Congratulations! You did it. It takes time to figure out their system but once learned, you'll never forget. Alabama, I've been looking at photos and reading articles about the longleaf pine ecosystem. I'm sorry but one question always leads to another. These articles stress the importance of fire to reduce competition and maintain the ecosystem. Our forester said the forestry dept burned an area where they are growing longleaf seedlings last spring - they lost more than 20%. He wasn't sure why -- maybe the temperature was too hot or it was too late in the season and the seedlings were in active growth. Question #1: If I keep vegetation down until the seedlings are out of the grass stage, do I need to burn longleaf pine areas? I have no experience doing this. I've seen photos of the longleaf wiregrass ecosystem - the only vegetation beneath the trees is the grass so it creates a savannah. I've read that if hardwoods or other pines get started, they will eventually crowd out the longleaf pines. If that's the that case, it seems that fire will be necessary. Maybe by the time I need to do this and need advice, the foresters will have more experience. ;-) Question #2: Are you familiar with the Joseph Jones Ecological Research Center in Ichauway in SW GA? It looks like a big research center and an nteresting place to visit. They have a longleaf pine management and restoration project and several others. While they have "landowner field days" for private landowners and managers in the area, I didn't see any indication that they allow people in to look around. Happy New Year! Pam

Be sure to do your homework on the silverado sage. There's a dwarf cenizo that will probably work a lot better with the height you want. I saw another plant at the Texas Discovery Gardens that looks a lot like dwarf cenizo, but it's called shadscale. I haven't found it in any of the nurseries around here, but I sure do like how low it grows, and the wood gets twisty and thick sort of like driftwood. Here's a picture I found online: http://www.suu.edu/faculty/martin/shadscale/shadscaleplant.JPG I love flame acanthus - it's one of my favorite plants. But mine has spread all over the place, not in any uniform fashion. If they all grow this way, I think it would take up too much space in an easement. Cynthia - Mine just started blooming last week, too. It needed to dry out and have some good hot weather. The hummingbirds are all over it. Jupiter's beard would be nice with all the plants you're considering. It's not much in winter, but it sort of spreads around and pops up mixed in with the other plants - not in an invasive sort of way. http://www.allisonvillenursery.com/pictures/guide/misc/jupitersbeard.jpg

the only "common" herbicide that can behave that way is imazapyr (i.e. move from roots to adjacent roots) I've done something similar many times with poison ivy or other vines with either glyphosate or triclopyr (or 3 way) and the non-target species were fine. Once I just painted a huge, hairy 4" PI trunk with 3 way mixed with a bit of dish soap, and it died completely. This was after chainsawing the top of it while wearing a full respirator and eye protection. (with the chain motion spinning away, of course) I then cleaned the chain by rinsing some LV naphtha over it, into my home heating oil tank! Where the concentrated uroshiol all got burned, I hope...anyhow I never got any form of the rash or lung irritation. There's one mistake to your approach. 1/2 minute could work with the right herbicide and surfactant, but much better is to weigh down a container and stick the main stem in there for a full 24 hours. Or if you worry about leaving it overnight because of some miscreant coming by and knocking it over, at least a few hours while you are on-site. This summer I killed some horrid Smilax vines by dipping the overturned stems in a test tube of conc. 41% roundup during a dry spell, and taping it back to the base of the vine. Because it was dry they drank it all up overnight.

I'm beginning to worry about the future of this forum. No one has even noticed yet that the OP (original poster - usa94941) is talking about something called roundup EXTENDED. That product is not just glyphosate. It also has imazapic, which is obviously chemically related related to imazapyr. Applying to latter to a plant root zone would be an incredibly bad idea, and any imazapyr label warns one about this. It *can* move through the roots and kill the plants, although how well it does this depends on a lot of variables. Applied only to the top of a plant, it can even more down into the roots of one, and translocate into the roots of nearby plants. As for whether imazapic causes similar problems...well I would check the product label first, but I suspect it recommends that you do not apply to the root zone of other, desired plants. (CYA seeming to be the modus operandi of American retail product vendors) Did the OP read the full label before posting here? That should be a requirement for any product related question. Rhizo: in many years of spraying PLAIN roundup/glyphosate near but not on other plants, including their root zones, I can safely say I've never seen it move through roots in the way you presume to warn us about. I actually think it could happen, but only if you apply a huge dose like pouring a pint of concentrate directly on a plant root zone, and/or a regular dose at some ridiculous frequency like once a day for a month. Nobody in their right mind is going to do that, and again, the label directions, if followed, would keep you from doing that. There are other agents that are far more insidious in that regard. Imazapyr, obviously, and also the esters or amines of triclopyr. (chlopyralid is even worse, fortunately it is only found in professional products, where reading the label is pretty much a legal requirement for the applicators) I have huge problems with tree seedings; anything will germinate in my soil including yews, spruces, and hemlocks. (meaning if even those good, desirable plants germinate, every single seed of some junk species like silver maple will germinate upon landing!) It happens on a cycle though, so unless you need your garden to look like Longwood, you really only need two applications. One in late spring/early summer, and one in late summer/early fall...to catch all of the seedlings. Why doesn't the OP just buy a gallon of a cheap, generic plain glyphosate 41% concentrate...and spray twice a year?