Pinky's Question....Invasive Trailing Rhizome Roots!

A little while ago Pinky left me a comment on Fertilizer Friday. Today I will help her try to figure out what she can do to stop an invasive plant from taking over her garden!

Pinky has left a new comment on your post "Fertilizer Friday! Who wants to Play?": HI Tootsie! I am so glad I found your blog and I just became a "follower"! I do have one question right off the bat: we have something in our yard that a "friend?" gave me and it is HORRIBLY invasive and we want to get rid of it. It is called hootintania, I think that is how you spell it. It runs on underground roots so we have sprayed and sprayed to no avail. We even dug up an entire BIG bed, went through it by hand and THOUGHT we got it all...........we didn't. So.....any suggestions!???? I am in awe of your gardens and FLOWERS!!!!!!!! I wish so much I could come visit you to see how you do all this! Til later....hugs, Pinky PS, if I post my flowers on RMS can I link them to your blog? I do that for Susan's at Between naps on the porch. Thanks! Posted by Pinky to TOOTSIE TIME at Saturday, May 16, 2009 7:57:00 AMHi Pinky!!! I have no real visual idea of what the plant you are describing looks like...I have never heard of it...but the root system sounds like a trailing rhizome. Trailing rhizomes are common root systems to the grass family such as quack grass and the like. They are very invasive and grow at the speed of light! I would take a small sponge paint brush and a container of round up, and go to work painting the leaves on the plants that you do not want...but be careful...you don't want to get any on the plants you do want to keep. I have also heard that if you dig down and expose the roots to the hot dry summer sunshine for about a week or so, that it will kill of much of the plant. I don't have the patience for this.

If you were to try to put in a garden border to contain your "gifted" plant...you would have to put something in that runs much deeper than the root system of your problem plants. This could be hard. It also is not a guarantee that you will not have them adapt to the barrier and go underneath, or seed themselves to increase their numbers.
There are a lot of plants that are like this, that seem to have been popular at one time or another. Gout Weed, Goats Foot, Snow on the Mountain, Buck wheat, Lily of the valley etc...I just kept digging them out when they appeared and finally go them under control. It is a huge undertaking to try to get every root..I wish you luck!
As for linking to my blog....ABSOLUTELY!!! I would love that!
Have a wonderful week friend, and I hope I helped! If anyone has any other suggestions...leave them in the comment box. I am sure Pinky would love all the help she can get!