desert dance, I would just plant the roses amongst the other things and cut back the stuff around the roses if it is overpowering the roses. That is the simplist, most practical approach and look a lot better than bare dirt around your roses. I think you'll find it works very well. Most of mine are just planted in the lawn, i made a few raised beds in areas that flood in the spring, i even planted one rose in an onion patch that i pruned a few tree seedlings down, but it seems to love the onions and tree seedlings!

Well, there is no space between. These things are invasive! The huge ornamental grass + the heavenly? (devil) bamboo. How do I get rid of this bad stuff?

Roundup or brush killer. It will do the trick. You might have to apply more than once, but it will kill anything green. Then, plant your roses in the spring. Denise

Agree with cutting back, and using roundup. You may need to spray multiple times. If the grass is real big, I would probably use Brush killer.If it is dead, the roots will eventually decompose. Hopefully there is room to plant your desirables.

Hire someone to dig them out properly. If you don't have a couple of neighbor kids, then go to your local labor pool, employment office, or community college, or even call in a landscape maintenance company. The amount of round-up it will take to do the job is not good for the environment, will be almost as expensive as the labor, and you will still be left with the roots, which will take considerable time to decompose and probably only after they have resprouted here and there. Do it right the first time.

Like catsrose said, just hire someone to dig the stuff out if you don't want to do it yourself. Even if you kill it with roundup, you'll still have to dig it out.

Thanks for the advice! I'm listening!! Why do they do this? They put plants that do NOT give back one thing and just cause headaches in your yard. I'm talking about the dreaded landscapers!! I will get rid of the stuff because if my head wants to do a thing, I will accomplish it. Hiring someone is sounding good!! Thanks!!

It's called low-maintenance landscaping. "They" do it because in our world of a million labor-saving devices, everyone works too much to garden.

yes, your best option is to get someone else to dig them out. heavenly bamboo puts out horrendous roots. Well, they're great, if you want it to take care of itself - very drought tolerant. But to garden around it, or get rid of it, it might as well be actual bamboo, not just a loolalike.

The ornamental grass might be pampas grass, which is impossible to garden around, or a Miscanthus, which is almost as bad, just as big and greedy tho not saw-bladed like the pampas grass. The huge roots on all these plants make them excellent for low-maintenance gardening as they take care of themselves just fine. But, they're very difficult to get rid of, and no you cannot just plant around them.

Next best if you can't get someone to dig them out, is to cut them back and spray the stumps with Roundup. they will keep resprouting for some time and you'll want to Roundup the resprouts as well. Brushkiller will work on the heavenly bamboo but not on the grass, whatever it is. The ground will still be full of roots when you do this though, leaving no room for the roses.

This was also posted to the ornamental grass forum, with pictures. While I'm not at all familiar with tender grasses, what it looks like to me is pennisetum. In other words, digging out these grasses is going to require a smaller hole than most roses will want as a planting hole.

So yes, you can hire somebody to dig them out, but will also have to hire that somebody to plant the roses, and perhaps care for the roses?

This may sound a little strange, but around here and also other places I've heard of, like in the Los Angeles area, there are herds of goats you can rent, and they will eat their way through practically anything, and you have some free fertilizer to boot. You can then put heavy black plastic down to decompose what's left and have lovely dark soil by spring.

I know, sounds too good to be true, and where do you find those goats? We actually have two goat herds further down our road, but of course we live in the country.

Ingrid

Desert, I think you have some good suggestions.
Ingrid, I find your info. so amusing and interesting. Wonder how that works as far as eating the right stuff.

Carla

Carla, from what I understand they don't eat the right stuff. They eat EVERYTHING! You only rent the goats if you want your landscape to have a buzz cut.

Ingrid

I ran into that problem while I was living in Port St Lucie, Fl (10 yrs). I had invasive grass. The root system went down over a foot into the soil. If you left one little bit of root in the ground anywhere, it came back. I didn't know this when I put in my garden. used a sod cutter set at 9". Surly that would be deep enough to take care of any problems. Plus I tilled the bottom part another 6" to 8" and added all my good compost and soil. WRONG!! My garden looked great for two yrs. Then the grass started to show up. And it came back with a vengence. I fought with this stuff for several years. Then two hurricanes showed up within a couple of weeks from each other. They litterly wiped out 95% of my back yard garden. When I replanted I tried somethig different. I planted my roses in nursery pots sunk into the ground with about 4" of the top above ground level. I used 25 gal pots for my large roses and 10 gal pot for my minis. At first I thought it would look tacky. But when the grass filled in around everything, it looked great. It was easy to maintain. Cut the grass with a lawn mower and use a weed wacker to clean up around the pots. Plus my roses loved it. I grew the best roses I've ever grown and they were easy to take care of. AND, I was able to walk around in my garden in my bare feet. Loved my rose garden again. Had about 80 bushs of all kinds with about 1/3 HT's. Now that I just moved into a new house I'll be doing about the same thing.

Wow!! Rent a Goat!! This is sounding good!! Also sinking pots sounds good!! These are all good ideas. I still like the idea of smothering with black plastic laced with round-up, but I don't want the round up to kill my rosies!!

Your best bet is to hire someone to dig out and remove what you don't want. The invasive stuff will most likely need brush killer and/or roundup on it, perhaps more than once. I like to garden organically, but sometimes you have to resort to chemicals for the invasives. Just be sure to follow the directions carefully. If used properly, and minimally, they should do no long term damage to your soil.

Make sure the stuff is really dead before you plant your roses, or you'll be battling it forever, and it will choke out your roses. Remove as many of the roots as you can in the planting area, so that the roses have a clear spot to get established. The larger roots outside of the planting area will eventually rot away. In the meantime, keep the roses going in pots.

Been there, done that. If I ever build another home, I will NOT let anyone else do my landscaping!

Sandy

Thanks for the advice Sandy! I'll do the pot thing until I'm sure all the bad stuff is dead!

I vote with those who suggest hiring someone to dig up the unwanted plants, then spray the little shoots that come up with Roundup. I would keep my roses in pots until you are confident that the invasive plants are gone. If you don't, they will intertwine themselves with your roses and you will never get them out.