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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: gardenwriters-on-gardening <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [gwl-g] Shrubs for birds
  • Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:38:20 -0700

Title: Re: [gwl-g] Shrubs for birds
   One thing everyone seems to be overlooking is that many "bird shrubs" are, or can be, invasive weeds.  Birds feeding on fruits can be extremely efficient seed distributors.  Elderberries, for example, will start popping up everywhere, thanks to birds.  Rosa multiflora was considered a "bird shrub" until it became an invasive weed.  Here in Oregon, where hedges of it were planted down the median strips of the freeways, the highway department now spends a good amount of money mowing the plants just after bloom so they won't set fruit.  Not that it matters - the things are already out into the countryside.
   My suggestion would be to find out what NATIVE species are good bird shrubs, first.  And by that, I mean native to your area, not just an American native.
    Tom's suggestion of pineapple guava is one of the few non-natives that might be safe, for the reason he mentions - the birds don't eat the fruit itself.  
=Lon Rombough   

Out West here, in the mild winter climes, one of our best bird bushes, or
small trees, is the pineapple guava, Feijoa sellowiana. The birds don't eat
the fruit (I eat those!) but they (especially mockingbirds, western
tanagers, and orioles) love the flowers' sweet, fleshy petals. I've grown
these guavas for years and almost never see any sort of insect visiting the
flowers, and assume that it is the birds that are pollinating the plants, as
they yank on the petals, they move the pollen around.




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