What are you sorry you planted......Part 2

We came from here..... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/446583/


So glad to see everyone found their way here. This thread originally began in 2004. It has continued to be revisited since then. Some of the members are no longer here but we can all learn from their experiences. Please join in and lend your advice to all of us in the garden :)

This message was edited Jun 7, 2010 8:11 AM




It was suggested later in this thread that I make a list of my invasive plants. I wish I had some to lend to this thread but my garden is only 2 years new, so I haven't had enough time to have anything that I feel to be invasive. I stumbled on the first part of this thread just last month when someone else had posted to it. I noticed it was VERY long and know that there are many people on here on dial up, I myself am not. I also belived that this was a SUPER topic and with it being spring I as well as others will be adding to my garden.

This message was edited Jun 10, 2010 11:56 AM

This message was edited Jul 21, 2010 8:56 PM

Artemisia 'Limelight' - stupidly planted in the ground and not in a pot. That one will haunt me for years.
Campanula rapunculoides - thought the flowers were pretty but it's proven to be impervious even to Roundup. Waaay before I knew it was "vigorous".
Hall's honeysuckle - was naively looking for something to cover a slope to reduce erosion. Invasive and has bloomed only once.
Lamium - not a good choice for a more natural setting with minimal supervision. Self-sows too much in not-so-attractive offspring.

Most Campandulas, Arum Itulatum, pachasandra, ajunga, wild hair allium, a small purple allium

D

Thanks for bringing this over. Great thead. Even though I have contributed to it, I just went back and read it from the beginning!

Donna

I've contributed before but I have another to add. Tallhedge Buckthorn. Those 9 plants have always reseeded abundantly but this year? Oh...my...goodness!!! It's been a wetter than usually year and every single seed dropped is germinating! I've already pulled a thousand seedlings and there are a thousand more coming up. Seriously! LOL

I have some of the variegated artemesia here and although I've heard it is prolific and invasive, I am Lucky? that on my sand hill, it is not. I get a couple runaways in the pathway a year, but not annoying.

I get many more runaways in the path from the blue agave in the bed. Now that one is invasive. Keeps me from walking barefoot.

Many plants that are invasive in other places simply behave or just die here.

Yes and thanks for starting a part 2 thread. I have the slowest DSL known to mankind here.

Molly

irislover - agreeing with you on pachysandra. Even though I have my own patches of it, my neighbor's sneaks under the ground and into my neighboring garden bed of Hydrangeas, azaleas and Astilbes. Grrr.
catzgalore - I can't begin to recommend the C. rapunculoides to anyone. It forms the most invasive, subversive root system I'm ever seen and it also spreads via seed. I've been battling two patches for a few years and not making any headway against it. Not quite sure what to do next. Have no idea what wildlife it attracts but it sure gets its share of "blue" language from me.

I fell in love with Chines Lanterns because they will keep their colorful seedpods forever. I saw some in a neighbors yard last year and seemed very in check. She was so nice to give me some and I planted them in various gardens to fill in some holes. This year it is everywhere. I have been pulling it up like crazy. Some nice neighbor...

I still think it is pretty, but will be pulling it out of every garden except one so I will only have to watch one patch instead of several.

onyxwar - I tried to grow Chinese lanterns from seed and put them in a pot because I had heard they could be invasive. Got them to sprout but they never grew well in their pots. Maybe they prefer the open range...

My very first plant purchase when I bought my new house was a plant that attracts bees and butterflies, has long lasting blooms and blooms in the break between summer and fall. It sounded like the perfect plant. That was five years ago I'm still pulling obedient plant out of every part of my yard.

This message was edited Jun 8, 2010 11:35 PM

Thanks for letting me know Cindy :) I don't have that one and will be sure not to get it now. I do have two other types of campanula though, I hope they don't behave as that one does :/

These are the two I have. Neither of them say that they're invasive. Here's hoping.....
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/150883/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/84109/

Things I have been pulling out of my garden for a couple of years:

Obedient Plant, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/23/
Campanula Cherry Bells, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53595/
Gooseneck Loosestrife, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/656/
Persian Batchelor Button, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/153982/
Lemon Balm, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/292/

catz - I think you're ok with those two varieties. I've contemplated the 'Pink Octopus' myself.
iris - Oops, I should have added the gooseneck to my list as well. It's in my more "wild" space so don't think much about it. It's slowly replacing coneflowers which the deer eat anyway. Lemon balm I keep in a pot with my lemon grass. Wow, 'Cherry Bells' is invasive? I do also have obedient plant but have only had it for a couple of years.

