Unfortunately, you are going to need to remove the dead weeds and plants. You really need to get the seeds in contact with the soil. If the dead weeds aren't too thick, you could put a soil on top of the weeds and then seed on that. I've been successful with that as long as the spots aren't too big. Scotts TurfBuilder Lawn Soil works for this. Lisa Scotts Miracle Grow Customer Service

James, I have no issues with the heat because they grow inside my house. I never put them outside, even for a couple of minutes. I grow them in a spare room that has a large window that gets early morning sun. I also have them under cheap grow lights that clip onto something that's near the plants. The grow lights take an ordinary grow bulb or you can use those long square grow light bulbs. Either type will work and the total cost is really cheap. Ever since I found out about the water my plants are growing fast. I use only organic fert. since the other types of fert. can burn the roots. The organic can not burn the roots. A guy that I purchase miltoniopsis plants from told me that since most tap water is purified to get rid of bacteria and other things most tap water contains chlorine and chorline burns the delicate roots. I never thought about this before and since I found out about chlorine being in most tap water, this makes sense plus you can smell the faint odor of chlorine in the tap water. I can't tolerate the heat so I stay inside and I set my thermostat at 70 degrees. If I'm happy with the temps. the plants are probably happy too. I almost forgot one important issue. I have a humidifier working 24 hours. It's a real cheap humidifier that I purchased off of Etsy. The humidifier looks like a fat white stick. I stick it in an old plastic water jug and you can see the mist coming out. Apparently it works real well. I can't tell you the brand because it came in a company box and everything is in Chinese including the instructions. I think that the humidifier cost me around five bucks. My set up is cheap but I haven't killed any plants. I currently have about seven plants putting out spikes. I have about twenty plants and I don't want anymore. I'll probably get another one only if the flower color appeals to me or if it's a cross that I don't have.

Great horned owls can attack and take small (very small) dogs. Saw one do it ... it was in the habit of stopping in the parking lot where I worked, perched on a light post. hoping for one more bunny or mouse. We were admiring it when a man came jogging through the industrial park, preceded by a very small dog running off leash about 50 feet in front of him ... end of dog. The owl swooped, snatched, and kept going, with a very dead (limp,not moving) dangling from its talons. If the idiot owner had followed the leash laws, the dog would have been

I have to agree with dhaven that your 3rd point is a stretch, and is in no way something you can extrapolate from this roundup test. There is no way to know that a microscopic virus is not surviving in some bit of plant debris left over from your roundup test. While HVX only replicates (lives as you put it) in living tissue, it might survive (remain infectious in a dormant, non-replicating state) just fine for an unknown period of time in dead or dying tissue. No research has ever proven or disproven this, so you cannot make assumptions about it. We know that HVX can remain infectious outside the host for 3 weeks on tools, and can remain infectious for 9 weeks in plant material in cold storage, so how do you know that HVX somehow cannot survive in old roots or crowns on a plant that had been sprayed by roundup? Originally you had stated that someone could spray a hosta with roundup and then plant another hosta within the corpse in a matter of weeks. Now you are saying replant the next year with a buffer zone. And nobody here ever tried to say that HVX lives in plain soil. The research showed that HVX doesn't transfer readily when plants are dormant so based on that fact I and others have recommended digging HVX infected plants in the fall to avoid transferring the virus to other neighbors. I also advocate using a spading fork to further minimize root cutting, if at all possible. ONE TIME, I suggested to someone with an HVX infected Lancifolia, who stated they had a Blue Cadet growing with it, that they would be better off just digging up both and getting rid of both so that the problem was done with once and for all rather than worry if the Blue Cadet might already have HVX or might catch it a year or two later. Both plants are cheap and easily replaceable. In that instance that would be the quickest way to resolve the problem. Each case can be a little different, and each gardener can make their own choices no matter the recommendation.