If I'd only known

[Enb76]

Which plant would you recommend that other people never plant?

I have a few and every time I seem them for sale in gardening centres I have the urge to burn and destroy.

Mine are:

Acanthus Spinosus (Bears Breeches). Never plant this unless you have many, many acres, spreads by rhizome. This is a thug of a plant which is almost impossible to kill off.

Passiflora (Passion Flower). Grows while you watch it, one evening you'll go to bed and by the next morning it will have taken over your world. It will creep into the smallest gap and is almost impossible to kill.

Sapponaria Officinalis (Soapwort) - free seeds like a bugger, doesn't die.

Most of them have the common sin of being difficult to kill off - there are other plants that I would never recommend purely because I've not been able to keep them alive but that is a much longer list.

I planted two passion flowers to provide cover over a trellis. One died within a fortnight and the other by the end of the season. I have also successfully killed clematis and rhubarb (twice). My fingers are not green ...

I killed a Clematis this year - no idea how, it just keeled over.

Crocosmia. Breeds like rabbits.

Russian vine - it's called mile a minute for a reason
Leylandii - just no
Sedum acre - it will cover an acre in no time
White summer-flowering jasmine - made it into my loft via the roof tiles

I've tried to grow passion flower several times with no luck whatsoever, they last a few weeks and that's it.

My crocosmia disappeared and the Jasmine died during the beast from the east
I killed a clematis as well🙈

I get the hump with flamingo Salix. Our one, despite harsh pruning is HUGE and it’s a dwarf so it’s wider than tall ffs so when I see one I feel like saying DO NOT BUY IT
Ditto rosemary. That is getting harshly pruned when the time comes as it blocks out light.
Leucanthemum vulgare (Ox Eye Daisy) I planted some seeds in 2014 it’s now taken over the whole garden. Now they are lovely plants but they are suffocating everything else.

I would love to hear your list of failures as I wonder if they’d be the same as mine

Hollyhocks. Breed like rabbits and grows mostly big green leaves, not pretty flowers like I imagined

@youllhavehadyourtea I HATE crocosmia with a passion!! I am constantly pulling the damn thing out of my beds and it feels like I will be doing it from now until the end of time!

Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) can be a pain. Our neighbours have one in their garden. It's a beautiful tree, especially in the autumn, but they spread underground so I keep discovering baby sumacs in my flower bed.

I HATE crocosmia with a passion!! I am constantly pulling the damn thing out of my beds and it feels like I will be doing it from now until the end of time!

Same. I so wish I'd never planted it. It spreads through everything, and I'm always pulling it out.

Its a shame because it clearly loves my garden very much...

Passiflora (Passion Flower). Grows while you watch it, one evening you'll go to bed and by the next morning it will have taken over your world. It will creep into the smallest gap and is almost impossible to kill.

Oh, I absolutely love my passion flower!

@siameasy

My list of failures is extensive! I cannot seem to grow anything from seed except broad beans - I was doing quite well this year until I left the seedlings outside to acclimatise and my friendly wood mouse family went on the rampage.

Things I have not managed to grow this year alone:
French Marigolds
Forget-Me-Nots (what is wrong with me, everyone can grow this but it hates me)
Erigeron (Russian daisy)
Borage
Tomatoes (four different sorts none of which deigned to grow)
Spinach - two leaves and bolted
Lettuce - underground slugs
Nictotiana lime green
Ox-eye daisy (I lie, I have one tiny plant that is currently sporting a singular flower)
Foxgloves

All easy to grow stuff apparently and yet, give me a passionflower which other people have difficulty with and I can turn it into a triffid.

Op - have you tried crocosmia? ;-)

My Passion flower grew about 30 cms last year. 🤣

@youllhavehadyourtea

I have two sorts of crocosmia, an orange Emily McKenzie and a red Lucifer. They pootle along but are not rabid triffids - in my mother's garden they've practically taken over in less time than they've been in my garden and she lives only about two miles away from me. Hers in a jungle garden and mine is more English cottage type. I think the hardy geraniums keep them at bay. I like crocosmia though so even if it was thuggish I'd make my peace with it much like I've made my peace with the Japanese anenome which gets everywhere but I have to keep it at bay with a chair and a whip.

I've been trying to kill a passion flower for years, although there's a lot more than one now as it turns up all over the garden attaching itself to everything. I try to collect up all the fruits it produces but it still manages to reseed itself everywhere.

Maybe you have some Acanthus I could take off your hands? My beds are all overgrown with bindweed, stickyweed and greater celandine

Yes my forget me nots went rusty
My failures are the majority of the cottage garden favourites
Hollyhock
Delphiniums
Lupins
Foxgloves
Aquilegia
All cultivated daisies
We are heavy clay and SLUG
I got one Borage out of a billion seeds but I’m aghast at your Ox Eye Daisy failure I would happily donate some of ours!!!

On the other hand I have great success with scabious but they are reasonably civilised

Leucanthemum vulgare (Ox Eye Daisy) I planted some seeds in 2014 it’s now taken over the whole garden. Now they are lovely plants but they are suffocating everything else.

Maybe I should try those and see if they will compete with the red campion and herb Robert which are swamping my back border.

Another unexpected thug which tried to take over my rockery was Labrador violets.

Japanese anemone. I ordered and planted a selection of varieties. They escaped from the raised bed into the surrounding paths as well as swamping everything in the bed. Digging them out had no effect, so I have now removed everything else from the bed instead and blast the anemones with weedkiller every time they surface. I'm one year into the battle.

Lady's Mantle (alchemilla mollis). It grows everywhere here. I had a serious go at digging/ pulling loads out over the winter,but here it is again. Admittedly it looks pretty at the moment but I need to attack the flowers before they seed-again.

I'm always gobsmacked to see it for sale in garden centres. Why would you?
I must have thrown away hundreds of pounds worth!!

Aquilegia for me. I don’t even know if a previous owner planted it or if it spread down the street but it is everywhere. Surprisingly tough to pull up as well. Previous owner definitely did plant the crocosmia though .
In a previous garden we had, someone had planted those ginormous spiky yuccas. Really vicious leaves and impossible to dig up without mechanical aid.

Crocosmia....it’s taken over the front garden

Hawthorn hedge at the allotment...just cut it, spiny tall fucker.

Aquilegia self seeded everywhere but I like them
Borage, cerinthe, foxgloves, forget me not and calendula self seeding everywhere.

Delphiniums, nothing, alliums never come back...

My bugbear is astrantia, I can never get the blooming thing to grow. I’m on my third try now but I don’t hold out much hope.

Agree about anemones. I think they look depressing-not sure why.

Why do people buy Euphorbia-I think it’s so ugly

Also I know Red Robin is a good hedge but the flowers smell awful

Agree campion about Lady’s Mantle. I’ve seen it growing wild and thought ugh

Errol my red campion got eaten by slugs😭Ox Eyes would look lovely with a red campion. Weirdly we don’t ever get Herb Robert here in Kent but when I lived in London it was everywhere (I’m not a fan)

I love this thread, slagging off plants lol No one in real life would get it! I regularly slag off certain plants and insects to DH who looks jaded by it all

I've had bear britches 3 years and it did absolutely nothing except get eaten by slugs. Then this year it's flowering madly.....weird.
I do love my ladies mantle and euphorbia though - nothing eats them 😀😀