It wasn't a garden plant, but a succulent: a queen of the night. I had the dam* thing for 12 years and it had gotten huge in its great big clay pot. I had dragged it through four moves. AND THE UGLY THING HAD NEVER BLOOMED WITH THOSE LOVELY MYSTICAL FLOWERS THE BOOKS ALL TALK ABOUT...DAM* IT!!!!

Finally I babied the conditions enough and it bloomed one full moon in July. Ooooh, Ahhh!!

Then, with a great deal of guilt, instead of dragging the plant in from the cold once again to overwinter, I purposely left it out on the deck as winter closed in. I let all 36-inch-pot of this queen of the night freeze to death and threw the skeleton out in the compost pile in the spring.

Today a well behaved brugmansia that blooms beautifully every summer and fall for weeks inhabits that pot, although I still have to drag it in to overwinter.

I tried calla lilies, glads and some of the other non-hardy bulbs over the years, but decided this wasn't for me. If it can't survive a zone 4 winter, it's history.

boy have i repressed the memories.. lol ..

yes.. yes.. the glads, canna and dahlia .. that in MI.. have to be dug up.. dried for a week.. crated.. and dragged to the basement.. or crawl space...

then, while still child-less.. buying and planting as annuals..

then .. aw the heck with them.. lol

ken

I have ditched most roses too - except a couple which are pretty much disease-free, require no winter protection, and (Queen Elizabeth excepted) have fabulous colorful hips for winter interest and that the birds eat in winter and early spring. The survivors are the seed-grown miniature China (Angel) roses, Paprika and Peachy Cream Oso Easy roses, and Queen Elizabeth grandiflora rose. Someday Peachy Cream and Queen Elizabeth might get evicted too, although I'm thinking that QE might make a nice tree form (the stems are very upright and vey woody now and over 6' tall) so I'm going to try some creative editing and pruning this spring on that one....

I'm starting to edit some perennials out of the main front bed to focus on ornamental shrubs, groundcover and shrub-like perennials. I'm trying to reduce the need for deadheading and dividing. So 'Becky' daisies, 'Brookside' geranium and coneflowers are at the top of my 'eradicate' list. The coneflowers are a bone of contention between me and DH at the moment. He's got into bird photography in the last two years so he wants to keep them for the finches.... So I won't be able to remove as many as I'd like - but he will now be responsible for deadheading and seedling removal!

What have I left behind? Any plant that does not accept the essential Darwinian priciples with which my garden is ruled.

Things the deer love: tulips, phlox, hollyhocks,sedum, vegetables.

Too short a bloom season and too fussy: lilies, roses,

Bloom too late: cosmos, pineapple sage.

Special once but now everyone else has them: Russian sage, white datura, centranthus, echinacea.

I echo those who say roses. There is so much care involved, at least with the ones I really want to grow, lol. Plus they are unpredictable- some years you would get a great show and then years with strange winters/weather cycles they would be plauged by this that or the other or just not put on much of a show.

Tradescantia because it always wants to invade neighbors. Primroses, Verbascum, and Crocosmia cuz' they die out suddenly and without reason,

Any of the Agastaches except A. foeniculum. They don't do well in our winters and are short lived (leaving stems on for winter did zero to help survival rate here...). I am done with them. Scrophularia macrantha (Red-Birds in a tree) for the same reason...

Tulips and bulbs that don't come back faithfully and naturalize.

Heuchera- too many duds. Fool me once kind of thing, lol. ;-)

I'm sure I will be booed and hissed at, but I am starting to lose my enthusiasm for perennial geraniums. I've likely tried near thirty kinds over the years and only a few have continuted to impress me. Think the main issue for me is how *some* can look so scrappy after blooming or (with the pratense) mildew. Hacking them back only leaves a gaping hole for a LONG time, since I find they don't always regrow that fast once summer comes and it gets baking hot.

'Walker's Low' catmint. The neighborhood cats would smash and batter the poor plant so much that it hardly ever had more than a few branches on it! Not sure I liked the dull-ish color anyhow, so not a huge loss ;-)
CMK

CMK - I agree with you re perennial geraniums (only a couple remain here...) and catmint (big disappointment). If you're looking for a good perennial tulip combination, try Ivory Floradale with Dasystemon Tarda or Turkestanica botanical tulips. They have been relably coming back for more than 10 years and are the essence of spring for me! The Ivory Floradale start out bright yellow and fade to creamy white, just in time to make a pretty picture with Queen of the Night, which also comes back pretty reliably for me. I usually pair them with Angelique too - which is not as strong a returner and needs beefing up again every 6-7 years. The botanical tulips will seed around if you let them set seed, so I don't deadhead those ones. Plant the bulbs deeper than the suggested 6" for the big ones (not the small botanical ones), deadhead down to the leaves at the base as soon as the petals start to fall, and leave the leaves to completely die back before removing them. Works for me...

