In our back yard we have what appears to me an Empress Tree AKA Royal Paulownia or Princess Tree.

Tree Loppers came and cut it down as little tree's were coming up EVERYWHERE from the seeds. Unfortunately they were idiots and didn't poison it so now we have lots of little tree's STILL (its been about 1 year) coming up from underground roots.

We have no idea how far they are down as they were fully grown but we had a new one, which had grown quite a bit when we found it, pop up on the other side of our house!!!

We killed the stump using chemical (weed killers and chemicals from nursery's and Bunnings) but we STILL have tree's coming through the roots. No matter what we use they don't seem to work!!!

We've done the whole "find a root, drill into it and squirt the substance into it" and that part will die but the roots its self are still alive and very much kicking...

HELP!!!

and take the pruning shears.. and snip each one.. and put one drop on each snip ..

it will get the idea.. sooner or later ...

drilling into the dead heartwood of a plant.. does nothing .. life is in the green cambian layer.. which is right below the bark or root surface ...

it took me 3 years to kill poison ivy with this method.. it is really all wrapped up in your motivation ... there is no easy way

ken

I've told this story several times- I had two ancient Paulownia tomentosas removed from the front yard of our new house in May of '07- before we even moved in.
I felt terrible that our new neighbor's first impressions of us were as tree killers, but it simply had to be done!
As much as I hate killing a tree, I am not a criminal.
The criminal is the IDIOT THAT PLANTED the damned things.

I had the roots ground out as deep as the largest grinder would go. The roots shoots that came up that year were horrendous- one every foot covering the entire yard. It was literally a daily chore to keep up with them- you'd cut them all then the next morning there would be another hundred of them 2 inches tall.

They came up again equally as bad in '08, all spring and summer.

In '09 they slowed down a bit on my property but began seeking new areas as I saw them in neighbor yards as well- not only on the adjoining properties but across the street.

Spring and summer of '10- three full years since I had the trees taken out- and I still got shoots.
THREE YEARS!
They slowed down considerably but I still had to cut down one or two every couple of days. They are impossible to pull.
They are one tenacious tree.

AND...
I cut more root shoots in the spring of '11!!!
Four. Full. Years. After the trees were removed.
This tree is the devil!!!

This is the very first year I have not seen one- five full years of diligently patrolling the yard with scissors to cut root shoots.
In a way you're gotta respect that degree of the will to live!