Sunday, October 3, 2010

Garden Regrets

After a leisurely stroll through the garden, marveling the still lush and green garden, a definite rarity here in August, I started thinking about the plants I have tried to eradicate.  That's right, I most definitely have plants I wish I didn't have growing in the yard.  Sad parts is that at one point of time I planted them myself.  some, I read could be pest, yet I planted them anyway, others just suddenly took over.

Many of my unfortunate choices are so called Texas Natives, purchased from the annual LBJ Wildflowercenter.
A few notable ones are:
Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum, floppy appearance, spread like wildfire.11581i1496730230012194

Spiderwort....aaaah, started with one plant, I now three years later can supply plants to nurseries without seeing less of them.  They are absolutely stunning in early spring when they are in full bloom.  They just reproduce a zillion times faster than I would like.

11579iFB1CD96984F998EAPink Evening Primrose Oenothera speciosus, a definite regret.  Stunning when first in bloom, then it looks ragged and no matter how many 55gal trash containers you fill, you can never ever get rid of them.  I soooo wish wish wish I didn't bring that plant home.

Then there's the Native Texas Passion flower, It pops up everywhere, the underground runners go everywhere. 

I guess the lesson learned is, planting wildflowers is a great Idea, just something that should never be executed in real gardens.

Other notables are:
4 o'clocks... they develop giant tupers, you can pull and pull, yet they come back.  Never really look good, insects love chewing the leaves, always look ragged.

Liriope.... also a plant that likes to take over, i could cover nursery stock for half the us, and you still wouldn't be able to notice that I have thinned them out.