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Our new home with a 45 year old landscaping plan was out of control with two story boxwoods and crepe myrtles. The old crepe myrtles continued to produce suckers (new shoot growth from the bottom). Since boxwoods do not have strong trunks, they draped the fence and consumed large portions of my yard and the neighbors'. A tree man cut the boxwoods to the ground and hauled them away, an all day affair.
The boxwoods and crepe myrtles have been strong neighbors for years. Cutting did not end the boxwoods. Perhaps due to their past relationship, being in close proximity, the local insects and earth worms must have carried sucker how-to between the two neighbors. The boxwoods started growing suckers. It was like a sucker game. Trying not to take it personally, I tried pinching them back, stripping any green growth, negative communication with the suckers and a show of genuine frustration.
The suckers were winning. Then lessons from the Master Gardeners began to surface through the frustration. Both plant irritants were actually stems since they both had leaves and buds. They also transport water, minerals, and sugars. Woody plants have 3 major parts, xylem, phloem and cambium. The first two are like tubes that carry the nutrients up the tree. The phloem is part of the bark; the xylem makes the inner rings and is the heartwood of woody plants.
The third part of the stem is the cambium in which cells divide and grow, increasing the girth of the stem. That had to end.
INSIGHT! Why not break the cycle by releasing some irritating hammer blows to those suckers. Hammer management techniques became the afternoon mission. To complete the techniques, two types of energy were required. First, for the boxwoods that are desperately attempting to follow the lead of their immediate neighbor, the hammer blows required intense energy to the suckers and ground level trunks. The goal was to stop their transporting of the nutrients. For all those suckers on the crepe myrtles, the energy requirement was more controlled and directed at the undesirable growth but always protective of the roots.
Now it could have been the unusually cold winter in Tyler, the mastery of sucker hammer management techniques or it could have been the communication between the suckers. Anyway, the xylem, phloem and cambium are no longer working in the stem business; they are now "employed" in mulching. I am glad to report, no suckers at my house.
Sandy Pannett, Smith County Master Gardener
Texas AgriLife Extension Service