We bought a property that had a huge "grove" of this shruby treelike plant right up near the house. We cut down the "trees" with a chain saw to ground level and pulled up what roots we could. They had been left to grow for a long time and were about 8 feet tall at the time we cut them down. The root stubs that were left in the ground were covered over with a crushed concrete mixture for a driveway about 8" thick. The next spring, all along the fence where these had been was an entirely new crop coming up. The photo shows the plant about 4-6 weeks after it came up. The plant grows really fast. We pulled them up as soon as we saw them, but if they are left for even a few weeks they take over again. The thorns make it really hard to pull them up later, and they are really tough to pull up. You almost have to cut them down instead, and that leaves the roots intact and they just grow again. The roots did seem to travel horizontally to other plants popping up along the fence. We had to use a bull dozer in one area where the "grove" of them used to be. When the dozer operator hit the root clump that had been covered over with road base, the roots were so solid in the ground it shook him up pretty good when roots stopped his forward momentum. He then spent quite a bit of time, digging up the roots of the plants that had been cut down the year prior so he could then continue to move the road base. On the other side of the house next to our fence we have the same problem with them. The issue I am having is that there are still some of these coming up in the chain link fence between me and a neighbor. I need to know what to do to get rid of them. Some of them seem to be on the other side of the fence and are traveling over to our side. We try to keep them pulled up and contained as much as possible. The thorns are very much an issue. We have managed to keep them from growing into the fence, but it is almost a full time job pulling them up every day. It is almost spring again, and I can guarantee I will be seeing them again soon. PLEASE HELP!!
I really want to be able to identify this plant so I know what I am dealing with.

This post was edited by tx10lady2 on Thu, Apr 18, 13 at 12:32