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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

What do you regret planting in your garden?

230 replies

MyRabbit79 · 10/04/2023 14:06

Inspired by the current thread about the plants and weeds people are currently battling, what are the plants you've purposely sown or planted in your garden and come to regret?

For me, it's aquilegia and forget-me-nots.

I bought some aquilegia for our front garden when we moved here and it pops up everywhere, looks messy and I don't love the flowers

Forget-me-not - I sowed these from seed two years ago out the front. They're now everywhere including in the pots, gravel and back garden. Planning to pull most of it up after it's flowered this year.

OP posts:
ThreeKneeRepeater · 10/04/2023 15:36

Euonymus. Waste of space. I’m giving it one more season then it’s out.

BestIsWest · 10/04/2023 15:39

Grape hyacinths. They look very pretty at the moment but my God do they multiply and spread. And the tiny bulbs give me the creeps for some reason.

ehb102 · 10/04/2023 15:41

IrmaBunt · 10/04/2023 14:11

Jerusalem artichoke. They. Never. Die.

Same. The Japanese knotweed of the allotment world. We only like them enough to eat them a couple of times a year. If the ground is frozen and we have to dig the things up we don't get any.

Doggydarling · 10/04/2023 15:42

Dogs. They look good but the noise they are making today really puts me off them.

Mumofazoo · 10/04/2023 15:46

Two different types of jasmine, just had to hack both down but they have sent runners all over.

BestIsWest · 10/04/2023 15:48

Oh yes, jasmine. Thought it would look pretty over an old pergola. Bastard thing travels underground and pops up everywhere.

MadameSzyszkoBohusz · 10/04/2023 15:52

I'm using this thread for research as I actually really want plants that will self-seed and spread out.

My garden as it is was designed by a friend of mine who works in that area. She's very nice but our tastes are vastly different - she clearly likes those very structured, tidy, almost architectural gardens, whereas I prefer "cottage gardens left to run slightly wild."

It's been three years since she did it and I'm still trying to get it to a state I'd prefer.

The one thing she did plant that has self-seeded are some bloody grasses that I didn't want and don't like and get everywhere!

Powderandpaint · 10/04/2023 15:54

Another vote for pampas grass, very fast growing and cuts your hands to ribbons when you try to prune it back. - My advice, only plant it somewhere where you can safely set fire to it when it gets too big!

Lords and Ladies/Jack in the Pulpit, the roots go to Australia.

Yellow Loosestrife - very pretty but again very invasive.

ohsuzannah · 10/04/2023 15:55

Bamboo 🤦🏽‍♀️
Took me months of digging to get rid of it!

strawberriesarenot · 10/04/2023 15:56

Wild garlic. I thought it would be lovely to be able to pick it whenever I liked. It's an absolute thug and has taken out the double white anemones, the lily of the valley, and is working on the rhubarb.

Treaclemine · 10/04/2023 16:00

I came to a garden on Clay with Flints and thought I would like things that we had on Chalk in my childhood.
Lysimachia - Creeping Jenny - galloping more like
And an upright ditto
Bluebells from the wood my mother grew up- vanished
Mint inherited from my grandad. Always been well behaved, tore away so I pt it in pots, and it has vanished
Chives - vanished
Erigeron from Mum - vanished
My neihgbour's vinca minor and ground elder - not vanished
The vendor left me with virginia creeper - nearly gone, but only because it has been taken over by grandad's rose
a rose I took cuttings from a neighbour's rootstock - takes half the garden

asdfgasdfg · 10/04/2023 16:01

I live in rented property so I grow all my plants in pots. Some root through the drainage holes so I move them around regularly. I love my passion flower, trained all over the garage I just hack at it with shears every so often

Original poster
MyRabbit79 · 10/04/2023 16:03

Duhduhdub · 10/04/2023 15:20

Two camellias. Planted seven years ago and the bloody things have never flowered. They’re perfectly healthy plants and growing well but it annoys the life out of me that they won’t flower and I wish I’d planted something else there.

Mine hasn't flowered for years. So annoying

OP posts:
bluemumsbluedog · 10/04/2023 16:04

BestIsWest · 10/04/2023 15:39

Grape hyacinths. They look very pretty at the moment but my God do they multiply and spread. And the tiny bulbs give me the creeps for some reason.

I'm the same and really regret them

Original poster
MyRabbit79 · 10/04/2023 16:05

I'm slightly worried at the number of things mentioned here that I've planted.

OP posts:
changedusername190 · 10/04/2023 16:07

Previous owners pampas grass it's taken over and impossible to kill.

Bemyclementine · 10/04/2023 16:08

I didn't plant them but my front flower bed is overrun with muscari. I'm actually thinking if embracing it and planting to complement it

Another vote for the bay tree, again I dudnt plant it but its bloody massive. As tall as next doors cottage.

RettyPriddle · 10/04/2023 16:09

Bamboo - planted by previous owners - it took years to eradicate.

KnittedCardi · 10/04/2023 16:09

Vinca. DM gave me two plants a few years ago, In have just spent the winter digging it out of two entire large beds. Terrible stuff.

A previous owner planted Spanish bluebells. Detest them. They are all wanky colours and seed everywhere. You have to dig all the teeny tiny little bulblets out or they come back. 20 years I have been digging the bastards up. Still there.

Recently I have battling a weed which has arrived. Also lots of little bulblets. Sends out green shiny leaves then red berry spikes. What is it?

userxx · 10/04/2023 16:10

7catsisnotenough · 10/04/2023 14:36

I didn't plant it but inherited a patch of Lily of the Valley 🤢
Despite the fact that I love the way it looks I can't abide the smell of it and have spent years digging it out and giving it to mad people who actually like it! It's one of the sneaky plants that gets everywhere and it even managed to break the path in places 😮

It springs up overnight.... it's creepy.

purpledalmation · 10/04/2023 16:13

Wild garlic. Dhs dumb idea.

purpledalmation · 10/04/2023 16:14

Oh and Japanese anemones they are awful to control. Anything Japanese tend to be a bit brutish

WobblyLondoner · 10/04/2023 16:17

Violets, acanthus and gallium.

Violets came with me from a previous garden - they are now everywhere but I can more or less keep them under control.

Acanthus. What can I say! It - just - will - not - die!

Gallium I planted deliberately as ground cover and was originally very pleased - ever so pretty. Then I blinked and it had taken over half the garden.

Daffodilwoman · 10/04/2023 16:19

Another vote for forget me not. My mum gave me some and it’s everywhere now. I don’t think it looks nice either.

Powderandpaint · 10/04/2023 16:21

purpledalmation · 10/04/2023 16:13

Wild garlic. Dhs dumb idea.

Not so dumb.
It absolutely stinks and keeps rabbits away.
Likewise pelargoniums - they can't stand the smell !