Roundup is a contact herbicide. It is absorbed by plant tissue, usually the leaves, and inhibits the production of an enzyme necessary for the plant's survival. It is very difficult to imagine applying Roundup to just the vines and not killing or at least severely damaging the azaleas as well. You might try cutting the vines near ground level and carefully painting the severed ends with Roundup using a small paint brush. It may take several applications to be effective and there's always the chance of inadvertent contact with azaleas.

The 'vines' are vinca minor.

I'd dig up the azalea and remove the vinca from the rootball, then plant in a different place where the vinca isn't growing. The two plants aren't compatible.

Mike

Yes, I agree with miketann that the invaders are the pesky Vinca.

I never use pesticide of any sort. So what I would do is cut every bit of that pest as far back as possible and starve it into oblivion. Alternatively, if I was fired up enough (and Vinca can get one fired up) I would consider removing the Azalea and transplanting or potting it, kill, destroy and maim the Vinca using every method I could think of, then, when certain it was gone, replace the Azalea if I wanted it there.

(Lots of cardboard and/or newspapers are a good thing to use if no wanted plant is present.)

I just read all of miketann's post. I think his method makes much more sense. With Vinca, you can't pussyfoot around. May as well take the Azalea out straight away without waiting for the Vinca to annoy you into it, and then set to and deal with the invader.

And yes, Roundup will hurt everything, including you.

thank you all for the responses. I was hoping to avoid having to dig it out, but I'll give it a shot because it's creeping its way over to the next bush too.

The easiest way to get rid of any invasive plant like ivy, horse tail, cat tails, etc. is to cut them off at the ground and paint the stumps with the concentrated Roundup (Glyphosate). This method uses an extremely small amount of Roundup and is extremely effective. The National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. had English Ivy taking over its hillside azalea planting and did this to take it back. It is working and is very effective. When used this way, Roundup itself is not very dangerous, but the spreader sticker that is put in it can kill amphibians. By using a very small mount, there is very little danger.

The vast majority of corn, soy, canola, and sugar beets grown in the U.S. are now genetically engineered so they can be sprayed with Roundup to kill weeds. Hence, most farmers are spraying their fields with massive amounts of Roundup and we have yet to see any adverse effects. However, Roundup is appearing in the food chain now, even in German beer. That is probably a good reason to avoid these GMO foods which are modified so Roundup won't kill them. The GMO foods are safe but the Roundup they are contaminated with is problematic. There will probably be some changes made in how farmers operate, but painting a small amount on the stump of an invasive plant is not going to cause any problems.

Vinca Minor can be a nice groundcover in the right setting, but too often it's planted with smaller plants that can't handle it's growth patterns. It clambers a bit, but doesn't climb trees and larger shrubs. Vinca Major grows at a larger scale yet. Keeping vinca in bounds is the main problem. My driveway does a good job at that.

A fork works better than a shovel if you want to remove it after removing the azaleas.

Mike

It was Vinca major that I had and it caused a major pain. My mother has Vinca minor and I can believe that it is somewhat better behaved.

I wonder, instead of digging it out like I did years ago, whether I could have just cut it off beneath the crown? This is how I kill most of my weeds now, except Couch Grass (Burmuda Grass), which hasn't the decency to die

gracefully. (That, I smother.) But I can't see Vinca insisting on surviving if cut at that junction that is (presumably) just under the soil.

'The vast majority of corn, soy, canola, and sugar beets grown in the U.S. are now genetically engineered so they can be sprayed with Roundup to kill weeds. Hence, most farmers are spraying their fields with massive amounts of Roundup...'

rhodyman, that is my Number 1 reason for not liking GM crops. People often say how safe Glyphosate is, but that has been said about so many things that were later shown to be very harmful.

"However, Roundup is appearing in the food chain now"

Yep, and it's a reason not to be hysterical about it being correctly sprayed in residential gardens, since that _does not_ end up in food chain. All of these people writing anti-roundup screeds here had better be eating 100% organic foods, or their words ring quite hollow.

I have a vine I'm sure is the same as yours. It's runs along just below the surface, putting out fine roots along the big main root, and climbs up any bush it finds, especially azaleas. It always has two adjacent leaves along the vine and never blooms. I finally got this under control, but not yet abolished. After cutting an azalea back so I could reach across it, I reach down with gloves and pull on the vine as low as I can and snap it off or pull up most of the root. By doing this every time you see a shoot, the big underground horizontal root will eventually give up on the azalea and start moving outside the plant area. Always look for those sprouts and pull those up too. Never let the vine tip leaves get any more sun than you can help. It will take a year or two for large infected azaleas but eventually you may eradicate it. I have about 60 azaleas and I have only about a half dozen I still have to watch. No one has been able to identify the vine but iv'e seen it sprouts up in the cleared woods area on the edges of my yard. It may be native to here in South Alabama.

A picture would help.

For the worst of the worst, like Smilax, I have cut the stems and stuck them in a small vial or test tube of concentrated glyphosate. (some of the pseudoscientific anti-roundup screeds here can't even spell it correctly, coming up with stuff like "glycophosphate") It will absorb over several days and kill the vine. Obviously, do this when rain isn't predicted, which would flood the vial and dilute the glyphosate.

Am I the only one in the world that thinks that vinca plays very nicely with most shade loving shrubs? It always has in my garden and when I've encountered it in client's yards. While it does spread somewhat aggressively and can overwhelm some smaller growing perennials, I have never had difficulty controlling it to remain as a groundcover and not a climbing vine.

I find it particularly companionable with things like rhodies and azaleas..........

Yeah I have let some Vinca minor remain under a 'Martha Hitchcock' azalea (both were there before I bought this place) and its aggressiveness is nothing compared to ivy, lonicera, etc. I wouldn't want it trampling through a bed of shade perennials, as you seem to agree.

Vinca in my backyard does well with hosta—for some reason the hosta thrive. But on my azalea and a neighbor’s flowering shrub, the vinca is much too aggressive. In addition virginia creeper is all over the azalea. I’m considering cutting the azalea way back so that I can get to the vines at the roots/ground level. The azalea got mowed down to the ground about 15 years ago and it came back better than ever.

I have a different type vine and I finally started using gloves and pulling them up as soon as they stuck up at the top of my plants.. After a year or so they gave up and started coming up around the perimeter of the plants. I still pull those up and they always are attached to a section of rhiozyme with fine roots coming out every few inches. No one could identify these, some calling the vines Jasmine but they never bloom. i think they are some sort of native wild vine. They are very hardy.

I have poison ivy, virginia crerper, and smilax all growing up in my azalea bushes. Is it an unwinnable battle? any helpful advice? There is no way to get to the bottom of the invading vines without crawling under the bushes, which, because of ticks, redbugs and snskes, I will not attempt

" There is no way to get to the bottom of the invading vines without crawling under the bushes, which, because of ticks, redbugs and snskes, I will not attempt "

Then you're not going to fix the problem.