Favorite Fiery Red Burning Bush Now Available Without Seeds So It's Non-Invasive
Across the street, my neighbor’s euonymus, about five feet tall and four feet wide, has turned ruby red. It is gorgeous. If you look for euonymus to buy, however you find warnings that , that it is seriously invasive. Alas!
But wait, a new variety to the rescue!
Released last year from Dr. Thomas Ranney and colleagues in North Carolina is Euonymus Fire Ball Seedless. Responding to the weed problems from euonymus, they bred one that produces no seeds.
Euonymus alatus is called burning bush for the dramatic red it turns in the fall. Other common names you might know it by include winged euonymus, spindletree, hearts-a-bustin’, strawberry bush, and wahoo. Native to eastern Asia, Euonymus alatus was brought to the United States in the 1860s, valued then as now for its nice shape and bright fall colors. Furthermore, its fruits attract lots of birds. Unfortunately, the birds carried the seeds from gardens into surrounding forests, where they germinated and spread. Today we have dense stands of euonymus that crowd out native plants. Meanwhile the popularity of euonymus in gardens soared, increasing the rate of escape.
The new variety Euonymus Fire Ball Seedless has a genetic defect in seed production that makes it sterile. The pretty flowers fail to produce seeds. The breeders carefully and repeatedly developed and selected for both non-invasiveness and landscape merit. Euonymus Fire Ball Seedless has been bred, tested, and retested, for sterility and for attractiveness equal to current, fertile varieties.
Standard euonymus varieties mature easily a thousand fertile seeds each, every year of their substantial lifetimes. Multiply that by the number of euonymus plants in any large neighborhood to imagine the scope of the problem. Euonymus Fire Ball Seedless will send no seeds into the environment. Offering a sterile variety is a significant improvement to the problem of invading euonymus, although it cannot call back the wild populations or remove existing plantings of fertile euonymus.
Breeders everywhere are hearing the concerns about invasive garden plants and looking for sterile mutants. Examples of invasive garden plants that are now available as sterile varieties are Proven Winner releases Buddleia (butterfly bush) varieties ‘Buddleia Miss Molly’ and ‘Buddleia Lo & Behold Purple Haze’), Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry) varieties ‘Berberis Sunjoy Orange Pillar’ and ‘Berberis Sunjoy Sequins’, and catmint (Nepeta xfaassenii) varieties Nepeta ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ Catmint and Nepeta ‘Purrsian Blue’ Catmint. In coming years you can expect sterile options for many other beloved garden plants that have proved invasive.
Euonymus is not overly weedy everywhere. In my Colorado garden I have never seen seedlings. My garden is dry, and plants, including euonymus, grow slowly. In contrast, several New England states, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and, in 2025 Pennsylvania, and Delaware, at least, have banned all sales of Euonymus alatus—it is that serious a weed problem. In many other states, it is a plant of concern, on the noxious weed watch list. Thus, Euonymus Fire Ball Seedless is a solution to a significant problem. States that banned euonymus sales will decide in the next year or two whether to make an exception for Euonymus Fire Ball Seedless. Across North America, this sterile new variety of this gorgeous plant is very good news.
While traditional varieties of Burning Bush are known for producing seeds that can spread aggressively, the Euonymus Fire Ball Seedless eliminates that concern and helps to preserve local ecosystems by preventing the spread of unwanted seedlings.
