What do you regret planting in your garden?

[MyRabbit79]

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.

Borage is annoying. The fuzzy bits on the leaves make me itch ferociously.

I wear gloves to pull up borage but I do love it's beautiful blue flowers, I have a patch of my allotment where it mixes with the orange California poppies and looks stunning.

But prune other Viburnums after they flower.

Yes, they do that once the body has decayed and collapsed…

No, they spread by seed rather than runners. But they’re easy to pull out

Well, Galium odoratum is a perennial cousin of goosegrass/cleavers/sticky willy - Galium aparine

Thanks, someone said birage has blue flowers I looked up yes I have borage,

Daffodils, only one of them flowers and the others are just ugly leaves. Has been this way for 3 years...

Mine were coming up blind until I started feeding them when they're in leaf.

25 years?!
That’s disheartening. I’m only on year 3 of digging.

Last year was my first year of digging. I got loads of bulbs out and dug quite deep. They were like potatoes. Lo and behold they still came up looking happy and healthy this year

@piperatthegates I like forget me nots seeding everywhere as they are useful ground cover when there’s not much else about and look good with tulips. And very easy to pull out. good for early bees too.

some hardy geraniums, like Roxanne, are easy enough to dig out. I’ve got some 8nvading from a neighbour that are tough as old boots, if I get them out young it’s ok….otherwise I smother with mulch and find tha5 softens my clay soil enough that they ge5 easier to dig up with a big garden fork….

If they didn’t, nurseries wouldn’t bother to sell it

I like forget me nots seeding everywhere as they are useful ground cover when there’s not much else about

I was very glad of mine in spring 2020 when I couldn't get pansies or primulas - I transplanted quite a few into areas which would otherwise have been bare, they can be moved easily. I've not got them coming back in those areas now.

@ErrolTheDragon ah, worth a try, thank you! I expected a beautiful bank of daffodils so maybe next time..

lavender borders only work if you prune them hard every year. But you have to be really careful not to prune into the old wood.
They take a lot more looking after than you would think

Bloody snowberry . Its a thing of the devil. It spreads everywhere, total nightmare. Rhu is a lovely tree with soft antler like branches, didn't realise it suckers....all over my lawn. Crocosmia also a feckin nightmare.

I wish my neighbours hadn't planted bamboo.

It pops up in my border and you can almost see it growing.

Horrible invasive stuff. 😞

I don't know what sort it is - and I didn't plant it - but I've got a rose that came with my garden that has thorns so big that you can't get within six feet of it. I have to prune in a suit of armour and metal gauntlets otherwise it will try to have my eye out. It has beautiful fragrant flowers through the season, but if it embeds itself in my scalp once more when I'm trying to sniff them, it's going to have to go.

^This! with bells on

I have heard that if you contantly remove every green part, eventually it will stop being able to photosysthesise and die... but so far no success with this method (or round up, or digging it out) doesn't help that it is still in our neighbours garden through the fence...

The current plan is to get the guinea pigs (who are keen on it) to graze it down and turn it into fertilizer... here's hoping the bastard thing can't regrow after its been digested. Although the way it is growing again I might need to adopt a whole herd of guinea pigs for this to be effective!

Last weekend I had to saw down a cordyline that was over 7ft tall. Surprisingly sturdy trunk & it was very heavy.
We’ve only lived here 6 years, it wasn’t there when we moved in, it just seemed to appear overnight. I noticed a new one yesterday that’s just 5 inches tall. The garden was overgrown when we moved in so I’m assuming the previous owners planted and they’ve taken off as we’ve cleared.

I planted a cordyline in our last house and we were there 14 years, it never went above knee height so I had no idea they got so big.

I didn't plant these but I have a constant battle with:
3 cornered leek
Ground elder
Mares tail
Alkanet
Sticky willie
Couch grass
Crocosmia
Elder tree, just appeared one day and is huge.
Holly
tree ivy
I think they would all survive a nuclear explosion

Thistles ... oh myGod , fecking thistles.

Last year they started growing in the lawn.
Darling Golden Retriever was rolling on the lawn.

Cue me, with scissors, hacking through his coat trying to get baby teasels out.

Yes , wildlife loves them , particularly finches but we get feck all finches!

Thistles are bastards.

I'm on a mission to dig out every bit of ground elder root in shrubbery even if takes all summer, made a start covered about two feet by 10 inches deep 🤔

Was it a red one ? I had to hack mine down, the roots went on forever. Never again.