What is this and how do I kill it?
 

A rather nasty weed has arrived in my garden beds over the last few years, and has resisted all efforts at getting rid of it. The leaves are arrow-shaped, and the stalks become barbed as the plant matures, such that it will snag on clothing and/or flesh. (Sorry, no picture) It will overtake anything close, not unlike kudzu, but I'm too far north for that to be the evil plant.

Short of burning everything in the flowerbeds, how does one banish this type of intruder?

what you do is a carefull application of herbicide, cover everything you want to live with a washable sheet or tarp, spray the offender, and then repeat the next day, on application generally doesn't kill the roots, but two should do it if its strong willed, this is what I did to kill my Ivy in my garden, and I didn't even hurt the larger plants. the reason you don't just pull the stuff is that spraying them kills the roots as well as the plant :) Good luck

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, there are irises, tulips, daylilies, etc. which precludes the cover and bomb approach. I think I'll have to mow the beds this year (azaleas excepted), heavily mulch, and then apply something like Preen® next spring.

Is it the Tearthumb?

No. I googled for tearthumb and found some very good pictures on the Rutgers University website, but that is not the plant. The arrow-head shaping isn't as long as tearthumb. Leaf heads are 1-1 1/2" from point to stem for this plant.

sounds like a prickly sow-thistle, no?

How about this
http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/weeds/wee...ame=greenbriar

If it isn't one of these, it'll probably be elsewhere on the site
http://www.greensmiths.com/weedsi3.htm

Cut a bit off and take it to a local nursery. They'll be able to identify it and suggest the proper herbicide for your locale.

maybe my granmother's a bit old fashioned, but when she got weeds in her flowebed that wasn't supposed to be there, she pulled them out by the roots. i know spraying various chemicals used in vietnam-era helicopters is easy enough to do, but a little elbow grease may eliminate the problem on a permanent basis, no?

I did the manual removal thing for a year or so, and it takes pritnear the whole day, given bed sizes. If I get one or two rainy weekends, then I'm hosed. That's why I want to call an air strike.

Still looking through the greensmith website-no visual match, yet.

Get round-up concentrate and some gloves, and wipe it onto the leaves (don't spray, otherwise the mist will drift onto your other plants).

Some species are a little more round-up resistant than others, so you might need to do more than one application.

agreed. took the words right out of my mouth

In addition to the pulling by the roots suggestions, I think you should consider purchasing some heavy duty gloves if the stalk is as barbed as I have seen some get (and if this will be a continual problem)

Go to Home Depot and check out their gloves. I bought a good pair of tough leather ones pretty cheap.

Otherwise, just wrap an old shirt or cloth around the base and pull/twist it out. Or, maybe you could just dig out around the base and avoid the barbed stalk all together.

If you have a weed in a bed of fragile flowers, the easiest thing to do is get a hypodermic needle, fill it with roundup, and inject the plant near the roots. Dead plant, no herbicides in your soil.

Pulling weeds out by the roots does not work for everything. Some of them can regenerate from little tap left behind bits of root.

Check out the Pennywort. I had this crap in my lawn and thought I could get it out by hand. I spent a whole saturday pullng it out bit by bit to find it totally engulfing my lawn the next weekend.

Trust me. Cut some off and take it to a local nursery. (Home Depot doesn't count).

Thought it was identified-roundleaf greenbriar met every aspect with the exception of the parallel leaf veining.

Off to the nursery with a cutting, and then a stop at the local 'Agent Orange' store. :D

I agree, herbacides can get into the groundwater and also will poison any animal that goes foraging in your garden. You want good leather gloves to protect your hands, and you want to then go digging (with hands, not a trowel, so you don;t disturb the bulbs) and pull the roots out by hand.

cut it down to stem and uproot it

If you're in the states, you should have a Noxious Weed Control Board in your county. Take it there and chances are very good they will be able to identify it and tell you how to get rid of it.

Pulling is an option, but if the plant is rhizomous, you are at risk of basically pissing off the plant, causing it to start new growth all over the place.

Nothing new to add here, but I just wanted to say that the title of this thread never fails to make me smile :)