You all are too funny! LOL
Jumping in to say I'm sorry I planted Arundo Donax. I was told it was bamboo and it was a well-behaved bamboo, at that. HA!!! I know better now.
Here it is when it looks nice.
what are you sorry you planted..
Sorry, we crossed!
Yeah, bindweed. Yuck. It has taken me four years to at least keep that one at bay.
Mint I ALWAYS keep in a container, I'm still dealing with coreopsis 'moonbeam' - any one want some? http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/535/ There's much more new growth than I had feared - maybe it should just be an all-coreopsis-all-the-time-bed.
The previous owners planted it but yucca is the bane of my existence. There were over 50 grown plants when we moved in and every time I dig one up, 5 or more grow in its place. I will be battling it for years to come!
Joanne
I'm a little sorry I planted labrador violets, too. Yes, they are very pretty in the Spring, but I find in my garden that they purple leaf color soon fades and then you're just left with plain old murky green violets and a lot of them, because they seem to pop up everywhere.
Wow, this is an old thread! Started in 2004.
There's nothing I'm really sorry that I planted, but a few things I'm sorry I planted where I did. I wish my tradescantia wasn't right up by my front door--I'll probably move it when I get my other part-shade garden ready to plant.
I guess I wish I'd planted different types of plants, too. I really took the idea of planting low-growing plants in the front of the garden and taller plants to the back to heart, so I have very short dianthus and cranesbill and dwarf columbine at the front of the border with mid-sized plants toward the back. My border isn't very deep, so I ran out of room for the taller show-stoppers I now wish I'd planted. I've started to resolve this problem this year by donating some plants to my mom and buying some tall phlox and delphiniums. I guess I wish I'd planted taller plants overall. I like that bushy, semi-rampant cottage garden look, and I don't quite have it.
Is Jsdy the Uber gardener still on here/still reading the threadl?
I wanted to know about hops and why you wish you hadn't planted it. I have a single seedling that's 1" tall right now. Some butterflies use it as host plant, and I thought I wanted it. Now I'm not so sure.
Suzy
Suzy,
I have been growing both hops and kiwi vine up the same structure for three years now. I planted both of these vines knowing full well that most folks who's hort. knowlege I respect consider them both thugs. Hops is not a vine I can turn my back on often in the wee morning hours I found myself putting down my cup of tea to hack it back off neighboring plants but so far I don't seem to mind this added chore to this plant. I love the color and texture of this vine enough to go the extra needed mile. I look around my photo files and see if I can find a photo for you. kt
I would like to see all the Horsetail bundled up and on the next Columbia space mission.....I think if we could get all the Horsetail on a planet, say Mars, it might not get in my border again.......at least not from there....from Venus it could spread but not Mars......:)
Paul from Alabama
My BIL said that by where he works, all the horsetail has been ousted by giant reed grass. Hmmm...
kwanjin, this the point where I would say good, but I think the replacement of one invasive by another isn't a good deal either but if you don't mind let me smirk at Horsetail just a moment.......:)
Paul from Alabama
I'm going to smirk with you, if that's okay? LOL
i can not get little marigolds or primroses to grow and look good here. plant them they look great then they shrink and get all nasty looking. so i gave up. no more for me. and around here we have the very invasive yellow scotch broom everywhere! gets into everyones yards! grrrrrrrr
oh I love my pink primroses. They are so pretty. I even brought some with me from my old house. They do travel though ..lol. I really hated my nearly wild rose bushes. I planted them in a street side flower bed and they did not stay tidy at all. They grew long octopus arms and the thorns....oh my. I finally traded those off and I was bleeding in a dozen places when I dug them, even with gloves! I adore my perilla but I have never seen a plant reseed the way they do! Literally thousands of baby plants, even when I cut all but two flower stalks off.
Carrie,
I agree with your completely on the coreopsis. I had a large overgrown patch when I bought my house three years ago. I have divided, killed, and am giving away, but it mulitplies like crazy. It's actually very pretty, but I don't need 500 plants!
KT, You prune it that often? Off the neighbor's plants? YIkes! Maybe I ought to think twice about it then.
Salvia 'Black and Blue'----but not TOO sorry I planted it, as it is a gorgeous, vigorous plant with that just blooms and blooms and blooms. Problem is, it also spreads and spreads and spreads, by underground runners.......Not a bad plant to have too much of, but somehow, I envisioned having more than one species in my garden!
Surprised to see all the bad press for lamium---its so pretty, I'm not sure I could have too much of it, given that it is fairly low and chokes out weeds.
English ivy, of course---no one needs more English Ivy!
I have English ivy growing over an old septic system in my front yard. It was here when we moved in. Oddly enough, it hasn't misbehaved. It's growing in and around a bunch of good-sized rocks someone piled over the septic area and it's never invaded the lawn. I must be lucky.
yotedog......just a thought but planting some orange cosmos in front of, behind or in some Black and Blue salvia looks mighty pretty I think, a nice combination, I saw it once and I'm trying it out this year....I've had the salvia for years but my first year planting cosmos from seeds.....coming up nicely though
Paul from Alabama
Frankly, I am happy to hear that the Black and Blue Salvia could be considered invasive. OLut here in this sand, many things will grow and not "invade".
Molly
Seems somehow like the trick is to find the perfect balance of zone/rain/cold/elevation and soil/clay/sand and shade/sun/woodland et cetera et cetera to find something that will survive without taking over! ^_^ There is a concurrent thread called "what did not come back this year"...
