Python in My Garden!

Well, sort of...

It was thirty feet long, slithering along the fence.  It blended in oh-so-carefully with the color of the soil. It slithered through the fence and into the neighbors.  I grabbed it by the tail in a feat of sheer strength, agility, and bravery.  In all there were actually three of them (all 30'+), making their way quietly along the fence with similar intention to the unstoppable snakes of the movie "Anaconda!"

I clipped three fistfuls of the thing, curling its length into large loops.

Discovered while patrolling the Long Border for the perennial young thugs shoots of quack grass; I discovered the shoots of the akebia quinata a good thirty feet from the mother plant.

In its place it is a beautiful and vine. It typically mounds up on top of my fence, blocking the view from my narrow side yard to the neighbor's breakfast table, a feat a mere six foot tall fence can not accomplish. In northern Illinois it is nearly evergreen.  It laid siege to my garage there and actually came inside for the winter-- dormant and having dropped its leaves outside, while indoors in an unheated garage, it was doing its best to impart a balmy, tropical jungle effect.

In bloom, in mid-May, a couple years ago in my garden

Previously, it has tried to colonize a nearby arborvitae, but it seems to know I am wise to that plot and did not attempt that last year.  This was a new and very bold.. and a tad scary incursion.

Beware the akebia quinata coming bearing beautiful flowers!