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Another to add to the list- Lilies. Can't get em' to stay alive!!! Especially the Orientals. Now I only have a few super vigorous Asiatics left.

Great pics woodyoak. Your clump of the species tulip is impressive. I seem to have issues with bulbs in general for some reason. I sort of got burnt with some very $$ bulbs (Allium schubertii, Frittilaria imperialis, and 'Ice Cream' tulips to be specific) a few years ago, which naturally bloomed one year and then zippo the next (unless you count a small dwindled bit of foliage as doing something!).

Even Daffs and Allium (except moly and senescens var. glaucum) peter out on me. How sad is that?! And Galanthus is painfully slow to clump... I've had good luck with Chionodoxa, Crocus, Muscari, Brodiaea to some extent, and Anemone blanda so far.

I planted some mix of species tulips a few years ago. They have only gotten a bit bigger ;-( Maybe I disturb them to some degree (as in disturb by digging near them, not by my personality, although you never know, LOL). That or the hard-ish soil is an issue.
Totally agree that some tulip cultivars are more vigorous and long lasting than others. I've had some for years, like an heirloom parrot, Queen of Night, and a couple others.
CMK

I had few memories of plants gone by, come to mind as I read this thread, but I do keep an inventory of plants. I was curious so I just went to look at the list. Not too bad, it could be worse. (g)

Lots of non hardy plants that I bought for containers and didn't winter over after a few years. Abutilon, Begonias, Gardenia, Scented Geraniums, Fuchsia, Coleus, Caladium, Passiflora. Many of which I really enjoyed and miss, but the annual chore of bringing them all in the house and out again, was too much.

Plants that I insisted on trying multiple times and in multiple locations and then finally gave up on. Ajuga of all things, won't grow for me. At least five different varieties. Sagina, Irish & Scotch Moss, which finally took in the last location, in pure sand between pavers. Some Agastache that are not hardy enough. Trollius, always mildews. Ditto with Tricyrtis. And those that just disappeared... Lobelia cardinalis, Campanula 'Blue & White Clips', Euphorbia 'Blackbird', a few of the newer varieties of Echinacea before I got smart and stopped buying them, Viola 'Freckles' & 'Rebecca' and Anthemis.

Then there are those I shovel pruned for various reasons. Asclepias, Bergenia, Dianthus 'Arctic Fire', Heuchera 'Peach Melba', Shasta Daisies, Stachys, Sedum spathulifolium, Peonies. I know, peonies of all things. I love peonies, but it never failed, as soon as they opened it rained and the petals dropped and I didn't even get a week of bloom, which just didn't make sense to take up real estate for that annual disappointment.

All Irises but two that are still on probation, were yanked out. Way too much trouble and do not have the ideal conditions for them. I enjoyed those too, oh well.

Roses, Shovel pruned a few that were too much trouble. But I still have three that manage to look good most of the time. 'Golden Celebration' a David Austin. 'Rhapsody in Blue', a shrub rose with a purple single bloom, and my favorite, 'Julia Child' which performs the best. I also have 'New Dawn' on a fence, but it's too young to see how it will do. Some years, I cut back all the roses almost to the ground after the first bloom due to foliage issues, then they grow back in with very healthy looking foliage and usually one last late bloom in the fall. That is the easiest way for me to manage them without spraying. I plant perennials around them that fill in the space while they are growing back. None of them have required winter protection.

Like Woody, I expect to be editing the perennial beds again and adding more shrubs to reduce maintenance. I would always have perennials if I won the lottery and could hire a full time gardener. (g) I just love them! I'd do more roses too. But wouldn't we all.

Tulips the big ones, not the species. It was a hopeless battle with the squirrels. They love to chew the flowers off. For some reason they don't bother the species.

Lilies - For years I was nuts over nuts about these and then suddenly they lost their appeal. I've kept a few of my favorites, but not many. I also hated digging and dividing them which you have to do.

Kevin

Tulips definitely. Love 'em, but they don't last and now I don't replant.

Not a perennial really, but I kept trying rhododendrons when I moved here from PA and it has been such a struggle. I have finally decided to quit trying to keep the three on the north side of the house going. I am done. ... no more...throwing them out this year...well, maybe way in the back in full shade...just one...or maybe two...just for one year...or maybe I'll give them two years...

Anything that only blooms for a few weeks, I couldn't be more bored unless the leaves are especially cool. Blah, not for me.

At the other end of the scale, if one moves from the north to the south, the weather might not be cold enough to keep things cleaned up like you at first expect. Oops! Where's the shovel!?

Peonies - if you're tired of falling petals after a rain, try single ones. They are hard to find but beautiful. As a bonus, they don't need staking. I've been adding more of them to the garden - when I can find them!

