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Comments 14

mamculuna May 17 2011, 18:22:21 UTC
My experience is that holly at least never goes away. I haven't tried to get rid of a forsythia, but expect it's equally tenacious. I don't like to use chemicals in my yard, but if you don't mind, you can get a little bottle of Roundup and apply it directly onto a freshly-cut stem. Otherwise, what I've done is just keep digging up the shoots.

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kiltypleasure May 17 2011, 21:22:01 UTC
Yeah, I'd prefer to avoid using chemicals, especially systemic herbicides, as I'm planning to plant a butterfly garden where these shrubs were.

I suppose I'll have to resign myself to vigilantly tearing new upstarts out of the ground.

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mamculuna May 18 2011, 01:33:32 UTC
I've never tried it on bushes, but straight vinegar is good for weeds.

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matanai May 17 2011, 18:42:57 UTC
You'll probably have to battle it for quite awhile. Just keep at it and you'll get it eventually, you'll tire it out.

Or you could get some Roundup, use a paint brush and dip it in the RU and dab it onto the cut end of all the roots you can see. Might take up to 3 applications.

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kiltypleasure May 17 2011, 21:23:27 UTC
Just keep at it and you'll get it eventually, you'll tire it out.

Part of me worries it'll tire me out!

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matanai May 17 2011, 21:36:55 UTC
Oh you'll be tired alright XD But humans can order pizza and sleep 14 hours a day, plants are a little more picky...

Worst case scenario, dig your forsythia up and send it to me XD I tried to clone my neighbor's forsythia and it isn't working so well.

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kiltypleasure May 17 2011, 22:28:03 UTC
Oh, trust me, you don't want that forsythia. It was planted between the two massive hollies and some stupid Euonymus cultivar that was going a-crazy, so it was looking a little rough. I was so jealous of all the grand forsythias around town.

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i_beckygardens May 17 2011, 18:52:18 UTC
Our neighbor had suckering holly and we've been fighting it for 10 years. they even took down the tree but it's still suckering on their side and ours. We've tried bush be gone, boiling water, I think that it might survive a direct nuke hit. haaaaaate! We are going to try bush be gone and then tying a black bag around it this year, like a garbage bag, and see if the combo might do something

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i_beckygardens May 17 2011, 18:52:53 UTC
oh, before bush be gone we tried round up, and a bunch of other killers, I might try bleach and salt.

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kiltypleasure May 17 2011, 21:24:16 UTC
I worried this might be the case. Sigh.

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cathubodva May 17 2011, 18:53:50 UTC
No idea about the holly, but we got rid of our forsythia pretty much the same way you just described.

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kiltypleasure May 17 2011, 21:25:23 UTC
At least there's some good news!

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rhysande May 18 2011, 07:28:32 UTC
My Dad and I took out his 20 year old hollies two years ago. He had one little bit that tried to grow back, we removed it, and we've had no problems since.

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