After you have been gardening for awhile you start to accumulate gardening disasters, some are excusable, a learning curve, others just make you shake your head and wonder what you were thinking..
There are a few that I am probably going to have to live with for a very long time. One of them was planting what I thought was a nice ground cover called Houttuynia. Many new gardeners mistakenly call it Hot Tuna, and it seems the name stuck, since I always refer to it as that in my head.
It does smell great when you crush the leaves, which you will be doing a lot of as you vainly try to pull up each and every root. It happily takes over all territory, and it will not die.
Another “former true love” of mine, that has decided to do it’s best to repopulate the garden is Milium effusum aureum, or Bowle’s Golden Grass. And to think that I highly recommended it to so many people, I even dug it up, and gave away chunks of it.
I’d hang my head in shame, except I didn’t know any better then.
But like a bad boy on a motorcycle, it looks so GOOD when those chartreuse fronds are blowing seed heads everywhere. Eye catching, hot! Vroom, vrooooom.
And this baby, it may be called Austrian Violet, but I only know that I got the smallest strands wrapped in tissue from a Alberta gardener. If it can live through those winters, it can live through anything. Now it grows where ever it wants, even hanging upside down from a hole in the brick fence, how it got there, I have no idea.
It’s a race to see who will take over the garden first, the Hot Tuna, the Bad Boy Grass, or the Alberta dinosaur that spreads like wildfire.
So, now I have shared my shame, what are your gardening disasters?
Come on, we all know that everyone has skeletons in the gardening shed, share.
Jen
Click on over to my new blue blog Blu oom, there are some
wonderfully blue Anemone shots today.
I have a couple that simply will NOT GO AWAY! My devils-in-disguise are the Snow on the Mountain, a beautiful Green and White Varigated Monster that grows everywhere even if you try to contain it. The Ditch DayLilies are prolific around here. At least they are pretty, but wherever you try to get rid of them they happily return with their smiling faces. And, of course, no matter how hard I try, or what I use to destroy it, and something I have NEVER planted, is the dreaded Burdock. It 'sticks' around whether you want it to or not. Once it has found its way into your yards edge, good luck getting rid of it. I just realized I have much more spring cleaning to do at the edge of the lawns. Have a busy day.
ReplyDeleteHot Tuna, a favorite record album of mine! HA We have that plant, a passalong from neighbor Mae's son. She called it Hootenanny, you have to be a certain age to even know what that is. It is unkillable, but we keep pulling it anyway, just to slow it down. It, and the vinca major, also from Mae. I do like your gold carex though! :-)
ReplyDeleteFrances
There's a guy that keeps his boat down at a nearby marina. It's called the 'Hot Tuna'. Awesomest boat name ever.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I've been gardening long enough to have major disasters. The only thing I keep doing is planting things that won't do well (rather than do TOO well, like yours).
Like, even though I have one rosebush that's overrun with black spot disease every year no matter what I do, I planted another one on the opposite side of my property. It got blackspot too of course. I used different tools on it, I didn't even go near it when I'd walked past my other bush. I didn't water overhead. It's just my stupid climate.
I research everything before I plant them, because I'm so afraid of something becoming invasive :(
Well, I did cut off the blooms of lots of flowers in our huge garden when I was a kid... Hangs head in shame...
ReplyDeleteI hate those agressive weeds. Those particular ones are not my problem but I have plenty of others. Some ground covers are just so aggressive. I have plenty of gardening blunders. I plant too close together and sometime that suppresses the plant. Oh well the strong ones will survive. Going to Blu oom now.
ReplyDeletehaha i just cant keep anything alive long enough for it to even think about taking over!
ReplyDeleteThey all do look very pretty though....I guess that's how they get their root in the door, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteOh, I hate those hard learned lessons. LOL! I have had a few too. Vinca, Crown vetch,and Trumpet vine are among the worst of my headaches.If we had only known ;-)
ReplyDeleteJen, that made me laugh so hard. Oh, I have plenty. Let's see . . . Autumn clematis (destined for Oklahoma if not world domination), obedient plant (don't get me started) and Japanese honeysuckle (which actually wasn't my mistake, but I'll be living with it forever). Thank you for the laugh and confession. I feel much better.~~Dee
ReplyDeleteI have a few of those bad boys taking over my garden right now. They look so great in those 3" pots when you buy them, don't they?
