Killing Wax Myrtle

[PokeBoater]

I have a field of 1 year old planted planted pines with scattered clumps of wax myrtle. It rained when they were finishing the site prep and I got pretty much zero suppression. The bushes are up to 8 or 9 feet tall in places. So...I've been cutting them with a clearing saw and spraying with a Garlon/diesel mix. Is it too late to continue cutting/spraying with them starting to flower? If so, when's the best time to cut them?

[WDH]

You might try a basal spray and not cut them down at all.  If I remember correctly (check the label), basal spray is 25% garlon and 75% diesel or crop oil with a little surfactant (I use a squirt of dawn dish washing liquid), and spray the lower 12" down to the ground on the stem(s).  Much less work than actually cutting them down then having to spray the cut stump. 

Page 10 on this link to the garlon 4 label describes the basal bark treatment. 

https://natseed.com/pdf/Garlon%204%20Specialty%20Herbicide_Label.pdf

[PokeBoater]

Thanks for the quick response. The problem with basal spray is that I can't get to the main stem without cutting the lower limbs out of the way. I figured by the time I did that I may as well just clip it off and spray the stump and root collar. And they are way too tall to do any foliar spray without hurting the pines. 

It's kind of a mess. When they clear cut, they sheared/knocked down the wax myrtles. So the brush is growing out about as fast as it's growing up. They are shaped like shrubs in front of a house. They would probably look nice in someone's yard, just not in my pines...

Do you have any idea if I need to wait until they stop flowering? I did a couple of "test" cuts and the stumps don't seem to be bleeding. At least for the 30 minutes I waited.

[WDH]

You should be good to go.  The plants have come out of dormancy and are actively growing so that the plant will take up the chemical.  You only need to spray the cambium, that line of dividing cells that separate the bark from the wood.  Just have to spray that ring, not the entire stump surface.