# Native replacements for burning bush, barberry, privet, Bradford pear and boxwood

> Which native to plant instead of burning bush, barberry, privet, Bradford pear or boxwood, why each is being replaced, and which states have banned the sale.

Published 2026-09-28. Tags: What to plant, Forests & habitat. By Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear/

Each of the five was planted for one job, and a native shrub or small tree does each job. Red chokeberry turns as bright a red in fall as burning bush, and northern bayberry makes the low hedge barberry made. Arrowwood viburnum holds a hedge where privet stood, serviceberry blooms white in early spring like the Bradford pear, and mountain laurel stays green where boxwood grew. Birds carry the seed of the first four into woods and fields, and several states have outlawed their sale. Boxwood does not escape, but a fungal blight and an imported moth are killing it.

![Row of burning bush shrubs in blazing crimson fall color on a mulched bed beside a lawn and a road](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear-1-1000.jpg?v=28a360d3 "Burning bush in crimson fall color along Old Ox Road in Sterling, Virginia, on November 8, 2020. Birds spread its seed into nearby woods, where it thrives in deep shade.")
*Photo: Famartin, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A2020-11-08_10_43_32_Several_Euonymus_alatus_in_autumn_along_Old_Ox_Road_in_the_Dulles_section_of_Sterling%2C_Loudoun_County%2C_Virginia.jpg))*

The job each was planted for, and the natives we grow that do it:

| Plant replaced | The job | Natives that do it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Burning bush | Crimson fall leaves | [Red chokeberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/red-chokeberry/index.html.md), [black chokeberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-chokeberry/index.html.md), [Virginia sweetspire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-sweetspire/index.html.md); [strawberry bush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/strawberry-bush/index.html.md) for fruit |
| Japanese barberry | A low, dense shrub deer pass by | [Northern bayberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-bayberry/index.html.md), [fragrant sumac](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/fragrant-sumac/index.html.md); [winterberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/winterberry/index.html.md) for winter berries |
| Privet | A sheared hedge | [Arrowwood viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/arrowwood-viburnum/index.html.md), [American hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-hornbeam/index.html.md); [yaupon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/yaupon/index.html.md) and [Walter's viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/walter-viburnum/index.html.md) where winters are mild |
| Bradford pear | White spring blossoms on a small tree | [Downy serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/downy-serviceberry/index.html.md), [American plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-plum/index.html.md), [white fringetree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/white-fringetree/index.html.md), [blackhaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/blackhaw/index.html.md), [flowering dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/flowering-dogwood/index.html.md) |
| Boxwood | A small evergreen | [Mountain laurel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mountain-laurel/index.html.md), [Canada yew](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/canada-yew/index.html.md); [Florida anise](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-anise/index.html.md) and yaupon where winters are mild |

Blue Whale Trees grows every native in the table from seed.

## Burning bush: crimson leaves in fall

Burning bush was planted for its fall color, when its leaves turn brilliant crimson on a shrub up to 15 feet tall. Birds carry off its fruit, and it thrives in deep shade, which is how it spreads into woods near the yards where it grows.

Red chokeberry is the nearest match, turning as bright a red as burning bush on an upright shrub of 6 to 12 feet that takes wet ground. Black chokeberry, at 3 to 6 feet, has some of the best red fall color of any shrub, on ground from a dry ridge to a wet ditch. Virginia sweetspire turns red, orange and gold and often holds its leaves into early winter, in wet ground and shade.

Black chokeberry and sweetspire color best with some sun, and deer damage red chokeberry readily. For burning bush's fruit, its native cousin strawberry bush splits warty crimson capsules in fall to show orange-red seeds, but deer seek it out.

## Japanese barberry: a low shrub that deer pass by

Japanese barberry was planted as a dense, spiny hedge that rarely passes 4 feet, with green, red or purple leaves and red berries all winter. Deer do not eat it, which is why it was planted and why it takes over woods where deer eat the native shrubs. Its low cover holds steady, humid air that ticks favor, and it shelters the white-footed mice that carry Lyme disease. A multi-year study in Connecticut counted the infected ticks:

> "When we measure the presence of ticks carrying the Lyme spirochete we find 120 infected ticks where Barberry is not contained, 40 ticks per acre where Barberry is contained, and only 10 infected ticks where there is no Barberry." (University of Maryland Extension, *Invasives in Your Woodland: Japanese Barberry*)

Northern bayberry and fragrant sumac do the job, and deer mostly pass both by. Bayberry makes a hedge 5 to 7 feet tall on sand, clay or a salted roadside, and fragrant sumac stays 2 to 6 feet on a dry bank. For red winter berries, female winterberries hold theirs on bare stems into spring, on a taller shrub of 6 to 12 feet for wet, acid ground.

None has spines, and none is deer-proof, so cage young plants where deer are many. Even [the natives deer usually leave alone](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-shrubs-and-trees-deer-leave-alone/index.html.md) need a cage while young. A low, dense native can shelter ticks as well, as lowbush blueberry does.

