Hi Bruce, I dont want to turn this into another cottonwood/aspen rantbut I AM going to link one of the old RMG rants! Ever since I bought this house early in 04 Ive been battling these things, and over the years Ive come up with something that seems to work, so I thought Id let you in on my experiment results! I wont repeat all the stuff I said on that thread, but, first, even if your neighbor wanted to get rid of the tree, it only makes the situation worse. Once the "parent" tree is cut down, the suckers come up with a VENGEANCE! More about that in my 06.03.05 post! In April of 07 I resurrected the thread to report that using roundup on individual cottonwood suckers had been workingbut I was also killing a ring of grass around each sucker I sprayedand it was VERY labor intensive to try to spray the suckers without killing too much grass! And there were so many aspen suckers in my front yard that I couldnt use roundup on them without killing much of the grass! In July of 07 I did one more update to let everybody know that using Weed B Gon for suckers that were coming up in the grass worked very welland it continues to do so! My Final Plan included using Weed B Gon on any suckers coming up in grass, and using roundup on the suckers that came up in my perennial beds. To do that I cut the corner off of a plastic bag, pull the sucker up into the bag, and carefully (on a windless day) spray all the foliage inside of the bag, then fold the bag over and weight it down with something so the roundup doesnt "accidentally" get on the perennialswhich are often VERY close to the sucker. Closing up the bag also seems to help by "steaming" the sucker inside of the bag. When the sucker has completely browned, I pull the bag off and cut it off at or below the soil level. Since then Ive added another step to my faux eradication Plan! Now when Im digging to plant or dig up perennials and find a root thats bigger than about a half an inch, I dig the hole as big as I want/need it and then cut the root back to the side of the hole. Then I dig a little more soil out around the root, put a small baggie (non-zipper) over the end of the root, make sure the top/opening of the baggie is higher than the bottom which is around the end of the root, and pour a small amount of roundup over the end of the root into the plastic bag. Then I pack the top of the baggie shut with some of my nice heavy clay, plant what I want there, and fill the hole completely with (improved) soil. This, I have discovered, really seems to be a death knell for that particular rootnot that there arent a million-zillion more just waiting to make an appearance! But this method has successfully done-in the bigger roots that I had been spraying and/or cutting off ever since I moved in here. In case you cant tell, I have a BAD problem with cottonwood and aspen roots! The one neighbor behind me has THREE of them that are less than a foot away from my back fence. One of them has actually started moving the fence, and that same one is moving the (two-high) railroad ties that border the perennial bed that runs the whole way along the fence. The railroad ties that have found themselves in "a very moving position" are four and a half feet inside of the fence, so about 5 feet away from the tree! Mostly Im able to cut out the roots with a limb lopper, but Ive also cut out roots that were more than 3" in diameter, and I obviously had to saw them offincluding a few that were in my "escape-proof" garden which is between the back of my shed and my side fenceand is only about 20" wide! Its always fun working in there! In April 09, after years of cutting/spraying the suckers, I decided to apply a root mitigation program in my escape-proof garden! Here are some of the roots I cut out! And heres where they were cut out ofjust before "capping" the ends of the roots with plastic bags and pouring some roundup on them, and after refilling the hole with new soil! No suckers came up from these roots for the rest of the summer! And heres a picture of what I ran into when I was "trying" to dig up my Herrenhausen ornamental oregano to take along to the swap, and another one of some of the roots I had to dig out to plant my grape vinejust one, one-gallon plant! Ok! This has turned into another rant! I think Im justified! And after all the problems Ive had with cottonwood/aspen roots for well over 15 years now, I will definitely not be planting bambooor Virginia creeper or trumpet vine or mint or yarrow or gooseneck loosestrife (I LOVE the flowers!) or Mexican evening primrose or............... End of rantfor now! Skybird

Necia, I can bring you some sedum angelina and kamtschaticum. Not sure about the pineapple mint, will have to look. I do have a ton of the Artemesia - Oriental Limelight if you would like some. I'm not sure if you have anything left for trade, would like a persian shield, but I think they have all been spoken for. If not, don't worry about it. Thanks. Hope, do you have any clammyweed left? If so, check out my trade list on Part Deux and see if anything interests you. Thanks. Barkingdogwoods, I would like one of your kerria japonica if you have any left. Do I have anything that interests you? I will have a few more plants at the swap that I don't have listed. I still have to dig and pot them up this week. Thanks. Posie4u, I do have sedums angelina and balticum for you. What do you have for trade? Thanks. Also, I was wondering if the plant swap is rain or shine? I don't mean to jinx it, but with the Texas weather, you just never know :) Darlene

Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?

I just have to chime in here and tell all of you, I would so love to come; I live west of Austin and could easily come to Ft. Worth, except that I take care of my mom (age 94) and I don't have a backup. I am soooo homebound; it is a lonely life and I so much wish that I could come and join the party. Whenever you all have a get-together and I don't respond, it's cause I can't, NOT because I don't want to. The longest time I can be away from home is 3 hours. Someday when things are different, I hope to join in. Y'all have fun and I will be there in spirit.