I will be putting the lemon balm in a pot but the rest is out or coming out as I find it. Cherry Bells took over one space about 4 ft in diamter.

Obedient plant is not obedient at all. It spreads prolifically and so does mexican petunia. Be careful with those.

I regret planting male and female kiwi plants. They hardly grew the first few years until suddenly they took over the front of my deck. They've been growing so much that I have an impossible time keeping it pruned.

I also regret planting a black walnut tree that is now much bigger and hence much closer to the garden then I thought it would be. It was so small when I planted it 25 years ago.

I also have a white balloon flower that throws seeds everywhere so it is coming up all over the place as well. It's coming out and being moved to another location.

I have a Carolina Jessamine that keeps trying to take over my mailbox. It's too large a vine for using it that way.

If I could suggest that Maybe CATZ Can maybe Make a LIST In The 1st Post as everyone Tells what they have theat is INVassive Sure would Help . I Just Stumbled onto this a few mins ago & Is a great Idea.

WORMWOOD I Believe It IS AN Artemisia OR ALSO A MUGWORT . Is Also A Nasty one to have in the garden .
HERE IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN IT INVADES MY LILIES

I would never have known balloon flowers could self-seed to the point that they're invasive. Mine are in more prominent areas so they do get dead-headed when they're done blooming. Same with the obedient plants.

DITTO On Obedient sure is Not Obedient Here

My obedient plant sends runners underground and that is how mine spread. I never knew balloon flowers to seed like that either. My blue one did not (lost it). But this white one goes everywhere.

From the other thread, I said I would never give pink evening primrose to anyone..and I won't. I hate that stuff - so pretty just destroyed one entire bed in just one season. Five years later, I'm still finding it coming up. And I agree with the reports on lemon balm. I finally put mine in a pot and cut it back before it throws seeds all over. I received chinese lanterns and 'Oriental Limelight' in trades recently and took them both out of the ground last weekend and put them in pots. After my experience with that pink evening primrose I'm scarred. ^_^

All the obedient plant horror stories are so strange to me, because I'm having the opposite problem! I have a small partly-shady wetland on my property that sounds just perfect for obedient plant, and I would be happy to have it take over the whole thing, if it wants to. I planted a bare-root plant that I got at the Prairie Nursery end-of-season sale, and no sooner did it sprout some new growth than someone (probably deer) munched it down to nothing! And it shows no sign of coming back! Where are your supernatural powers of invasiveness now, obedient plant??

I forgot about that pink primrose.....I also have the yellow one that sends the underground runners and comes up all over the place. It gets about 18" tall and has the yellow flowers on top. I won't get totally rid of it because it came from my grandmother's house. But I have to stay on top of it or it takes over.

Lol, Loligo.........you want a truckload of non-obedient plant? Or perhaps you want to send me a deer or two? I have pulled tons of that from dry, hot sunny areas to dry shade to wet shade; it just doesn't seem to matter where it's at in my yard, it grows...and grows...and grows....and.......

I had the yellow primrose come up and bloom this year for the first time. Last year, I noticed a few odd plants that I figured the birds brought in but it didn't bloom and I guess i just forgot about them. This year, I went over to Plant ID to see what in the world it was because where I only had 3-4 plants last year, now I suddenly had hundreds. They said it was the yellow missouri primrose and once it bloomed it was just like the pictures. It's so pretty that I'm willing to keep it though and just yank it every once in a while.

that's what I do. Gotta wait until it gets a little heighth on it so you can get a better hold and pull. Sometimes the roots will come up along with another plant.