I think you must be right, Carrie...if so many things are SO horrible, why do they even sell them? Seems like some of them should come with big fat warning labels...thank God for the internet.
carrie nailed it I think....I grow B & B salvia in fairly good soil, drains well etc......Do them fleshy white thing-a-mah-jiggies run under the soil around their base, yep they do but are easy enough to remove....I just lift them up like pulling carpet and they tear off about where I want them too if I handle them right.....if you got a smaller stand of them you can use a long sharp knife and cut around the plant the area you want it to be and the runners outside that area come up lickedly split....the knife only works if your soil ain't of a hardness close to diamonds though....Just my experience, I don't think of B&B salvia as invasive where I am but just mighty happy......Horsetail on the other hand, is spelled I,N,V,A,S,I,V,E........:)
If any of you people have some B&B Salvia root-things you can put in a bubble envie to me, I would be very, very happy to take that old weedy thang off your hands! Happy enough to send you postage right back!
I had to look up Horestail -- never heard of it! As soon as I saw it, though I recognized it from a corner of my house where I have all kinds of noxious weeds...some sort of bindweed, some sort of wild pea, and this horsetail stuff. I usually just throw 10" of mulch over everything and it's mid July before I see it again. By then it's too hot and dry for me to care. LOL! I'm glad to have the name of it, though. I never knew what it was.
Suzy
kwanjin & Illoquin,
Hops which is technically not a vine attaches itself with short hairs (that feel like a cats tongue) dies back to the ground in the winter and come spring grows from 1-3 inches a day! I thought I had a better photo but this one shows just how golden Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’ is when the sunlight is captured in its leaves. kt
KT, Do they reseed? I could MAYBE keep up with one, esp that Aureus, but if they start seeding all over the garden I would be most unhappy...what's your take?
Suzy
Yes, I'd like to know, too.
Illoquin & Kwanjin,
For the sake of clarity I believe I should mention that my experience has been with Humulus lupulus (Common hops)which is perennial and is most often propagated by division or cutting. In three years I have not seen a single volunteer and for me ‘Aureus’ seems to have maxed out at height somewhere between 8-10 feet. There is however a Japanese Humulus that is an annual which is even more aggressive and will freely reseed. kt
Thank you. That helps as a starting point. ☺
My chocolate Joe Pye weed has little babies coming up everywhere within a 12-foot radius this spring. I left the flower heads on the plant over the winter...never again!
This message was edited May 8, 2008 1:07 PM
Illoquin--be careful what you wish for!!! Send me a Dmail sometime, and I'll send you some.....
Suzy, I'm afraid that I remember B and B salvia isn't hardy as far north as we are. Don't quote me, but I remember wanting to grow it and learning it wouldn't come back up here.
Yeah, I know it's not hardy, but I live in denial. I had some Impatiens come back after I put it in the compost pile for the winter (this past winter), and many years I have had snapdragons and Salvia Veronica come back. I keep thinking I will find the magic formula because our winter last year only got down to 0 and that was just for one or two nights. That's Z7. If I put it in a little corner where 2 red brick walls come together that faces south, or southwest, wouldn't that bump me up a zone? Well, you get the drift. I am searching for that formula. :)) Or a way to hold it over inside...I'd rather have it outside, but inside would be okay, too.
Yotedog-- on my way to dmail you :))
Suzy
well, my demise has been purple loosestrife. Some fool told me that it wasn't as invasive as the gooseneck loosestrife and like a fool, I believed them. The crud runs under/over anything and where it doesn't run it manages to reseed even though I try to deadhead. Second to that is my choclate mint. At least it has an upside though, when the wind blows the yard smells like minty cocoa.
lol@minty cocoa. Mine smells like basil from all the purple perilla. the only plant other than the nearly wild roses that I wish I had not planted is my russian sage. Just too big for the scheme of things and is spreading.
I am convinced that gooseneck loosestrife and cockroaches will be the last two standing! Years ago when I first began gardening I recall clearly walking proudly from the nursery to my car with not one but three pots of gooseneck loosestrife when I stopped to chat with the owner she mentioned pointing to my purchase that I may only need one of those. Of course I smiled politely and changed the subject thinking all the while doesn't she know I am an experienced gardener and know that you should buy three of everything in order to make a great impact! Fifteen years later the gooseneck that I have battled with everything in my arsenal has traveled from one side of my yard to the other and has now creeped into my neighbors yard who thinks it is soooooooo pretty. kt
I love the look, the smell, etc....but I lived to regret planting Chocolate Mint in one of my beds....that was a nightmare. I pulled and pulled and finally got it all out of my bed. That stuff spreads like crazy.
Nana3
runktrun....Loved your post and got just one thing to tell you.....Been there, done that...Very same plant, very same scenario...Who'd a thunk it......:)
Paul from Alabama
KT, LOL! Sounds like somehting I would do! I planted it from plants that somebody gave me and it looked really good for about 4 years. I always thought I would do some flower arranging with the flowers, but I never did.
The firth year I realized it was going to get the better of me, and by years 6-7-8, I spent an inordinate amount of time pulling it up, then mowing it over. It was indestructible, but luckily on year 10 or 11, we had an addition put on the house and I told the guy digging the foundation to put all the extra soil right one top of it. The soil was eight feet tall, and about 15 feet in diameter, give or take, so it was all covered, and then some, and stayed that was for about 18 months. when they went to regrade, I had them bring in extra soil to raise the grade a bit, so it is still under about 4 feet of soil. Probably still growing LOL!
Suzy
Oh, runktrun, can I relate to that! I moved my gooseneck loosestrife last fall to a location where I wouldn't mind it spreading. Lo and behold, this spring, a LARGE clump of it has reappeared where I *thought* I had dug it all out. Sigh.
Funny, my purple loosestrife has always been very well-behaved. When I bought it, the nurseryman said it was a horticultural cultivar and not the invasive variety. How right he was. Still can't buy it in a garden center anywhere any more, though. I live in fear that the Garden Police will come and make me dig it all out some day. ;)