Here, I reveal five plants with thorns and spines to avoid in family gardens, including some unusual native trees and shrubs. So, if you are wondering about the prickly shrubs and trees to avoid ...

The plant, also called a Chinese wolfberry, grows sprawlingly into a thorny thicket peppered year-round by small, red-orange berries that look like oblong grapes. “They fruit very young.

The thorns on pyracantha make it a good shrub for bird nesting, as the armament deters cats and humans who might be intent on finding a way through the thicket of branches. But the shrub is out-done ...

Q: Three years ago we bought a tree at a farmers market called a Devil’s Thorn Tree. It was about 2 feet tall and covered in thorns — the leaves, branches and bark all have thorns. It has ...

The Osage orange hedge row tree, once a favorite of American settlers, deserves a look from modern-day homesteaders looking for fencing options.

The safety goggles feel like overkill. Then I reach out and try to pick one of the bright orange berries on the thicket of sea buckthorn. There’s a two-inch syringe-sharp thorn to get past.

Mountain ash, or rowan, trees have ornamental value, with berries that appeal to birds as well.

Hawthorn berries provide birds with winter food and the seeds are dispersed by the birds in other locales. Best known is the jelly or wine that can be made from the haws.

I was cutting some bright orange and red berries in our woods the other day to use as outdoor decorations. They are so pretty yet natural in a graceful display. I placed them in a big pot filled ...

One of the most noticeable plants in San Antonio winter landscapes is pyracantha. The red and orange berries are showy from now until late winter when the birds will eat them.

Petals are star-shaped, creamy-white and very fragrant hence the trees are planted in gardens, temples and along roadsides. Fruits are fleshy, edible and single-seeded berries that grow 3 cm long.