The fruit on pyracantha ferments and gets the robins tipsy. Fun plant to have.

Fireblight can be a problem. I saw a lot of plants die a number of years ago in the Dallas area but prob there are more resistant varieties now.

well let me chime in with a hymn to pyracantha. Alongside cotoneaster, it is one of the most versatile and useful plants we can grow. Its evergreen foliage is neat and glossy and its berries persist long into winter. It can be grown as a wall shrub, espaliered on posts and wire or as a specimen planting. It is a great barrier against human or animal intruders but a secure home to any number of little birds and insects. It is tough and reliable - it can be trimmed with hedge-cutters. Finally, in the deep winter, what could be more cheering than green leaves and red (or orange, yellow, cream) berries. What's not to like?

If you use round-up you may have trouble establishing pyracantha in the same soil.

Thank you, Henry. I will be very careful, then about applying the round-up. And all the above reasons are why I chose pyracantha, except I'm just going to let it grow wild. I am hoping it will compete--and win--against the multiflora. I do know about the fermenting berries. We had a pyracantha around my parents' yard and the robins would get drunk and the cats--whom we restrained indoors--would go ballistic watching them tottering around.

I like pyracantha, but if you plan to let it grow wild, you should be aware of its thorniness and that it is a bit shabby growing all directions if left unpruned. here it is reasonably popular plant and sometimes it gets abandoned - not exactly very attractive sight, as you get a lot of lanky and rather bare branches shootings 2 meters up and to the sides.

Also as with all evergreens in colder winter there might be some frost/spring sunburn damage if the conditions are not right.

um, yes, it does grow rampantly with long branches sticking straight out in every direction. Once this happens, it is an absolute nightmare, trying to cut back the exuberant growth. Perhaps you could mitigate some of the thorniness by adding in other flowering shrubs such as guelder rose (viburnum opulus), various cotoneasters, elder, hawthorn, blackthorn, dogwoods. We would call this a native tapestry hedge here in the UK - there is nothing finer for wildlife. It will also form impenetrable barriers and may interrupt the flight paths of the RRD mite.

Well, every plant has its issues. What I like is that Catsrose is replacing the multiflora with something for the animals that had been living there, thinking about what would be a good replacement. I think that's great.

oh, absolutely. When we take possession of a garden space, we surely must provide for the other residents in our little eco-system. You will be rewarded, Catsrose, with a flourishing Eden of plants and animals working in harmony. What could be nicer.

Of course every plant has its issues, but that's also why those mixed hedges as campanula suggested are so great - you do not have a single point of failure (be that RRD, frost, overly rampant thorniness and so on).

I love pyracanta. It is a magnet for birds. I did have it against a wall, but it grew free otherwise, and from my experience, I suspect it would be an excellent competitor for the multiflora.

It is always a pretty shrub, but the thorns are fierce. Those thorns don't bother the wildlife.

A flock of cedar waxwings stripping berries is a beautiful thing to see.
kay

There are different varieties of pyracantha. I have been trying to learn which are which, because I have the sprawly type with clumpy berries and I want the cascading spray type with small cherry-like berries all up and down the branches. There are a few ancient shrubs in my neighborhood of the type that cascades, and it is truly spectacular in spring when it flowers. Mine is okay, but needs to be pruned to look decent and the flowers are not as abundant or showy. I believe I have pyracantha coccinea and that I want a different variety, but the images on google just have not been enough for me to identify it. It may be a firethorn from India or Nepal that is so graceful, but I'm still researching.
Renee

Here is a link that might be useful: 2 different Pyracantha photos on my street

I am not sure which one is cascading one, but you can rather easily multiply it by cuttings, at least the normal one roots really easily.

I have a pyrocanthia. I paid $5 for a one gallon pot and after about 2 years it covered the fence. I do take out a large branch or 2 each year. It would make an impressive barrier. I've never seen any staggering robins. The mockingbirds do love the berries.