I just wanted to post that I was out at the National Arboretum a few weeks ago. The large Q. acutas looked like they sustained some damage from teh past winter. Some twig and a few branches died back. Sad to see. But they will certainly survive. The Q. salicina looked like it had NO damage at all surprisingly. I have never seen acorns on them. Interestingly the Q. phillyreoides had some acorns. No apparent dieback. They all looked rather shrubby to me and not large single trunked trees. L. henyri and Q. myrsinifolias looked just fine. Q. glauca specimens at the Arboretum have all had a rough go of it over the years. Numerous diebacks. Pretty pathetic. They should really not be grown up here. But maybe they got some northern provenance stock that they wanted to try. I didn't see where they were from. Unrelated, but all the hollies looked great. Even Ilex latifolia. The Ilex latifolia in my yard looks great as well. No apparent winter damage. A small amount of leaf spot but overall I was very pleased. This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 10:33

And you can do yourself a favor by getting a shovel out right now. Those woody vines tend to have roots that run all over the place and if you can pull out a five foot section of it, that's more you won't need to worry about and it's also rewarding in a personal way because you're destroying your enemy! I have a similar plant here that comes in from my neighbor's yard and it pops up randomly. This year I just ripped out the roots wherever they lead and it turned out they'd made a network all over the place. Your landscaper was an idiot for telling you additional dirt would smother it. The only kind of weed that you kill with plastic or dirt like that are things like dandelions - superficial weeds. Woody plants are entirely different. But because they store nutrients in their roots for the winter, applying Roundup or whatever now is most effective.

like this one? * Posted by aliska12000 5a (My Page) on Wed, Jul 30, 08 at 23:12 catsrose, CA has paved millions of acres for millions of resource-devouring cars I have given that subject much contemplation, it has greatly angered me at times, even now in Iowa, parts of CA and huge megapolises are a total turnoff to me because of the labyrinthe of freeways, and so wished we didn't have so many fatal accidents, especially since we had one main shopping area, downtown, then malls became so popular. Those huge parking lots paved over with concrete or asphalt and so much driving to get anywhere now because it's all spread out and much of it major ugly imo only, now much abandoned and left urban decay behind because business would be better somewhere else, plus most or all of it can be expensed off of income for business. But I'm not against all corporations because I don't perceive everything as corporate greed or evil, some, yes. But with all due respect, I believe banning personal ownership of cars is too extreme. I don't feel like I hog more than my share of the world's resources with my old, small car which I drive very seldom. I cherish the right to own one car at a time of my own and love the freedom it gives me even though I'm aware of the risks and downside. What I cherish for myself, I could not be complicit in imposing on others (sure feel like it sometimes with crooks, drug runners, speeders, drunk drivers, maniacs on the roads and too many semis and large vehicles now). The interstate system was supposed to be safer we were told, and indeed it seemed to be in the beginning, liked the older roads but felt safer on the uglier, not-very-scenic interstates and freeways. Not any more. The little people would be the first to lose their rights and not only if cars were banned.

I tried one in Galveston years ago. It did come up but quickly died off. It might not have liked the salt air there. Plus I was a novice gardener back then, no internet back then, and knew nothing about peonies, other than they are gorgeous flowers. I'm sure I did everything wrong for it. I'm in Temple now and may try them again, as the man across the street from us at my last home in this city grows them in his amazing rose garden. The roses completely fill his terraced front yard! Last month we drove by his place and his roses were spectacular, as always, but what appeared to be peonies were nearly 3' tall planted in all the open spaces of his rose garden. They were simply gorgeous!