Question: My tree yaupon keeps sending up seedlings or sprouts. I don’t want them in the groundcover bed where the plant is growing. What will stop them?

Answer: Those are root sprouts. Unfortunately, no chemical spray can be used, since they’re attached to the mother plant. You’ll either have to dig and remove them, or you could try a roll-type mulch around the crown of the plant. If you have a vining groundcover, it will sprawl back over the mulch. If you’re using something like mondograss or ajuga, however, you’ll either have to bury the fiber mulch 4 or 5 inches in the soil, or simply use bark mulch to cover it up around the holly’s trunk. You can also use a sharpshooter spade tilted at a 30-degree angle to sever the sprouts as they emerge. That option, however, isn’t there if you have used the roll-type mulch.