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.

Brilliant thread

Lonicera repens, I planted it a while back and it is making its way across the street

Red valerian, it is everywhere

Euphorbia is taking over. And it's so darn ugly.

And slugs, just why?

I had to google it it completely agree on euphorbia

I removed all of it, it was here when we bought and was taking over

More my fault than the plant’s but I need to move an acer as it’s getting burnt

Lysimachia nummularia aurea...pretty groundcover plant and I like that I can say it’s name ...however it will spread everywhere - into paths, between other plants etc and impossible to eradicate once in.

On other plants mentioned - my passiflora is behaving in a reasonable fashion atm, as are my 2 buddleias. My solanum crispum (Chilean potato vine) on the other hand, might just be trying to go for world domination - but very pretty all the same and good value.

I live buddleia and do keep a couple of plants. But every spring I remove any seedlings and cut the buddleia I want to keep right back to nothing.
A couple of years ago I managed to get rid of all the weeping sedge but again every spring I have to check the whole garden for seedlings and get rid as they are a sod to dig out once they get established.

Other horrors mentioned I like and keep but they do need control.
I have euphorias that try to escape the shady bed they are confined in.
I have crocsomia lucifer which looks lovely when in flower but needs thinning out each year.

The red valerian has managed to self seed itself in the opposite bed to where it should be.
Toadflax is trying to invade the whole garden and although it is pretty and I want one or two plants of it I don’t want it everywhere.

My bears britches is behaving itself at the moment and staying small in a shady bed.

The red campion is worth the fight to keep to manageable levels as the bees love it but I sometime think I was mad to introduce it to my garden.

Verbena bonariensis and aquilegia. Self seed everywhere. But pleasingly slug resistant.

Verbena bonariensis and aquilegia.

No!! You can't recomend people not to plant verbena bonariensis . I love the way it pops up in the middle of shrubs and rose bushes and looks like it's meant to be there. Bees and butterflies love it and we had a hummingbird moth visiting regularly last year.
Seedlings/young plants are easy to pull up if in the wrong place.

Bamboo. It's an invasive weed and the previous house owners had planted it in the front garden and the back. The roots grow horizontally just under the lawn and new stems pop up anywhere up to three metres away from the main root. It took three years of cutting the stems down to 10cm and dribbling the strongest weedkiller into every single flaming hollow stem before I got the better of it. Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Alchemilla mollis. Dig it up. Split it. Still grows like a triffid. In the lawn too

Previous own planted a chocolate mint. Nearly a decade later I'm still trying to get rid of the last damn bits.

My passion flower is amazing. But every autumn I literally hack at it with secateurs. Method free attacking. Fill the green bin. Still grows like the clappers. It's pretty though, and stops me having to look at next door!

Oh I hate as soon as someone posts for ideas for a privacy screen someone pops up to say bamboo.
Even the climbing variety is a thug nor is it pretty or insect friendly.

There are plenty of much nicer plants which you can grow for privacy but people want instant results which look nasty and I can’t help thinking they will live to regret planting it.

Climbing = clumbing

I bought a Boston Ivy to cover an ugly shed, having doubts now not sure what to do with it

Eek I have a passionflower growing up my house and bamboo! I like them but worried now!

Previous own planted a chocolate mint. Nearly a decade later I'm still trying to get rid of the last damn bits

I bought a chocolate mint when I bought this house and redid the garden. It was one of the first things I put in.

A couple of weeks and I mean, weeks later, I had another growing 10 feet away.

A leaf or stem must have broken, been blown across the path and put down roots. I dug both out immediately.

It was however THE SINGLE MOST popular plant I sold when I ran a charity nursery. I had teams of volunteers taking cuttings [stem and root]from the parent plant every week and I still sold out.

i love my buddleia! My beautiful butterfly bush!

In the nicest possible way - GGGRRRRRRRR AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH.

Fennel
Planted a small one about 7 years ago, the following year there were a dozen. I've been pulling them out ever since. AND they are not small and don't pull out easily either.
Last year my garden was a building site with diggers and builders all over it and nothing grew.

What has come back this year - before I have had chance to actually make a garden and it is mostly builders rubble. Poppies and Snapdragons - great a bit of colour and easy to remove, loads of weeds and grasses and fucking fennel.

I would have to say Jasmine for the simple reason that it flowers honestly smell like piss to me!
I cannot understand how anyone can think they smell good, all I smell is urine!

I have buddleia and lemon balm and mint and absolutely love them.
Surprised at them being mentioned here.

Also, my mint is the shitty £1 Morrisons living mint.
I have tried three times with chocolate mint and it dies every single time.
I love chocolate mint 😭

You can have my bastarding one. It refuses to bloody die.

Over the years I think Russian vine and Acanthus are the two most thuggish plants, even Roundup didn't kill them ☹️
I also planted a pretty blue flowered plant from the garden centre that's now happily rampaging everywhere- I don't know what it's called but i even have self-sown seedlings growing out of concrete 😡

Not RTFT.
Any plant that is cheap to buy is likely to be very easy to grow. Jasmine is lovely but grows like topsy. Clematis even more so, although I have killed one. A vine on a south facing wall will thrive. I have never managed to keep rhubarb alive.
Agree with the passion flower - it's a bit invasive.
I have the perfect plant to give to someone you don't like - red sorrel. Pretty and edible, and spreads.

God yes, Jasmine. Been away for two weeks and it had completely covered a small pergola, devoured the bench underneath and was in the process of smothering some climbing roses. Bastard plant has rooted itself under some patio slabs so those will have to come up. Unless I can burn it?

I also planted a pretty blue flowered plant from the garden centre that's now happily rampaging everywhere- I don't know what it's called but i even have self-sown seedlings growing out of concrete

Post a photo or two, someone will probably know.

Russian vine (aka mile a minute). Grows a metre a month. As the saying goes, you never plant it twice.
Leylandi cypress😱

@FantailsFly it always baffles me that they don't go for aquilegia- the leaves look like they should be devoured by the buggers.........