I think I'd try digging first, that's pretty close to "good" plants. If you get a hole dug and still see root in it, then I'd do some boiling water, just right in the hole, slowly, steadily. You don't want to cook the other plants.

Well If you have other roots appearing in the cup I would let it just air prune themselves off over time. If you know you have roots down lower it is not that big of a deal. I had the same problem with a Black Weeping. Roots appearing over soil line with no other visible roots. I added soil mounted up near the roots and a week later I saw the roots exploding all over the inside of the cup. I had no success with the baggie method, so I started mine in water and only got the white fuzzy, styrofoam looking pre-cursors to roots. Now I have roots. Look at this way, you have the best of both worlds going- Roots AND Leaves. ___________ Dominick- MA

I missed that you had come back with a reply, Coach! It sounds like you have some species of Asclepias! One of the common names is butterfly weed, and people pay money for the stuff you're trying to get rid of! Like dandelions, the seeds "float" in the air, and my guess is that some neighbor pretty close has one/some they're cultivating to attract butterflies! The most common species is A. incarnata--but I really have no way to know if that's the species that's showing up in your yard or not. Some info at the link below if you're interested in more! In terms of getting rid of it, I recommend Weed-B-Gon. You can use that in the grass--it kills only broad leaf plants, and you can use it where there is no grass too. From my experience it works better than Roundup, and it's what I use anywhere I need an herbicide these days--works quite well at getting rid of cottonwood and aspen suckers in the grass! As far as I know all, or at least most, milkweeds have taproots, so the sooner you get rid of them the easier it will be. If you decide to try to pull them, you'll need to get all of the root out or they'll come back from anything you leave behind! If you have a place where you want to grow some to attract butterflies (it's also a host plant for the caterpillars), you can just deadhead the flowers before any seeds form to help keep them from "filling up your yard!" Can't help with "the neighbor" if I'm right that that's where the seeds are coming from! Skybird P.S. The "plant" you were getting into as a kid was most likely dandelions! Here is a link that might be useful: Asclepias incarnata

I've got volunteer periwinkles from about three years ago that grew before I turned the spot into a vegetable garden. Every year I see a couple new seedlings pop up. I also have a volunteer dill from last year's seed. It came up in the middle of the beet patch and I'm just letting it grow. My Swamp Milkweed that I planted last year dropped some seeds (I was careful to harvest pods before they burst open, but I still missed a few). I've got lots of milkweed volunteers coming up all over the place. So far, I haven't got a tomato volunteer yet. And on the subject of Santa grape tomatoes - if they still have them at our grocery store, I may have to try saving some seeds and growing them out sometime. Sounds interesting.