Multiflora rose

Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

Arizona Mountains forests

Atlantic coastal pine barrens

Blue Mountains forests

Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

Central Tallgrass prairie

Central-Southern Cascades Forests

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

14 ft

Habit

Dense, thicket-forming deciduous shrub of long, arching, sprawling or climbing green canes armed with stout, curved prickles; it spreads by seed, by cane tips that root where they touch the ground, and by root suckers

Care tips

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Do not plant it, and check your state invasive list: Connecticut prohibits it, Wisconsin restricts it, and several other states list it as a noxious weed.

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Learn the fringed stipules at the base of each leaf, which NC State Extension and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources both give as the way to tell it from native roses.

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Pull or dig seedlings while they are small and take the whole root: the USDA Forest Service FEIS review says any root left behind suckers back.

Lifecycle

Planting

Do not plant it. Connecticut prohibits it by statute, Wisconsin classifies it as Restricted, and the USDA Forest Service FEIS review lists it as a noxious weed in Wisconsin, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, among other state listings; NC State Extension asks gardeners to choose a native alternative. Where it already grows, NC State says it takes full sun to partial shade and survives in shady forest. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says it tolerates many soils and does best in well-drained soil, the Flora of North America notes that it thrived in the more acidic soils east of the Rocky Mountains, and the FEIS review says it is not found in standing water or extremely dry sites.

Transplanting

Never move it to a new place. To remove it, the USDA Forest Service FEIS review says the whole root system must come out or it suckers back, and it recommends cutting or mowing an established stand 3 to 6 times a year for 2 to 4 years, or treating cut stems with herbicide; browsing goats also help. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources gives the same mowing schedule. Wear heavy gloves: the prickles are stout and hooked.

Early growth

Young plants grow fast. NC State Extension rates its growth as rapid and its maintenance as high, and says it leafs out earlier in spring than native plants. The USDA Forest Service FEIS review says that mowing once a year can stop seedlings from becoming established, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources suggests pulling or digging young plants.

Maturity

NC State Extension gives 10 to 15 feet tall and 14 to 15 feet wide, the size used here, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 10 to 15 feet tall and 9 to 13 feet wide. The USDA Forest Service FEIS review gives bushes 6 to 10 feet tall, occasionally 15 feet, canes up to 13 feet long and clumps up to 33 feet across. The Flora of North America gives stems 4.9 to 9.8 feet long, rarely to 33 feet; the RHS 13 to 26 feet tall and 8.2 to 13.1 feet wide, as a rambler that can scramble into a tree; and Plants For A Future up to 16 feet. It is highly susceptible to rose rosette disease: the FEIS review says the disease is carried by a tiny eriophyid mite, usually kills smaller plants within 2 to 3 years of the first symptoms while larger ones may survive 4 to 5 years, and, based on field experiments, could eliminate over 90 percent of multiflora rose in dense stands. The RHS lists aphids, sawflies and leaf-cutter bees among its pests and black spot, rust and powdery mildew among its diseases.

Propagation

Do not propagate it. The USDA Forest Service FEIS review says one plant can produce up to 500,000 seeds a year, that the seeds can stay viable in the soil for 10 to 20 years, that birds and mammals carry some of them away, and that it also spreads by root suckers and by layering. Trees and Shrubs Online notes that its lower branches root where they rest on loose soil and that it grows from cuttings with the greatest ease, and the Flora of North America says it has long been a major rootstock for budded roses worldwide.

Native range

Climate notes

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Plants For A Future lists multiflora rose for USDA hardiness zones 4 to 8, the range used here. NC State Extension's profile states no zone range, so no second organisation confirms it and the zones rest on Plants For A Future alone. The RHS rates it H6, hardy in all of the UK and northern Europe, -4°F to 5°F.

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The native range here is taken from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), the dataset POWO publishes: Japan, Korea, north-central, south-central and southeastern China, and the eastern Himalaya.

