An evergreen groundcover is like a unicorn plant: Finding one that fits your growing conditions is highly desired but hard to find. Wintercreeper fits the bill in some ways, but instead of being a unicorn, it’s more like an invading army, ready to take over everything. It grows well in a variety of conditions - full sun to full shade - and comes in multiple varieties. However, wintercreeper will quickly spread via seeds and vines, choking out native plants and trees. It climbs up trees and weighs them down and strangles them It can also take on a shrub-like form.
How to Remove Wintercreeper:
Wintercreeper can be controlled similarly to English ivy. If there’s not much of it, cut it back and hand pull the roots. Those tend to grow deeper and be harder to pull than English Ivy. For larger patches, try repeated mowing or use a chemical control method, per the label. Dispose any parts of the plant in your trash, not in your compost pile, as it can re-grow from cuttings.
At a minimum, keep it off your trees! Cut the stems near the base of the tree and let the vines die back above and fall off on their own. Don’t try to pull them off the tree, since you are likely to pull off bark with them.
Join the movement! Fairfax Tree Rescuers PRISM is a community-wide effort to save our trees from invasive plants. https://www.fairfaxprism.org/