## Privet: a hedge sheared to any shape

Privet takes shearing well, which made it a hedge and topiary plant, and its dense branches screen a view. It grows in any soil, wet or dry, in sun or shade, and deer do not feed on it. Most privets drop their leaves late in a northern fall, and some stay evergreen where winters are warm. Birds sow its blue-black fruit into woods, where it leafs out early and shades out what grows there.

The natives that hold a hedge, by where they grow:

- **Arrowwood viburnum** for sun or shade and dry or wet ground, 6 feet apart, with white flowers in May and June and fat blue-black fruit that migrating birds take first. Zones 2 to 8, 5 to 10 feet.
- **American hornbeam** for shade and damp ground, a small tree that takes clipping but grows slowly at first. Zones 3 to 9, 20 to 35 feet.
- **Yaupon** where winters are mild, an evergreen holly that stays dense if sheared every year. Zones 7 to 9, 10 to 25 feet.
- **Walter's viburnum**, also for mild winters, which keeps its leaves in a mild winter and takes shearing. Zones 7 to 10, 10 to 20 feet.

Deer browse the first three, and the two northern plants drop their leaves. Arrowwood forms next year's flowers on old wood, so shear it right after bloom. Spacing for each kind of hedge is in [native hedges, screens and windbreaks](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-hedges-screens-and-windbreaks/index.html.md).

## Bradford pear: white blossoms on a small tree

Bradford is a [cultivar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/glossary/index.html.md) of Callery pear, [planted along streets](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-street-trees/index.html.md) and in yards since the 1960s for white flowers in early spring, before the leaves, on a teardrop crown up to 40 feet tall. The cultivars were bred to set no seed, but pollen from one to another makes seed that grows, and birds spread the fruit. Wild Callery pears now form thorny thickets in meadows, along roadsides and at forest edges. Bradford trees split under their own weight after 15 to 20 years, the fault [trees not to plant near a house](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-not-to-plant-near-a-house/index.html.md) covers.

Serviceberry is the straight swap, and the rest suit other ground:

- **Downy serviceberry** for average soil, white in March and April, then June fruit. Zones 4 to 9, 15 to 25 feet.
- **American plum** for fast growth on wet or dry ground, fragrant and white in April and May. Zones 3 to 8, 15 to 25 feet.
- **White fringetree** for wet ground, white in May. Zones 4 to 9, 12 to 20 feet.
- **Blackhaw** for dry ground and shade, white in May and June. Zones 3 to 9, 12 to 15 feet.
- **Flowering dogwood** for part shade, white in April. Zones 5 to 9, 15 to 30 feet.

![Serviceberry covered in white blossoms at a meadow edge, with green pines and bare shrubs behind it](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear-2-1000.jpg?v=4672e599 "A serviceberry in bloom at a meadow's edge in Bald Eagle State Forest, Pennsylvania, on May 5, 2013. Serviceberry is among the natives suggested in place of Callery pear.")
*Photo: Nicholas A. Tonelli, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APine_Swamp_(4)_(8718598891).jpg))*

None reaches the pear's 40 feet, which suits a small yard. Only the plum grows fast, and it suckers into a thorny thicket, so give it 15 feet from paths and buildings and plant two for fruit.

## Boxwood: the one that does not escape

Boxwood is a different case. No boxwood is native to continental North America, and it does not grow wild here, so it is not being replaced as an invader. Two imported pests are killing it. Boxwood blight, a fungus first reported in the United States in 2011 and now in most eastern states, strips the leaves from the bottom up, sometimes in weeks:

> "Infected boxwoods will die. Larger shrubs may take longer to die, but will decline to the point where they no longer have any ornamental value as landscape plants." (The Morton Arboretum, *Boxwood Blight*)

Its spores last five years in the soil, and fungicides only prevent it. The box tree moth, whose caterpillars eat only boxwood and can kill whole plantings, reached New York in 2021 and Pennsylvania by 2024.

![Boxwood with a patch of bare, leafless gray stems among its green leaves and fallen oak leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear-3-1000.jpg?v=0a115b6a "Boxwood blight in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 16, 2021. The disease strips the leaves from the bottom of the plant upward.")
*Photo: Matt Borden, [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABoxwood_blight_-_51938014467.jpg))*

No native we grow matches boxwood on every count. Mountain laurel is evergreen and deer usually pass it by, but most grow 6 to 10 feet and it fails in clay. Canada yew stays 3 to 6 feet in shade and takes clipping, but deer browse it hard enough to kill it. Florida anise, in zones 6 to 10, is an evergreen for shade that deer usually leave alone. [Inkberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/inkberry/index.html.md) is a native evergreen holly whose dwarf cultivars make good boxwood alternatives.

