I've never grown it deliberately - it disappears in the winter anyway, but it's not something I would ever allow in any garden I've done because of the toxic berries. They're not as toxic as deadly nightshade, but are still toxic nonetheless, causing convulsions and death. Have a look at Solanum 'Glasnevin' instead.

I encourage this to grow in some gardens, eg i manage a woodland type garden where i have encouraged this to scramble over mature rhododendrons, i have a mixed hedge of privet/yew and hawthorn this i allow to scramble at will, the effect in the autumn with the large hanging clumps of orange berries is breathtaking, bringing fantastic interest to the above plants etc, once the effect is over i pull away all the straggly growth that starts to look untidy,but as Bamboo mentions be aware of the berries.

Its a beautiful plant and I love it. Its very common in hedgerows but I've never noticed it spreading out beyond the hedge.

As said, it dies back in the winter and I've not found it that quick to spread.

I wouldn't worry too much about the berries. They are exceptionally bitter so you wouldn't eat them from choice.

thanks all, I think I`ll give it a go.

Well, you say that, poisongardener, but my son ate 3 when he was about 2 years old - in hospital for 5 days, drugged and tubed up... he recovered, fortunately.

What an awful experience Bamboo. So glad he recovered. I never heard of anyone who had actually tried eating them before. Its easy to imagine them appealing to a young child though, they are so beautiful.

Unfortunately, it was before I knew much about gardening - the nightshade was growing entwined with the blackberries in the garden - which, of course, we'd been picking, and I'm sure that's what he thought they were, why wouldn't he.

Bamboo, I'm glad to hear it ended well. Do you remember if he just swallowed them? It would be very surprising if a small child chewed them and didn't spit them out.

'entwined with the blackberries' explains a lot.

Exactly - I suspect he picked blackberries AND the nightshade berries together - he certainly didn't spit anything out, but he was always an adventurous child with food, liked strong tastes, so who knows. He wasn't old enough to say.