Euonymus alatus Fire Ball Seedless™
Burning bushes (Euonymus alatus) are glorious in their fall finery, but their tiny seeds are spread far and wide by birds and other herbivores.
Thanks to their robust, versatile nature, these plants have earned themselves a spot on many invasive and nuisance species lists.
If you love the look of burning bushes but can’t bring yourself to grow something that’s potentially invasive, brace yourself, because there’s a seedless option now!
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Called Fire Ball Seedless™, or more officially, ‘NCEA1,’ this sterile cultivar doesn’t produce seeds.
This means you can grow it to your heart’s content, safe in the knowledge that you’re not going to upset any native ecosystems.
In our guide to growing burning bushes, we cover how to cultivate E. alatus in your landscape.
If you’re interested in growing this new sterile cultivar, we’ll help you make it happen by going over the following:
Euonymus alatus, also called winged burning bush, winged euonymus, and burning bush, grows indigenously in China.
Thanks to its fiery fall foliage, it quickly became popular in Europe and the United States, where it arrived in the 1860s.
Right away, this species started causing trouble. It spread into woodlands, roadsides, and fields.
If the species is banned in your area, as it is in states like Massachusetts and New Hampshire, you won’t be able to grow Fire Ball Seedless™ even though it isn’t invasive.
But you can bring it to the attention of your local government or agricultural leaders and see if they’d consider making an exception in the future.
For now, this seedless option is perfect for areas where the plant is legal but there’s concern about it spreading.
It’s also a good idea to grow this cultivar if you want to be a responsible gardener who protects their local native plants, or maybe you hate the mess and look of the seeds.
Quick Look
Common name(s): Burning bush, winged euonymus, winged burning bush
Plant type: Woody deciduous shrub
Hardiness (USDA Zone): 4-8
Native to: Cultivated variety
Bloom time / season: Spring
Exposure: Full sun
Soil type: Loose, rich, well-draining
Soil pH: 6.0-7.5, slightly acidic to neutral
Time to maturity: 10 years
Mature size: 7 ft wide x 7 ft high7
Best uses: Border, fence, specimen, groups, foundation planting, mixed group
Taxonomy
Order: Celastrales
Family: Celastraceae
Genus: Euonymus
Species: Alatus
Cultivar: Fire Ball Seedless™
This non-invasive burning bush was bred by North Carolina State University’s horticulturalists Thomas Green Ranney, Darren H. Touchell, Andra Windorf Nus, Irene Palmer, and Nathan P. Lynch with the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station.
As mentioned, if this species is banned in your area, you still aren’t permitted to grow this particular cultivar.
So check with your local extension office to make sure it’s fine to keep this burning bush in your garden.
How to Grow
You can grow this plant in the same way that you do the species. It has the same light, water, and soil needs. It grows up to seven feet tall and wide – just like the species!
We’ll go over the basics here:
Light
You will have the best fall color if you plant in full sun, but this cultivar is perfectly capable of growing in any spot with two or more hours of light per day.
It will even thrive in dappled sunshine.
But I strongly suggest you grow it in full sun if you want to enjoy the best of its fall display.
Soil
Make sure the soil is rich, loose, and well-draining. If you don’t have this kind of soil naturally, you’ll need to make some amendments. A pH of 6.0 to 7.5 is ideal.
To amend your soil, all you need to do is work in some well-rotted compost. This improves sandy soil as well as clay soil. It aids drainage while helping the soil retain water.
If you have extremely heavy, poorly-draining soil, it’s probably best to grow Fire Ball Seedless™ in a container or bring in a few feet of soil and plant in an elevated garden.
Water
When your shrub is mature, it will happily live through occasional drought. In general, young plants need about an inch of water per week.
I like to use a soil moisture meter. You can just pop it in the ground and see exactly when you need to water.
Alternatively, you can check the moisture level of the soil with your finger. If it’s dry two inches down, you’ll need to add water.
Fertilizing
Fire Ball Seedless™ aren’t demanding plants. You might not need to fertilize at all, depending on the health of your existing soil.
That’s why I recommend testing your soil once every year or two. That way, you know if you need to apply an all-purpose food, a product high in nitrogen, like me, or nothing at all.
You can contact your local extension office and they’ll guide you toward the right local spot for testing. It’s usually cheap and the results are ready quickly.
Plus, your extension office will know your local conditions best, so they can provide you with specific advice.
Or you can grab a mail-in kit. These work well and generally provide quick results and advice about what amendments you need to apply.
Where to Buy
Fire Ball Seedless™ hit the market for the first time in the 2025 growing season, so it’s not widely popular just yet.
But I imagine it will be appearing at more and more nurseries as gardeners find out about this non-invasive burning bush.
Fire Ball Seedless™
If you want to get your hands on one, you can find shrubs available in a variety of sizes at Fast Growing Trees.
Maintenance
You don’t actually need to prune burning bushes, but you can do so if you want to provide some shape.
Just avoid cutting any large branches, because these can take a long time to regrow. Sometimes it’s necessary, but you might have a bare spot for a while.
You should always remove dead, broken, or diseased branches as you see them.
These plants typically have a big burst of growth in the spring and then grow more slowly the rest of the year, except winter. The best time to prune is in the spring.
Despite its lack of seeds, this plant can still spread, it just can’t jump to the neighbor’s yard and beyond. But it has strong roots and will produce suckers.
Cut any of those down to the ground if you want to prevent it from spreading.
Propagation
You can’t propagate Fire Ball Seedless™ by any method.
Obviously, it can’t be propagated from seed, but you can’t even take a cutting from a friend’s plant because this particular cultivar has been patented.
That means it’s illegal to reproduce it in any way without permission by the plant patent owner, which is North Carolina State University in North Carolina.
Your only option is to purchase a plant for transplanting into your garden.
Remember that when mature, the plant can reach up to seven feet tall and wide. Give it the space it needs to spread out.
To plant, dig a hole twice as wide and a few inches deeper than the growing pot.
Remove the plant from its pot and gently loosen up the roots. Place the root ball in the hole with the roots spread out.
Backfill with soil, tamping it down as you go.
The plant should be sitting at the same depth it was when growing in the pot.
Water well and add more soil if it settles too much.
Managing Pests and Disease
If you keep your plants well-spaced and put them in the right spot to begin with, it’s unlikely that you’ll have to deal with any pests or disease issues.
As with many species that are potentially invasive, Fire Ball Seedless™is one tough plant.
You can check out our guide for details on the few diseases and pests that might trouble you if your plant is stressed for whatever reason.
All the Color, None of the Invasiveness
How exciting that we have this new burning bush option on the market, right? We can finally grow burning bushes without the fear that they will do harm to the wider environment.
All the pretty foliage, none of the spreading seeds.
Are you growing burning bush? Are you sick of the messy seeds? Want to be a better steward of the environment? Let us know in the comments section below!
If you’re curious to learn more about plants in the Euonymus genus, check out these guides next: