For thickets my go-to in spring and summer has always been a mix of triclopyr/2-4d and a surfactant...according to my notes (haven't sprayed this in quite a while) I was doing 4 oz triclopyr, 5 oz 2-4d and 0.66 oz "Top Surf" Surfactant per gallon. Once you get into autumn a 2.5% solution of glyphosate + surfactant seems to work just as well but its cheaper. I've shied away from spot spraying because I always get collateral damage no matter how careful I am. Now I either mow or treat stumps if there is anything of value in the vicinity. Last fall I bought a quart of Milestone to treat creeping charlie and crownvetch, and for the heck of it showered a wall of buckthorn on the property line with it...Almost immediately the leaves began to shrivel... so far it doesn't appear to be budding but I'm not ready to draw any conclusions yet. Would be a nice alternative since Milestone supposedly doesn't affect grasses but is also residual. It appears to be expensive but each quart makes over 200 gallons of spray (you have to use a syringe to measure accurately)

I love that one, Marigold! I am planning on adding more this spring and will look for that one. Mt. Cuba Center has a huge study on Echinacea with ratings in various categories. I only have the purple coneflowers at the moment. Mt Cuba Echinacea This is the little summary they give for the Green Jewel: "Echinacea purpurea ‘Green Jewel’ was discovered by Piet Oudolf and introduced by Future Plants in the Netherlands. ‘Green Jewel’ is unique in that it was the only Echinacea with pure green flowers in our trial. It displayed a double row of horizontally held light green ray petals surrounding a dark green cone. As the flowers age the petals wash out and appear more white than green. Yellowing foliage, a potential symptom of aster yellows, was observed in this cultivar as well as damage from eriophyid mites in the center of the cones."

I just bought one and was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about it. Does it come back true to color in following years? does it reseed and spread? Do birds like it?

zone is a bit vague.. how about big city names.... the change of the seasons is triggered by changing light levels.. plants slow down if not go dormant.. due to such.. its normal... dormant plants do not need a lot of light ... like the leafless plum tree .... and winter plants need very little.. presuming they are in slow motion ... i suspect you dont have anything to worry about.. based on light levels alone... most things that enjoy heat of the day shade ... it is a watering issue.. lacking water during the hottest part of the day... and hence the shade helps... all that said.. i dont know san jose.. and if the above changes due to san jose ... ken