ReplyDeleteNow Hot Tuna is going to be in my head, lol. I didn't know about the carex, I have only had it a couple of years, it hasn't done anything yet. My worst was accepting variegated goutweed from a gardener, and planting it at my parents. My dad still curses me about that one!
ReplyDeletei used to be a gardener at a botanic garden...and i had to kill an entire bed of that "hot tuna" ~ it gave me chills to just see it's picture again~
ReplyDeletehate that one! i have sea oats taking over at my house right now. can't get rid of the stuff...
good luck!
Ha! Great post! I've got plenty of hot disasters. One perennial (whose name still escapes me), came wandering over from the neighbor's yard. I let it in, as well nothing else was growing there. Recently I had to dive into the now aggressively taking over perennial and rip it away from the poor shrub it was trying to devour.
ReplyDeleteWell I bought new plants for the space. Now I just got to get in there and kick out the unwelcome guest.
Bamboo, you never get it under control. So I moved. That was 31 years ago and they still have it.
ReplyDeletePatsy
Jen:
ReplyDeleteYes indeed! We've all got a few of those..... let me think back..... oh, what about Scilla.... I know, so many people love it, but its such a damned nuisance when its not in bloom! And then we have Arisarum proboscideum [commonly known as Mouse tails - yeah, a bloody infestation of them inside of a season!]... but the very worst is the Asian bloodroot relative known as Eomecon chionantha! Bladder shaped foliage, single white poppy shaped flowers....... OMFG! It spreads faster than your Hot Tuna, and rhizomes from hell and back! Three years later, its still traversing the garden path.......
Ugh - I have a few recent disasters. I transplanted several plants in February on a warmish day and then forgot to water for a month. Hey, it snowed a little in between . . . but I managed to kill 2 expensive Rozanne geraniums and 3 little english roses. Plus a bunch of lily turf and a few siberian irises. I'm still cringing over my stupidity!
ReplyDeleteI got a few "Perennial Snapdragons" from a friend..turned out to be butter and eggs the wild flower that goes everywhere..oh and that junky White Daisy that I love..it goes everywhere too..if they can survive my neglect then they deserve to stay and be photographed:)
ReplyDeletePutting shade plants in spots that were too sunny and cringing as I came home and saw them limp and scorched day after day. Watering helped my guilt, but relocation was in order.
ReplyDeleteThose are the fun side of gardening, not necessarily limited only on good produce, perfect glossy flowers. I enjoy seeing this element of race in plants, about who will outlast the rest. For the moment, a creeper we call "pegaga" is all over the place... but it is fun to do weeding.. haha. ~bangchik
ReplyDeleteI am rooting for the Austrian Violet, it looks so pretty.
ReplyDeleteWell my biggest gardening disaster is the flowerbed everything drowns in when it rains.
I don't know if it is the real botanical name, but we have a "Bouncing Betty" It is a nightmare. It has a small lavender clump of flowers, on a standing leafed stem, (I will have to take a picture) It is hard to explain, and harder to deal with. ha ha. You have such beautiful foliage, it is hard to believe it isn't all welcome. Good to visit again my friend.
ReplyDeleteI've made so many of them, it's hard to pick. I've over-planted. Planted in a space that had lots of sun. UNTIL the trees filled with leaves come spring. Yep, when you stop making mistakes, you're probably dead and just haven't fallen over yet!
ReplyDeleteBrenda
I remember years ago in Calgary planting Snow on the Mountain, I'd actually paid $2.49 per pot for them! My neighbour, hanging over the fence as I worked, asked me why,oh why was I planting weeds? Ah well, live and learn. Now in Victoria I got them along with a gift plant from a friend, they have spread although, in some spots they do work. I can see why you got the Hot Tuna, it's quite nice looking....but then so is Snow on the Mountain.
ReplyDeleteI just had to laugh out loud when I read Patsy's comment that she MOVED from the bamboo!!! We have been pulling up English ivy for years. Someone planted it and it actually grew through the brick wall into our basement! Wishing you a great Sunday Jen.
ReplyDeleteMy worst nightmare is a trumpet vine. It is growing everywhere. Across the roof and under the siding on the house. The more I pull out the more starts I seem to have. It's only redeeming grace - the hummingbirds love it.
ReplyDeleteYour photography is inspiring! I love it. It is wonderful to see how much your work has changed over the years. I have enjoyed following you.
ReplyDelete