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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

I'd heard that autumn olives were invasive, and I have certainly seen seedlings from ours.  However, it wasn't till we went over the Smokies to Virginia that we saw areas that were practically 100% autumn olive.  That's when we came home and chopped ours down.  Mind you, we have to chop them annually, I remember Hector had a heck of a time killing the ones he wanted to cull. 

    Soils and climates are different.  Charlie says that in Massachusetts apples are invasive.  Not so here, they barely survive, and sure don't reproduce much.  Pears are a different matter, and with the newer ornamental Calleryanas Tennesseans are in for an unpleasant surprise.  I may live way out in the sticks, but there have been plenty of volunteer rootstocks for me to graft my pears onto.   Donna