Ditto what floral said. Bindweed sucks to get rid of in normal garden circumstances (I fight it every year) but with all that landscape fabric protecting the roots, it will have no problem coming back again and again. Especially if the roots have tangled themselves under the crown area of the roses. I've found that digging it up or just pulling it out in areas where my soil is very sandy/gravelly is easy, but in a garden bed is much harder. Good luck.

if it is bindweed, you’d have to pull every little bit that shows above the ground and dig it as far down as you can on a DAILY basis for at least 3 years. You could use Roundup as mentioned, but again, you would need to treat every bit that shows up on a daily basis for at least three years, to starve the root system. Seeds may continue to sprout for years after that, and hopefully there aren’t bindweed plants in surrounding areas such as neighbor’s yards or open space, from which seeds and roots can spread from. Good luck, it’s a struggle.

I've read that roundup can be used where you apply it to the leaf surface and it travels down and kills the plant. With bindweed that would take several applications but should work. Supposedly as long zas you are careful not to get any roundup on the roses, it won't hurt your roses. So probably best would be to apply it to the bindweed leaves with a brush, and maybe keep a plastic sheet under the bindweed leaves to make sure it doesn't spill or splash onto the roses.

Prep the bind weeds by cutting back stems to about 8-12" (longer stems if necessary because you want stems with leaves on them, not just bare, leafless stems), from the ground where stems emerge from the ground. These cut, remaining bind weed stems emerging from the ground, if twisting around anything, especially rose canes, need to be gently unraveled and laid across the ground, directed away from the rose canes as much as possible.

Use the strongest SYSTEMIC weed killer available, strong enough to kill poison ivy, but do not spray it onto the cut and 'toppled,' bind weed stems. The chance of getting spray onto the roses is too great. Pour a little weed killer into a disposable cup and very, very gently and tenderly brush it generously onto the bind weed stems and foliage lying on the ground using a 2" wide, very soft bristled paint brush. Take great care not to splash or get any weed killer onto any part of adjacent rose bushes.

Do not be too rough in prepping the cut stems for their weed killer application. You want undamaged stems and leaves left on the 'to be weed killer painted sections,' so as to get good systemicc absorption to the below ground bind weed parts.

The systemic action of the weed killer should kill the whole underground, regenerative parts of the bind weed. A later follow up application may be needed if new growth occurs. Follow the same procedure as before.

Moses

I HATE BINDWEED. But I don't want to use weed-killer-too environmentally unfreindly.

Thought about this topic again and decided to add more to my comment...

OK, IME, bindweed tends to have roots that go WAY deep down into the ground. I have some areas of my garden that are badly infested by well-established bindweed,and I have re-worked the soil very, very deeply, and tried to remove as much as I could of the bindweed roots,but I think some of those roots went down so far that I doubt I got all of it (I am talking about digging down more than 2 feet); those could re-grow. I put cardboard on top of the worked-over area,and mulch on top of that. Now, I see some bindweed growing up through gaps in the cardboard, and I pull these out; it will take time. But it seems to me that with a weed of this sort , one treatment of weed-killer would be about as effective as removing it by hand; in other words,I seriously wonder if just one treatment will get rid of the weed. I wonder if it would be necessary to repeat the delicate, complex application of the herbicide several times over several years in order to eradicate it. So,environmental concerns aside, basically, there might be no real advantage to using herbicide; it would still take years of patient work.

This is just a thought, of course. Perhaps there is some chemical quick-fix for eradicating bindweed; I don't want to try. But somehow, I doubt it...

I have a similar problem with my Bella Donna. In order to even get to the bindweed so I can pull and/or spray it, I need to prune hard down to one foot off the ground (the rose is enormous - 12x12x6). But i've heard that Damask roses hate to be pruned short, that the canes die. Is this true? If so, what can I do ?

When pulling or cutting back the bindweed be careful not to leave any cuttings on the ground as they will resprout. Good luck!

