Thank you all for the help. Flutterbug, I think you are right. I have been pulling it and the more I pull the more the sprouts keep coming up. I think I will try smothering it, as I had to do with another weed I had once. I'll also try the vinegar Susan, which I have tried in other situations with mixed results. I don't however, see how killing it with vinegar and pulling the sprouts would have a different result from each other. It would seem that killing or removing the sprouts may be an indicator to the root system to push out a new spurt of growth in a different direction. I didn't realize they would present this problem when I planted the other named varieties I have and hope that they won't become a problem. Brnegrrl....I am not quite sure how to interpret your statement that pulling milkweed makes you uncomfortable. I am guessing that you would like to see milkweed grow as much as possible to provide food for butterflies. Naturally, that was the reason I planted them in the first place. I just looked up the Asclepias incarnata and it is reported to be ..'a clump former that does not spread by runner like some of it's cousins.' I was out looking at the three Asclepias incarnata that I planted last year and they have come up in the same place on the same plant that went in the ground last year and have not spread or come up in a different location. The plant I am having trouble with is something that evidently came in on the wind or with a bird and hid out behind my hose reel until it was quite large last year and that is the one I am trying to get rid of. It must be the runner cousin. So I will keep the incarnata that clumps as I continue to get rid of the other. I had a ton of monarchs last year, which were all over my Butterfly Bush, which isnt even a native. Thanks... :-)

I have had a number of plants that did the multisplit. I had a grove farm that split 14 times in about 2002. I let it grow naturally but the number of arms seemed to limit the development. The smaller branches became weak and the plant was not doing as well as others. It did not survive the frost this year. Then I had a cindy moragne seedling that split 17 times. I picked out the best looking three branches and cut off all the others. that plant flowered beautifully with a new flower and is now over five feet tall. I now believe that 4 branches is the maximum for a stem to support and three is best. Bill Grove farm:

I don't know how effective a pre-emergent would work on tree seeds (or how much you'd have to use). I have the same issue with red maples and seedlings come up everywhere. Sweet gum too! Next year you could try pre-emergent in one area and see if it is better. As long as you have things in there that you want to come up from seed!

Funny how things work out, I did what Galinas suggested before the post because I already had the borax and sugar mixed. I thought why waste it, surely the sugar won't hurt anything. There seems to be a lot less of them now but I'm not sure if it is because of the bait/poison or because the weather has improved so much. It stopped raining and has been beautiful for the last couple of days. They might be hiding in the bottom of the seedling containers, I won't know until I water again. I think I'm gonna just go ahead and try transplanting them all. For some reason they don't seem as interested in my plants in the garden soil mix and the weather is good enough to put them out in my cloche during the days lately. There is one sort of interesting development. I put out a sticky trap hoping they'd like the attractant which they did not. However, I placed it along the edge of the tray where they had a very active trail. There is a bunch of the germination mix now stuck along the edge of the trap. Clearly, they are carrying lots of it away. Why? I don't know. Would they want vermiculite or peat moss? Would they like it because of its fishy smell/taste and therefore the protein content? Maybe I should find some other type of fertilizer. I like the natural aspect of the fish emulsion, fact that it is hard to burn plants with, and that the plants seem to really like it too. I think we have some chemical plant food somewhere in the garage for house plants. It should work OK if I dilute it enough. Maybe I'll try that for my next round of seedlings and see if the ants go away.