## Where the sale is banned

Several eastern states ban the sale of four of the five, from dates set in state lists, some still ahead:

| State | Burning bush | Japanese barberry | Privet | Callery pear |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Connecticut | October 2028 | October 2028 | Border privet now; European privet October 2028 | October 1, 2027 |
| Maine | January 1, 2018 | January 1, 2018 | Common privet 2018; border privet 2024 | January 1, 2024 |
| Ohio | Not listed | Not listed | Common privet January 1, 2026 | January 7, 2023 |
| Pennsylvania | Banned | Banned, except a few seedless cultivars | Four species, January 10, 2025 | Banned |

Pennsylvania's list gives no start date for burning bush, barberry or Callery pear. South Carolina's ban on Callery pear began on October 1, 2024. Maine's Do Not Sell list covers every cultivar of a listed plant, while Pennsylvania lets a few seedless barberries be sold. None of the four lists in the table names boxwood, and neither Ohio nor Pennsylvania requires removing a Callery pear already planted.

## Taking out the old plant and choosing the new one

How to take out the old plant is the subject of [invasive vines and shrubs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md). Then choose the new one by the job the old one did, in the tree finder:

- **Crimson fall leaves:** [shrubs with fall color](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/?size=shrub&want=fall-color).
- **A hedge or screen:** [plants for screening](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/?want=screening).
- **White spring flowers:** [small flowering trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/?size=small-tree&want=flowers).
- **An evergreen:** [evergreen shrubs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/?size=shrub&want=evergreen).

Add your zone, sun and soil moisture to narrow the list to your ground.

## Common questions

### What can I plant instead of burning bush?

Red chokeberry turns as bright a red as burning bush in fall, and black chokeberry and Virginia sweetspire turn red on smaller shrubs, best with some sun.

### What is the best native alternative to a Bradford pear?

Downy serviceberry, which flowers white in March and April, stops at 15 to 25 feet and bears fruit in June.

### What should I replace barberry bushes with?

Northern bayberry or fragrant sumac, low shrubs deer mostly pass by, or winterberry for red winter berries on wet ground. Cage them while young, since deer browse each of them in some places.

### What is a native alternative to boxwood?

Mountain laurel or Canada yew in the North, and Florida anise or yaupon where winters are mild. Inkberry holly is another.

## Sources

- [Burning Bush](https://extension.psu.edu/burning-bush): Penn State Extension, with the pages Japanese Barberry, Callery Pear, The Invasive and Noxious Privet and Pennsylvania's Newest Noxious Weeds: burning bush's color, height, birds and shade, barberry's size, spines, leaf colors, berries and ticks, Callery pear's crossing cultivars, crown, flowers and invaded ground, privet's shearing, soils and fruit, the natives offered for Callery pear, and the Pennsylvania privet ban.
- [Invasives in Your Woodland: Japanese Barberry](https://extension.umd.edu/resource/invasives-your-woodland-japanese-barberry): University of Maryland Extension (Andrew Kling, 2022): barberry chosen because deer do not eat it, which lets it outcompete native shrubs, the humid air under it, and the Connecticut tick counts quoted.
- [Boxwood Blight](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/tree-plant-care/plant-care-resources/boxwood-blight/): The Morton Arboretum: the blight's first report in 2011 and its spread through most eastern states, leaves lost from the bottom up within weeks, the quotation on dying shrubs, spores that last five years in soil, and fungicides that only prevent it.
- [Box Tree Moth](https://extension.psu.edu/box-tree-moth): Penn State Extension (Michael J. Skvarla, 2026): no boxwood native to continental North America or wild here, caterpillars that eat only boxwood and kill plantings, and the moth's spread from New York in 2021 to Pennsylvania in 2024.
- [Callery Pear](https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/plants/callery-pear): USDA National Invasive Species Information Center: thorny thickets, Bradford trees that split under their own weight after 15 to 20 years, South Carolina's sale ban from October 1, 2024, and no requirement in Ohio to remove existing trees.
- [Ilex glabra](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ilex-glabra/): North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, NC State Extension: inkberry as a native broadleaf evergreen holly, with dwarf cultivars named as good boxwood alternatives.
- [Connecticut Invasive Plant List](https://cipwg.uconn.edu/invasive_plant_list/): Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group, University of Connecticut: sale bans on Callery pear from October 1, 2027 and on burning bush, Japanese barberry and European privet from October 2028, with border privet already banned, under Public Act No. 24-11.
- [Invasive Plants](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/horticulture/invasiveplants.shtml): Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Horticulture Program: the Do Not Sell list, with barberry, burning bush and common privet from January 1, 2018, border privet and Callery pear from January 1, 2024, and every cultivar of a listed plant included.
- [Rule 901:5-30-01, Invasive plant species](https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-901:5-30-01): Ohio Administrative Code: the sale of Callery pear barred from January 7, 2023 and of common privet from January 1, 2026, with burning bush and Japanese barberry not on the list.
- [Controlled Plant and Noxious Weed Lists](https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pda/plants-land-water/plant-industry/noxious-weeds-and-controlled-plants/controlled-plant-noxious-weed-lists): Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture: burning bush, Japanese barberry, Callery pear and four privets as noxious weeds that cannot be sold, and barberry's exempted cultivars.