What's the plant you regret putting in?

[BarrelOfOtters]

betony Great for wildlife it said, good for dry places....didn't mention it spreads like buggery and it a pain to dig out..not impossible but spreads under ground. Completely unsuited for my small front border....

There's also a rather lovely ceonothus that is rather too big for the spot by the greenhouse door and is making encroachments ....

Another one for Houttuynia cordata. I didn’t plant it; a predecessor did, but when I saw it in my new garden I groaned. I spent much of my time as a gardener trying to contain it and here it is. I also have Japanese anemone, Acanthus and Montbretia, and bamboo encroaching from next door. I’m just pulling them all up as soon as I see leaves, but may yet resort to a blast of glyphosate.

I may come to regret where I planted Sweet Woodruff in my current garden as it likes it a lot more than in previous gardens where it was very well behaved (and then died in one).

I have not made the mistake of planting Leycesteria or Teasel in my current garden bu I have inherited Snowberry instead which is far more difficult to eradicate.

I love my sweet woodruff - it’s one of my favourite plants - and luckily I can yank out the excess, pot it up and add it to my plant stall.

Although I’m trying to be more Edith Piaf about my planting mistakes, I do rue the day I planted jasmine on an obelisk which it has now outgrown and so overwhelmed that I’ll never be able to remove either of them.

Be careful of the rue rash, it may reappear every time that bit of skin is in the sun too much.

It never recurred - perhaps I was fortunate - but the plants went immediately onto the compost heap.

Snowberry is causing problems in the wild too.

Verbena bonarensis: not enough flower power for such a tall plant. Plus it is very scratchy, and seeds itself in patio cracks. And it doesn’t last well in water, though it looks as if it should.

Apricot hollyhocks: I knew they would get rust and the leaves would be disgusting , but I persuaded myself that these would be different. They weren’t. They looked nice in a vase with the leaves pulled off, though.

I tried to persuade my friend not to plant ‘wild garlic’, even though it was last year’s foodie must have, but she did.

My peony, which has great foliage but flowers about 2 heads for a period of about 30 seconds a year. A sniff of rain and they are gone. What a waste of a metre square of my tiny garden!

Marjoram. Spreads like a bastard with runners just under the soil surface and not content with that method of self-propagation it seeds itself everywhere as well.

Alchamella mollis, bastard thing. Wish I'd known more about gardening when I was told it would be good 'ground cover'

Ha! Alchemilla mollis is one of those things I have to buy because it resolutely refuses to self-seed!

You can have mine! It's on a patch of reclaimed land...very poor soil which refuses to grow almost anything else. I've fed it and tested it. Some success with spring bulbs but all other plants refuse to take to it. It needs its own thread!

Ha! I’ll pay postage!

It sounds great! Can be made into a soothing tea!

I regret dwarf fruit trees. I don't have space for large ones, so it seemed like a good solution, but they are flimsy, prone to disease and don't give much fruit. Might have been better if I planted a few years before the recent crazy weather years.

My least favourite invader is actually grass. It surrounds everything, so is always popping back up again where I don't want it.

Someone gave me a small woodruff plant and I put it in and forgot about it. Worried now!

Rhys/sumac shrub.

Grew pretty, and big quickly but it sprung up EVERYWHERE in the lawn, from its shallow roots.

Wrecked the lawn pulling all the roots out.

There's bird cherry tree in the front hedge, it has suckered all,over the front grass and flower beds. The mower takes care of the grass, but new beds I put in are sprouting it. Plus horsetail, which is endemic here because of a local quarry. Apparently the roots go metres underground, so we are stuck with it 🤬

I have a lot of sweet woodruff but it’s one of the few things that grows in my garden so I am happy with it.

I inherited Hypericum, Crocosmia and Iris foetidissima. 20 years later I am still pulling them all up. I’ve sort of given up with the crocosmia. I have Japanese anemone which I put in a difficult spot and they’ve done well and don’t bother me too much. Vinca doesn’t get out of control in my garden. I have ivy from gardens both sides of me and it got very out of control. Lovely for the insects and birds nesting though. My hydrangeas have also flopped. I regret where I planted a rambling rose as it’s proving very difficult to prune.

@TheIsleOfTheLost we hoicked out the 15’ ‘dwarf patio plum tree’ yesterday, it’s already been lopped once! Clearly anything but dwarf, pathetically flowered once, never had a single plum in 5 years.

Yes! I had no idea it was such a spreader. I had a year when for various reasons I took my eye off the garden - came out and sweet woodruff had just taken over. I dug the lot out but it's hard to eradicate completely.

My other loathed introductions are my next door neighbours' wretched bloody bamboo (planted by their predecessor) and acanthus.

Occasionally I mutter to myself about bugle which has spread a lot but it's so pretty when it flowers. Ditto alchemilla.

Realise I missed out the most important one of all - ivy. I shake my head in wonder but when I moved in 22 years ago there was a brand new fence with a little bit of ivy coming through from next door. I ENCOURAGED it up the fence with bloody wires - absolute ninny that I am. The fence is still there, held up and invisible under mounds of ivy. The birds love it though.

There are some interesting repeat offenders on this thread - bamboo probably the highest on the list?

We have similar with ivy. On one side, with the neighbours' cooperation we've got it nearly gone and can control its attempts at regrowth. The other side and back are another matter. I keep forgetting to have a major attack on them when the birds aren't nesting in them.

Vinca can be eradicated with SBK Brushkiller, which is a plant hormone and doesn't persist in the soil. It would probably work on ivy, if the weather is rainy you might need to cover the plant with plastic.

I'd like to go back in time and stop the previous tenant planting ornamental strawberries.

Those of you overrun by Crocosmia could you tell me more about the conditions it's planted in ?
I can't get it to flourish - clay, sunny and shady spots. I do get a few weedy leaves. Very occasionally a flower.