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.

My love/hate affair with my buddleias is currently set at 'love' as they're coming into flower and look like big purple fireworks

Soon to be replaced by 'hate' when they start going brown and crispy and I have to spend all my time cutting the spent heads off and cursing them. I might give them a good chop and watch them spring back instead.

Comfrey has spread like wildfire.
The Passion flower is very restrained but the buddleia is domineering

I have a North facing garden so the only things I manage to grow successfully are nettles and grass.

Ive spent a fortune ordering expensive plants flowers and shrubs from Crocus but theyve all died:

Snowdrops (turned brown)
Bluebells (see above)
Wisteria (vine weevil)
Mile a minute (see above)
Begonias (slugs)
Potted connifers (turned brown)
Various ornamental grasses (shrivelled)
Ivy (turned black)
Apple trees (one glorious harvest then died)
Damson tree (sap ooz caused by god knows what)
Various ferns (turned brown)
Strawberry plants (produced fruit the size of a pea)

I have no luck with plants despite tending them, feeding them and watering them. My hedges however grow like weeds.

MarshaBradyo I have that. Its red for about six weeks then drops its leaves until spring. Not worth it in my opinion. I have three up against one of my sheds.

Thanks Unburnished I might see if Crocus will take it back

Yes, I was so disappointed when it happened. Got it in August and in September it went red, six weeks later it shed its leaves and new ones didnt appear until May so its bare for half the year. They dont say that on the Crocus site. I’d selected ‘evergreen climber’ specifically.

Bear breaches! I was going to take a photo of the thug of a plant that's taken over my garden and just post it, but now I know what the fuckers called!

How annoying! I do want red so don’t mind bare

I feel pining for all the red around and want my garden to change in autumn, must find out what the nicest, glowing red climber is

Any suggestions all round greatly appreciated!

Sorry one last post with pic, spending loads on the garden atm

Does this look like euphorbia growing back?

I’ve planted many seeds after taking it all out and now I’m not sure. It’s only little

Could be, Marsha. I've just spent some time hauling out euphorbia babies
I got a lovely Virginia creeper a few years back that turns lovely shades in autumn. However it is well on the way to strangling the sky dish and too high up now to prune iyswim

I love lemon balm but the bloody thing spreads everywhere. Ditto borage. I must have about a million self-seeded borage plants. At least they keep my children happy (they love to eat the flowers).

The plant I suggest people don't bother with is spinach. You get about three leaves from a plant and then it bolts. Little bastard. I have officially given up on it now.

Chives!!!! I love the purple flower heads, but they spread everywhere and especially into the spaces between the slabs on the patio. I cannot get the damn roots out, and even the flame thrower will not kill them off.

I love aquilegia, and try to shake the seed heads out all over the crappy patch of soil in the back garden to get them to spread even more. My lucifer crocosmia used to be lovely but is now just a mass of leaves with very few flowers - it is, however, the only thing that will put up a fight against the brambles I can't reach at the end of the garden.

I wish I hadn't planted my wisteria. I adore the flowers and the smell, but it outgrew the space and was invading the garage roof next door so I had to get rid. Cut it right down the base but it still keeps coming back, and it's too big to dig up.

Thanks Hoochy

Strawberry plants (produced fruit the size of a pea)

Maybe they were alpine strawberries?

I have them everywhere in my garden. Truly indestructable.

I'm almost tempted to plant some Bears Britches - just so I have the joy of something with such a crazy name.

😂 @ urge to burn and destroy

I have cotoneaster that is unsightly and has spread like crazy. I think I originally planted it as I wanted evergreen plants, and wasn't fussy about what they were

I adore Hydrangea, but wasn't aware of how much water they needed

I like my buddleia (spelling) but according to MN, it's a weed. So that has very much put me off it

I am puzzled when folk say Aquiligia seeds like mad. Mine doesn't, still in the same place never an offshoot. Would it be the kind of variety that doesn't spread do you think. I really like them.

But thankfully have a common or garden mallow coming up behind it and although it is cheap and cheerful, it is colourful and it HAS spread a bit!

The passion flower, I swear is growing a mile a minute. But TBH that's what I want it to do. To cover a brick wall. The flowers are lovely and are followed by yellow fruits later on.

I will chop down the Virginia Creeper when the red leaves are gone in Autumn. I don't like it much and it just grows and grows, in the wrong place of course!

Loving the thread.

I like my buddleia (spelling) but according to MN, it's a weed. So that has very much put me off it

If you like it, it's not a weed! I like mine too - the butterflies love it and it's not too hard to keep under control (i had a new pair of loppers for my birthday and I'm not afraid to use them!).

I am puzzled when folk say Aquiligia seeds like mad. Mine doesn't,

Is yours a 'normal' one or a fancy cultivar? I think it's the more ordinary ones which self-seed readily.

Interestingly, the aquilegia that has self seeded up and down our whole street sometimes comes up as double flowered in my garden. Who knows what it was originally, I don’t even know which house it came from!

I think your location and soil type play a big role in what becomes a pest. I’m guessing aquilegia loves damp, heavy soil! Buddleia, on the other hand, does not seem to be so invasive up here, compared to places I’ve lived in the south west where it was everywhere and a real nuisance.

I've got mostly quite damp and heavy soil, though not necessarily where the aquilegias are flourishing.

Staghorn sumac. I didn't plant it, it's next door, but I have two of them in my front bed now. They have a fairly hideous reputation but they're glorious in autumn so I think I'll let one stay.

Catnip. I planted a couple of varieties for the cats and sure enough, they love it, but it's got empire-building tendencies.

I'm loving ladies mantle, chinese lanterns and shamrock for filling in a difficult corner under west and north facing walls. Unkillable, they are. I've thrown in a big hydrangea with them, for height, and with a backdrop of variegated ivy, the whole thing is a glorious mishmash of greens.

I’m guessing aquilegia loves damp, heavy soil!

I’ve got loads and my soil is sand and dry, even after heavy rain it’s dry.

Had a day off today. Hacked the Virginia Creeper, well I pruned it a bit. Same with the Passion Flower, god that is one gorgeous shrub. Evergreen here in Winter too. Trimmed back the Acquilegia, saved some seed heads, but I do that every year and nothing ever grows from them at all!

Lavender along the walls is looking good. The lavender in the front on one side only is plagued with that AWFUL bindweed. I give up now. Cannot tame it at all.

Low maintenance is my Holy Grail. Am getting there slowly.

Tips for nuking bindweed gratefully accepted. But I'm guessing there are none really. Have been battling that for nearly 10 years now, and it has defeated me, sadly.