Georgia Bully

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like our gum bumelia, about a foot and a half a year. Most plants are spindly shrubs up to 8 feet, but some grow into many-branched small trees of 20 feet. Its leaves are half an inch to nearly 3 inches long, with patches of tawny or rusty hairs beneath, and they drop in late winter just before the new ones open.

Clusters of small, mildly fragrant white flowers open in May and June on short spur shoots, and many kinds of insects visit them. The fruit ripens from August into October, a round black berry about a third of an inch across. Animals eat the fruit and spread the seeds.

It grows in forested limestone sinks, swamps and floodplains where the soil stays wet for long spells after rain. About 40 wild populations are known, most of them in Georgia. NatureServe ranks it vulnerable, and ditching, draining and clearcutting of its wetlands are the main threats.

How to grow Georgia Bully

Georgia bully grows in part shade or shade, like the understory of the wet woods it comes from. It wants a moist to wet soil, neutral to slightly alkaline, that is often soaked but not flooded for long. Set plants 8 feet apart and keep them 8 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Sow it as gum bumelia is sown. Clean the seed from fruit picked as soon as it turns black, and chill it damp in the refrigerator for 60 days. Sow it in spring under a light cover of soil.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays damp. Deer browse some wild stands hard, so cage young plants where deer are common. Wear gloves when you prune, since the branches carry thorns.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and most buckthorns can pollinate themselves, so a single plant can set fruit. The larvae of the bumelia borer, a longhorn beetle, can tunnel into the base of buckthorn stems.