OMG, Trumpet vine!!! I'll be yanking it up 'till I croak. Sea oats, we put about 10 plants along a winding aggregate side walk and in 2 years it's 12' long and 2' wide. I live on 5 acres and can't control what birds plant and deer poop, like nandina, ligustrum, and worst of all carolina creeper, that five lobed leaf and the trumpet vine give me as much of a work out as Pilates. Tried roto-tilling a big bed (or a young guy with an electric tiller did), them we raked up all the chopped up roots we could and tilled in 1/2 yard of compost and re-planted. Little boogers are still sneakin' in. @#^%$&*^#$
On a positive note, a huge clump of shrimp plant that grew and spread out front for years, only to be eaten up by deer and rabbits one year, grew and spread out in my fenced in back yard, and come back through thick and thin, as does my purple wandering jew. To some it's a nuisance, but I have a lot of ground to cover so I throw it out around the edges of the st. sugustine grass. We don't do much grass.

Northern sea oats can be a real problem if I don't cut down the "flowers" before winter. I can get lots of little sprouts in my gravel pathways and their root systems are tough - hard to pull. The root mass doesn't seem to expand as quickly here - maybe it's my clay soil.

Mexican petunia has overtaken my flower beds and wisteria pops up EVERYWHERE! Flowering tobacco reseeds like crazy too.

Someone said lemon balm - geez, I had that coming up everywhere for years (finally got rid of it I think). I pull a lot of yarrow and lambs ear too but I'm not sorry I planted those, just wish they didn't spread quite so fast :o).

I love mexican petunia, but I only have it in pots. Small flowers but a steady bloomer through all the heat. Does it re seed in the ground?

Common milkweed. I didn't plant it but I allowed it to form. Instead of attracting caterpillers it attracted a swamp of milkweed beetles (orange and black - ugly things) and now it sprouts up everywhere, including in my lawn, in my rosebushes, and next to my lilies. I grew parsley and got the charming butterflies it attracts - so I thought, why not? Now I know!

Hi sylguy. Mexican petunia is ruellia brittoniana. It's low to the ground and reseeds itself everywhere, even in the crevices between my concrete slabs! I am considering it as a ground cover now. Your petunia is beautiful. Petunias don't make it to midsummer with my full sun garden.

OOO - once had Ruellia of some type on my "want" list. Looks like I need to avoid that one.
Ken Druse is supposed to be doing a program on his podcast about plants we regret cultivating. May have already done it.

jamiew: I have Ruellia, both the dwarf and the standard that grows to 2'. It is horribly invasive and I wish I'd known. The dwarf not so much, but the tall standard hopped from one pot to maaaaany! I wish I could propagate other plants like it moves. Once in a pot it has huge runners that go dormant in winter and sprout in spring. I had it only in one pot and it must seed around or something because it's in over a dozen pots and in the ground. I have it around roses and every couple of years when I re-pot I pull a strangling amount of it's roots from around my rose, and can't completely eradicate so they come back slowly. I have two huge pots with trees in them that with help, I will tip and dump and try to pull out of all the dratted invaders. One tree is a crape myrtle and is 9' tall and the other is a rose of sharon about the same size. Big job!
Around here, every year I buy a petunia labeled "mexican" which has much more eliptical almost pointed leaves than my regular petunias which are oval and rounded. The "mex" has blooms half the size of standards and blooms more prolifically and longer than the standard. My standards are already leggy, even pinched and slowing down their blooming, the "mex" in fushias and purples, stays in full bloom around here in Austin well into late Aug and beyond draping out of pots and baskets. See pic above in purple, and this one of my white standard petunias. Wish they were side by side. The white are twice the size blooms than the purple "mex".

Anthemis Limelight for me. I dug it out 2 years ago and am finding wee ones ever since.
I have some camps.and hope they will behave themselves.Urtificola for sure.Self sowed into a huge bunch the first year. So far its looking great with the yellow lilies. Neither has bloomed yet and the camps will have to be reighned in but what else do I have to do.
I planted an Artemesia(not silvermound) its went everywhere.I Roundupped and am still pulling trailers out of the vedg garden.
I am warie of free bonus seeds from vendors. There is one that looks like hardy geranium and its all over the place.Sorry no ID.

AMEN on the artemesia Oriental Limelight. In z4 they told me it would be an annual. I thought, shoot, it's so pretty I wish it would come back! Some wishes should not be granted as it came back and came back and I was pulling it out of everywhere in front of my house. I moved, no longer my problem. lol