where it is growing and set the whole thing on fire. Look out cause the fire is really hot, but it does seem to really kill it.

My goats eat it from their area when it is tender and young.....but don't go near it when it is big. I guess that is why it was advertised as the "living hedge" back 45 or 50 years ago. What a bummer!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

We also have very large wild roses that a previous owner had planted as a fence for his dog! They have spread all over the place and are a real pain. We hired a guy with a bush hog to cut them down. The thorns were so bad that they actually punctured the tire on his tractor. He got rid of the huge tangles but the stumps keep threatening to overtake everything again with new growth. Will goats really take care of them? We just got four little bucklings and that would be a great added benefit of having these guys.

-- Jan (FourWindsFarm97@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

We just got rid of the same thing you have - about 40 feet of them, too. Just sawed, clipped, and pulled for several weedends. The roots are a real pain, and they will probably keep coming up unless totally torn out...next to impossible. Getting rid of these things added a nice little chunk to our land. And got rid of these crazy bushes which were literally life threatening when the little kids walked by them...

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

Are all you folk organic purists? Why does no one suggest spraying? I grew up among rose hedges, and even today I like the blooms in spring but would not tolerate one on the place.

Multiflora roses are really quite tender--Remedy or Crossbow will kill them.

The Brushhog thing works too, but you have to work at it, and even then the roots will sprout just as do locust trees. Mac

-- Jimmy S (Macrocarpus@gbronline.com), April 25, 2002.

I'm not using spray because I have laying hens and ducks and I don't want to kill them along with the roses. I'm also having problems trying to get rid of wild rhubarb(poisonous to goats?). Any ideas? While I'm at it, I have a huge choke cherry to get rid of. After cutting it down are there any easy ways to deal with the stump?

-- Jan (FourWindsFarm97@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

I cheated. The county came along with a backhoe and grader and cleaned out the ditch and culvert, after a truck broke thru the culvert under the road. Mulitflora roses along the ditch went bye-bye also in the general cleanup in setting a new culvert.

Otherwise, bushhog, chainsaw and repeated dosing with Roundup will off the nasty things. DO NOT do what some stupid relation tried in the 60's . Don't try to blow them up as multifloras spread even worse.

-- Sara in IN (urthmomma@aol.com), April 25, 2002.

Forgot to mention, leather gloves, chaps, and a hat all help!

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 25, 2002.

I've been using an old tree pruner with a 10 foot pole on mine. Gets to the base from the outside with 90% less scratches.

-- Ron (RonRicket@aol.com), April 25, 2002.

Round up is for annuals, try Cross Bow as suggested above for the perennials. It lays the feral roses right down here along with blackberry and poison oak. Good luck, it is hard work cleaning them up after they die. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), April 25, 2002.

Dig them up and send them to Stan, he WANTS them!! On the barter board he was asking for people to send him multiflora roses. To each his own, I suppose...

-- gilly (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), April 25, 2002.

Check with your county extension agent. Some areas have funding for removal either by bulldozer, or goats.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

2,4-D brushkiller should do it. They'll be easier to pull out dead. Won't kill the grass. (Don't confuse with 2,4,5-T, which has been outlawed for years and is not the same stuff.) Salt and Roundup will kill the pasture too so a broadleaf selective herbicide is better. If you're set on organic, there is a blight that goes after multiflora (and floribunda, tea rose etc.). Maybe you could introduce this disease if you can find a sick rose plant someplace else. The disease causes a red colored witches brooming in the canes. I wish I could recall the name.

-- Susan in MO (smtroxel@nospamsocket.net), April 25, 2002.

We tried bush hogging them, chainsaw, weedeater, weedkiller, goats, and fire. We finally just moved the pasture.

-- Gayle in KY (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

The buds are probably worth a fortune for potpouri and the hips are worth another fortune in vitamin C. Good eating, split and scoop out the seeds, tuck in a rasberry and eat or steep 'em for tea. Sounds like you have more tea and fragrance than you need tho. Good luck.

-- Susan in Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), April 27, 2002.

B-in-law used his Brush Hog, then went after the root system with a plow-like blade. It's possible he had to keep that area mowed for the next season, but that's all it took. If you haven't a Brush Hog, and can't borrow one...well, enjoy the birds that live in there, I guess.

Never heard of rose hips off a multiflora. Are there any?

-- Audie (paxtours@alaska.net), April 27, 2002.

Susan........when the first ones "migrated" to our property compliments of the birds, I wouldn't let my husband cut them or spray them cause I collected the rose hips for tea etc. and made these really neat wreaths out of them that sold very well. That was a bit over 12 years ago. We now have them trying to take hold over most of our 40 acres. Yikes.........prolific things. We have two neighbors that are doing nothing about theirs and so we will be fighting them until we move or die.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 27, 2002.

if you only have one or two stumps,cut a bowl shape hole into the stump and fill it up with rock salt and water.Keep it full of both salt and water.No need to over fill it with water. Stump will take the salt down to the roots and kill it. The Farm Central Maine

-- ray (thecfarm@midmaine.com), April 27, 2002.

Rose bushes are a goats favorite food. When we bought our place we had to crawl through the woods on our bellies. Now it is clear as a bell up to about six feet high( the height they can reach standing on their back legs.) If you have alot of rose bushes you'll need more than a few goats though. If you don't want goats around all the time, you might be able to make some money and get rid of the bushes too. Buy a bunch of cheap thin goats at an auction, worm them, and turn them out to fatten up on the rose bushes. Then resell them. I wish I had a place to buy and resale salebarn culls but I don't want to bring sale barn goats home and put in with my healthy ones.

-- cindy frazee (cindy@tctc.com), April 27, 2002.