Are these weeds?

Are the long stalks here weeds? Can't seem to find out but they look intrusive. Just moved in and the house had gorgeous flower beds. Don't want to pick the wrong thing! Thanks in advance!

looks like virginia creeper - non native invasive.

Five shiny leaves--it's Virginia creeper. You can pull it out, but be careful.  Wear gloves.  Some people get a rash from it.

We have it in our garden, too. Very, very invasive. I'm fortunate not to react to it and can pull it up without gloves. That stuff just grows up around every thing near it and twists around their branches and stems. At least it isn't too difficult to pull up long vines of it.

That doesn't look anything like the virgina creeper my mother has in her yard.  The long upright stalks seem odd.

Pretty good idea to remove anything viney. I overlooked some form of Bittersweet and I now found it strangling small trees. It actually is embedded in the trunks.

I also had Wisteria kill Japanese Holly and it started to work on my Magnolia. Say could that be Porcelain Berry? If so its gorgeous in the fall and easier to remove.

Morganna said:

Pretty good idea to remove anything viney. I overlooked some form of Bittersweet and I now found it strangling small trees. It actually is embedded in the trunks.

I also had Wisteria kill Japanese Holly and it started to work on my Magnolia. Say could that be Porcelain Berry? If so its gorgeous in the fall and easier to remove.

I wanted to buy a wisteria and the man at the nursery refused to sell me one.  In my defense, I knew they are invasive and wanted to put it on a freestanding pergola, but he still insisted that it would end up taking over my house and pulling the siding off and that I would hate him for it.

spontaneous said:

Morganna said:

Pretty good idea to remove anything viney. I overlooked some form of Bittersweet and I now found it strangling small trees. It actually is embedded in the trunks.

I also had Wisteria kill Japanese Holly and it started to work on my Magnolia. Say could that be Porcelain Berry? If so its gorgeous in the fall and easier to remove.

I wanted to buy a wisteria and the man at the nursery refused to sell me one.  In my defense, I knew they are invasive and wanted to put it on a freestanding pergola, but he still insisted that it would end up taking over my house and pulling the siding off and that I would hate him for it.

If you have another place to put it, you are welcome to take some cuttings from mine. It is growing close to its original spot. I have been lucky, my house is still standing!

Thanks all!

spontaneous said:

Morganna said:

Pretty good idea to remove anything viney. I overlooked some form of Bittersweet and I now found it strangling small trees. It actually is embedded in the trunks.

I also had Wisteria kill Japanese Holly and it started to work on my Magnolia. Say could that be Porcelain Berry? If so its gorgeous in the fall and easier to remove.

I wanted to buy a wisteria and the man at the nursery refused to sell me one.  In my defense, I knew they are invasive and wanted to put it on a freestanding pergola, but he still insisted that it would end up taking over my house and pulling the siding off and that I would hate him for it.

ha! But he still has it in stock? So who does he sell it to? To those he dislikes and hates?

Morganna said:

spontaneous said:

Morganna said:

Pretty good idea to remove anything viney. I overlooked some form of Bittersweet and I now found it strangling small trees. It actually is embedded in the trunks.

I also had Wisteria kill Japanese Holly and it started to work on my Magnolia. Say could that be Porcelain Berry? If so its gorgeous in the fall and easier to remove.

I wanted to buy a wisteria and the man at the nursery refused to sell me one.  In my defense, I knew they are invasive and wanted to put it on a freestanding pergola, but he still insisted that it would end up taking over my house and pulling the siding off and that I would hate him for it.

If you have another place to put it, you are welcome to take some cuttings from mine. It is growing close to its original spot. I have been lucky, my house is still standing!

That was years ago, before kids.  

The pergola, being very solidly built, has now been turned into a makeshift jungle gym.  We threw up some plywood on one end and attached rock grips.  We hung an Ikea indoor/outdoor swing to the other end.  And we now have a cargo rope ladder thingy that we are going to attach to the one side.  Before anyone freaks about me destroying it, it wasn't a very nice looking pergola, it was a very utilitarian looking one but it was built out of 5x5 posts (I thought they were 4x4 until I actually measured them) and it is very sturdy.  

Years ago my plan was to put a wisteria on it and make a little patio underneath, but as is right now the kids have used it 10x as much as we ever would have.  Once they're grown we will probably remove all the extras and try the patio idea again, if it is still sturdy at that point.

There is native wisteria that is non-invasive. 

spontaneous said:

That doesn't look anything like the virgina creeper my mother has in her yard.  The long upright stalks seem odd.

I take back what I wrote. I went and looked at my mother's Virginia creeper and it actually does have upright runners that can easily look like stalks, and look exactly like what is in the picture. I had just never noticed them before. 

dg64 said:

There is native wisteria that is non-invasive. 

We have two of them. The American wisteria also grows at half the rate of the Asian variety.