Chickadee Gardens recently wrote about five plants she regretted adding to her garden. I've gardened long enough that I have a list like that, too. Longtime gardeners like me are lucky if our list only contains five items. Here's my biggest regrets.
When we moved into this house, we spent the first couple of years coming up with a design. Along the way we considered a lot of different ideas. We wondered how it would look if we turned the back garden into a prairie. So we just stopped cutting the grass and waited to see what would happen. We got a daisy invasion. We thought it looked lovely until we realized we'd unleashed a monster. We're still dealing with those darn daisies.
I used to say that I'd never met a Carex I didn't like. But that was before I met a couple that I learned to loathe. I planted a clump of Carex muskingumensis (palm sedge) in the bog area of our pond. Alas, it was in the days before Google or I might have noticed this statement on the Missouri Botanical Gardens fabulous website: "Plants slowly naturalize by rhizomes in optimum growing conditions."
I provided optimum conditions and could not get rid of these plants. Since they were in the bog I could not dig deeply without cutting into the pond liner. Mark managed to finally get rid of them when he disassembled the pond last summer. Carex muskingumensis is the feathery "grass" going across the middle of the image below.
I planted a Tiger Eye Sumac intending to eventually limb it up to reveal the planting below it. I put in a few Carex 'Blue Bunny' aka 'Hobbs' directly under the Sumac and they immediately took over. The Sumac ended its life in the storm where we got 11 inches of rain in a few hours. But I am still finding the deadly Blue Bunny all over this part of the garden. Luckily it is distinctive enough that I can easily distinguish it from my other Carexes when I see it and dig it out.
Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) is a native ground cover that was beyond aggressive in my garden. If I could have had some scattered patches of it like the one below, I would have have been happy. But it romped around like crazy and ate everything in its path. It died back early and came up late. I'm still pulling it out where ever I see it.
Last, but definitely not least, are Pulmonarias; a plant that is still very popular among many gardeners. I have tried to get rid of every Pulmonaria but one. Alas the others have planted themselves in the gardens of my neighbors on two sides and thus keep reappearing in my garden. Pulmonaria rubra 'David Ward' has never spread in twenty years. It comes up very early sporting apple green leaves edged in white. This is the only one that I've found to be regret-free.
Please alert me to the plants you regret adding to your garden so I don't make any more big mistakes.
Gooseneck Loosestrife. Love the look, but it took over. I did finally get rid of all of it, because I just had it in a narrow bed along the garage. I somehow got some variegated liriope with some other plant from a friend, and it spreads like crazy for me, though apparently not for a friend half a mile away (?). I am still digging that out every year. I have a love/hate relationship with spiderwort. It spreads horribly in my garden, but I still have it, because it blooms when I need some color, and I really do love things about it. And I get very excited every year when my Sweet Kate Spiderwort shows up. There was vinca in a bed when we moved in, and it tries to spread. Whenever I see patches of it taking over our local woods, I want to come home and blowtorch our patch, but we haven't yet found any other ground cover that will grow well on the hot and dry west side of the house. And some bird planted a gooseberry in our yard, and we have a nice bush now for the birds. I would love to dig that nasty thing out, but Jim thinks it should stay. I did prune it heavily last year, and am not allowing new ones to stick around. There may well be more, but that's what's coming to mind right now.
Posted by: Kristin | Friday, February 11, 2022 at 08:24 AM
KRISTIN — We had Gooseneck Loosestrife in our first garden and I loved it. But it was contained by concrete on three sides and so controlled. Have thought about Lirope but have not tried it. I get a similar look with Carexes and they are generally better behaved for me. Thanks for all the advice.
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Friday, February 11, 2022 at 08:33 AM
Yes, stay away from liriope. Some is well behaved but then there is the rest. Pink muhly grass, though lovely when it blooms, grows into very large clumps and those lovely pink waving wands are full of seeds that create tiny clumps that you don't see until it is too late and the bed has expanded beyond all expectation. Somebody suggested it for a Habitat For Humanity house that we were landscaping and I shuddered at what the non-gardening homeowner would go through after a couple of years. Absolutely not, I said.
Posted by: Barbara H. | Friday, February 11, 2022 at 10:21 AM
BARBARA — OK, Liriope is definitely on the NO NO list. I just ordered one pink Muhly for Zone 5. I will be careful where I put it and watch it as well. Frankly I am doubtful it will really be hardy in Zone 5 despite what they say.
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Friday, February 11, 2022 at 10:45 AM
Both your post and Tamara's offer great warnings for other gardeners, although what will take off in one garden and not others is often defined by climate. I can't even imagine a daisy invasion! However, I do now look askance at any plant that spreads via rhizomes. That's NEVER a good thing in my estimation. I was sold on native Symphyotrichum chilense (blue flowers!) based on the assurance that it was "manageable" in low-water gardens. It was - until the odd year we got 160% of our usual annual rainfall. Even though I dug up a large area last year to remove it, I suspect I'll being pulling out renegade shoots forever. I made a similar mistake with Liriope spicata, which spreads the same way.
Posted by: Kris P | Friday, February 11, 2022 at 01:36 PM
KRIS — You are the third Lirope warning!
Posted by: Linda Brazill | Friday, February 11, 2022 at 02:33 PM
Oh no. I have to look and see if what I have growing is 'Blue Bunny'... and if it's spreading (so far I don't think), and 'Ice Dance' came with a warning so my eye is on that one as well. Silly me for trying to copy someone who loves carex!
I think I have a high tolerance for spreaders and rarely regret planting things. Maybe I resent all the work spent digging it back out but only a few things were regretted. Gooseneck loosestrife, vinca and campanula glomerata are in that category. Liatris spicata (not the clumping liriope) and ranunculus ficaria are also plants that give me mild panic attacks lol
Oh. I love my weedy daisies ;)
Posted by: Frank | Friday, February 11, 2022 at 06:10 PM
Hmmm, I added a bit of Asarum canadense in the spring of 2020, so far it's been well behaved but now I know to keep an eye on it.
Posted by: danger garden | Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 11:35 AM
Alstroemerias. They will be in my garden long after I am gone!
Posted by: Christine | Friday, February 18, 2022 at 09:58 AM