Wow, I was just obsessing about herbicides today, when I received the latest PBS messages. I am currently in the south of Mexico, where we garden with machetes. Yesterday the guy who cuts the grass put a broad-leaf herbicide on it, for the first time. This wasn't my idea. I am just hoping that none of it got on the heliconias. Yes, they are monocots, and since they have rhizomes, they are sort of related to this forum, but I have no idea what an herbicide would do to them. Most of them are orange latispatha, but there are some other cool ones, including one that is 12 ft tall and rumored to be only in its adolescence. It makes huge red upright flowers. The hummingbirds just do not leave them alone. I grow Megaspekasma erythrochlamis also, another 12-ft plant mightily attractive to hummingbirds. I don't think it has rhizomes, but it hasn't been dug up lately and was started from just a little squib I was given. I don't like putting poison on things except mosquitoes and ants. These are leafcutter ants, my personal enemies, and they always win. The mosquitoes here carry dengue, and we are entitled to fight back. There is also a new way to kill snakes by lacing dead mice with Tylelnol and leaving them around to be swallowed, but I tolerate snakes in the garden and plan on leaving them alone. Yes, we do have some poisonous ones here. Apparently Tylenol gives snakes methemoglobinemia and kills them. Jane Sargent, drinking coffee and watching hummingbirds. _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…