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WCVP records it as introduced in 74 areas: across eastern and central North America from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario south to Florida and Texas and west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, on the West Coast in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California, and in southeastern Mexico and Guatemala; in Europe from Great Britain, Ireland, Spain and France to the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Greece, and on Madeira, the Canary Islands and in Morocco; in India, Assam, Pakistan, the western Himalaya, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; in New Zealand and southern Argentina; and on the Gulf of Guinea and Gilbert Islands.

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Where it is listed as invasive: the Connecticut Invasive Plant List, updated in October 2024, names it as prohibited by statute, and Wisconsin classifies it as Restricted. The USDA Forest Service FEIS review (2002) records it as a noxious weed in Wisconsin, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, a secondary noxious weed in Iowa, a county-level noxious weed in Kansas, a regulated plant in Ohio and South Dakota, a nuisance weed in Maryland and Wisconsin, and a Category II invasive in Vermont. USDA PLANTS carries noxious and invasive statuses for it, NC State Extension notes that the NC Invasive Plant Council lists it, and the Flora of North America cites a 2006 USDA Forest Service report that it had become a major conservation issue in 31 states.

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The USDA Forest Service FEIS review says it colonizes roadsides, old fields, pastures, prairies, savannas, open woodlands and forest edges, and can move into gaps in mature forest after disturbance, though it is likely to be shaded out there. In pastures it degrades forage, blocks access with impenetrable thickets, and can cause severe eye and skin irritation in cattle.

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Sources differ on bloom time: the FEIS review says late April through June depending on location, the Flora of North America April to June, NC State Extension late spring to early summer (April to June), the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources mid to late spring, and Plants For A Future June to July. The FEIS review says the hips develop by late summer and often stay on the plant until spring.

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Corylus americana

American hazelnut

A rounded, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub native across eastern and central North America, grown for its edible nuts and its season-opening catkins. Showy 2-3 inch yellowish-brown male catkins dangle from bare branches in early spring before the ovate, double-toothed leaves emerge; small egg-shaped edible nuts ripen inside leafy husks by mid- to late summer. Easygoing in average soil and tolerant of clay and black walnut, it suckers into thickets that screen and shelter wildlife.

A small native tree with white spring flowers, edible summer berries, and copper to red fall color.

Amelanchier canadensis

Canadian serviceberry

Chocolate vine is a vigorous, twining woody climber native to China, Japan, and Korea, producing clusters of spice-scented purple-maroon flowers in spring and large sausage-shaped fruits in autumn. It adapts readily to most well-drained soils in sun or part-shade and covers structures fast, making it a striking focal-point plant for walls, fences, and pergolas. The honest catch is its invasive potential: it smothers native shrubs and trees by blocking sunlight and is listed as invasive across much of the US East Coast and the Pacific Northwest, so it must not be planted where it can escape into natural areas, and annual hard pruning is essential to keep it under control.

A suckering, thicket-forming native cherry that reads as a large shrub or small tree across most of North America. Fragrant white flowers open in elongated drooping racemes in spring, followed by dense pendulous clusters of pea-sized cherries that ripen red to dark purple-black in late summer. The astringent fruit is technically edible after processing, and the plant is a workhorse for wildlife - feeding birds and mammals and hosting sphinx-moth larvae.

The common wild rose of European hedgerows: a big, arching, prickly shrub with scented pale pink or white single flowers in early summer and oval red hips in autumn. It is the rootstock most garden roses are budded onto. Outside its home range it escapes: Flora of North America records it in disturbed ground scattered across Canada and the United States, and it is naturalised in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. In North America a native wild rose is the better choice for a wild hedge.

English holly is a slow-growing evergreen shrub or small tree native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, prized for its glossy spiny foliage and brilliant red winter berries. It tolerates shade, tolerates clay and acidic soils, and is remarkably long-lived, making it a stalwart structural plant for hedging and screening. The honest catch is its dioecy: you need at least one male plant nearby for female plants to berry, and those berries - the plant's most celebrated feature - are toxic to humans and pets, so any planting within reach of children requires clear awareness. In the Pacific Northwest and parts of coastal western North America it has proven seriously invasive, outcompeting native forest understory; gardeners in those regions should choose a sterile cultivar or a native substitute.