I haven't tried it yet, but read that a mixture of Dawn, vinegar and epsom salt will kill it but won't be as deadly to the environment as roundup. Apparently, you just carefully spray it on the bindweed individual vines, close to the roots. (Not broadcast). I just got the ingredients and will try it on bindweed not near anything precious to see if it works (I have some coming up between the rocks in a rockery.

" I haven't tried it yet, but read that a mixture of Dawn, vinegar and epsom salt will kill it but won't be as deadly to the environment as roundup. "

Please let us know how it works as I can't imagine anything in that concoction being fatal to bindweed. You may possibly get some desiccation of the topgrowth but the root system will be unaffected.

Ive contacted professors at universities and they said the same thing. Only thing that kills bindweed (wild morning glory) is Glyphosate!!!! It needs brushed on if its around any plant you dont want harmed. Im in the process of digging out my roses. And everything else is getting sprayed for a few years. No more flower beds. Putting gravel around my home and growing everything in pots that will be stored in an unheated garage in winter. We are being consumed by bindweed!!!! Its like a science fiction horror movie!!! My husband and I are having health issues and just cant keep up with it. Beware taking starts from other people because thats how this nightmare started. An ederly neighbor was moving into a nursing home and she gave me peony starts. There must have been seeds in some of the soil and the next season we had bind weed where we planted the peonys. Biggest mistake of my life!!!!!

Although bindweed can grow from seeds it's more likely they you got pieces of root where in the paeony soil. Any tiny scrap will sprout and grow.

The mass of roots from established bindweed compared to the amount of leaf area available to absorb the herbicide makes it so difficult. It takes persistence to keep after the leaves to deny food to the roots.

Having bindweed in your garden is like walking around with a ball and chain. One is fastened around your neck, and one on each ankle! 😜

Bindweed roots can go down 20'! This was reported to me by a bindweed combatant many years ago.

Moses.

But compared to bishops weed, lesser celandine, wisteria, stilt grass, garlic mustard, ivy and more — bindweed is benign! A gentle yank and at least you aren’t looking at it!

It depends on the type of bindweed. The one that grows long vines with pointed dark green leaves and wants to climb is easy to yank out as you say as long as you catch it early. The one that has low spreading growth with lighter green small leaves has immense root systems that flourish underground long before you see any top growth. It is absolutely wicked to try to remove by hand - nearly impossible. When you see a public field that is dotted with low white blooms you are seeing a field with a rampant low bindweed problem (I don't know the scientific name difference).

I was maintaining a garden for an organization where that latter type of bindweed got a foothold. I double and triple dug that bed down to 8" and still had the bindweed resurface relentlessly. The only thing that stopped it was Roundup. I agree with the previous posters that chemicals have their uses and even for an organic gardener like me this is a time when I reluctantly rely on Roundup.

Cynthia

I have the small light green bindweed in an isolated part of my garden. . So far I think I’ve kept it in check cutting it a few inches below ground with a soil knife, several times a week. Hoping that if it never gets photosynthesis for more than 2 days at a time, eventually it will all die out I agree with Cynthia, I try to limit chemicals like RoundUp but not totally opposed to them, in this case the ornamentals are too close by.

I also have the extremely vigorous/invasive perennial morning glory Blue Dawn, that comes over from one neighbors totally neglected back yard. I’ve kept it out of my property by pulling invaders constantly for the 4 years I’ve been here. Impossible to eradicate because it’s quite established over the fence. I remind myself that I prefer these morning gories to RRD, blackspot , thrips, Japanese beetles, freeze/thaw cycles ,hail, ice storms all of which I have experienced in other places and we don’t have here.

I had vining bindweed hitch in and rapidly grow in a small area twining itself through a very large mountain laurel bush. Repeatedly cutting it and applying round up on the remaining leaves and stems helped eradicate it after 2-3 years. If you have the vining type, be careful as you pull the vines out of the roses as any bit that drops to the ground can potentially root. Bag it where you cut it it, don’t try carting it on a tarp across your lawn.