Cyn - rhodos are one of those things I really, really want! But the soil here is too dry and too alkaline - although my next-door neighbour grows them just fine :-( A few years ago I traded my last surviving rhodos to her in exchange for some Japanese Maple seedlings.

I don't particularly like the peach-toned heucheras - perhaps because they just don't work with with the colors in my garden. But the old standard Palace Purple I use a fair bit, especially paired with Japanese Painted Ferns because it goes well with the dark centers of the fern fronds:
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I also like some of the other dark purple ones. This past fall we dug out the coneflowers that were under the Chinese wisteria tree and replaced them with Midnight Rose heucheras. Big improvement. There were a couple of other purplish ones under there that were doing well. I'm planning to clear out a miscellaneous collection of self-seeded odds and sods in the front bed and replace them with dark red-purple heucheras to see how they do there.

I'm not bothered much by things with short bloom periods. For me, I like the constantly changing flow of flowers in the garden. I like planning and managing color schemes - each area of the garden has a color theme so, while the specific plants in flower come and go, the overall 'feel' of the area remains stable.

prairiemoon2 wrote: and my favorite, 'Julia Child' which performs the best.

I am sure I am not the only one but I so agree! This is an outstanding yellow flowered rose with lots of reblooming, very hardy and pest resistant.

Thanks Woody, for that suggestion. I do like the single bloom Peonies, I'll have to take a look at them. That's a great combination there with the Heuchera and the JPFern. My 'Palace Purple' didn't look as good as yours. If you are adding more dark Heuchera, I've had good luck with 'Plum Pudding' and 'Frosted Violet'.

rouge21, It really is a great rose, isn't it? Really blooms it's head off and has the cleanest foliage. I do find it is not as fragrant as the David Austin Roses, so I like to have both, and the yellow roses on the 'Julia Child' are a little smaller. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to grow roses without spraying.

Great picture 'Prairie'! It should convince the fence sitters to give this rose a try.

Ok, I'll add Julia Childs. Besides Knockout, this one and Livin Easy seem to like my yard and it's lack of watering, fertilizing or spraying.

Heucheras and geraniums have come and gone, they never did much for me. I guess they're too stable (yawn). I like a good amount of all season interest but I also want a good amount of explosions of color that let me know what time of season it is (iris are a good example). Just my preference. It leaves gaps in the garden here and there, but it does give some wow moments.

Isn't it the hybrid tea roses that cause all of the trouble? I've never bought one but have had MANY other types of roses in OH and here in AL. Never done anything but dig a hole and plop them in. I've never bought or used any of that 'stuff' that one's supposed to apply/spray to roses. I don't fertilize except to put a banana peel at the base when I think about it. Just trim them for shape when the appearance bothers you in some way, remove dead parts. All roses are NOT created equal. As long as one avoids the fru fru hybrids, (and the fru fru products,) I think they're one of the easiest plants.

I dunno - I find my tastes and whims are very cyclical - I get easily bored and, after sowing and raising a plant a couple of times, they go on my 'done' list and may retire, sometimes for years. Foxgloves, for example, have been and gone at least 3 times over the last 15 years. Sweet peas - some years, I simply don't bother, some years, I have a perfunctory attempt and other years (this one) I find I have some 200 seedlings of around 20 varieties. Even so, brugmansias and abutilons have largely been banished (all that overwintering cuttings).
Bedding plants have just about disappeared off my radar. Echinaceas (you all know the ones) have been a source of much disappointment so I stick with the reliable gaillardias and heleniums if I want orange daisies.
Bearded Iris (what was I thinking - a huge clump of over the topness with blooms which last for a week and sordid looking leaves all summer - yeah, I am getting my coat). Eryngiums (fad plants - nasty, prickly things, only one left)
Verbena bonariensis - ubiquitous (now the little mexican daisy, erigeron karvinskiana is following suit in the UK - everywhere)
Centranthus (blown in from next door (we are no longer speaking!)
Acanthus (bullied into it by Mr Campanula ( who trained as a plasterer and had fond memories of casting acanthus leaves and egg and dart mouldings - divorce imminent)

As for roses - my fervour continues unabated but I still wince in horror, thinking about the hideous Blue Moon (shudder) and spectacularly ugly Queen Elizabeth (yep, really getting ready to duck) - it is wildlings all the way for me now - in fact, a love of all things rosaceae has been the one constant in my gardening choices.

LOL campanula re the acanthus comment!

QE rose - We love the flower shape, color, scent, disease resistance, and hardiness. But it is a leggy thing that is only attractive on the top! That's why I'm going to see if I can try to make it grow as a tree-form. I planted a 'Little Henry' Itea shrub beside/under it last fall. If the rose pruning works, the Itea should hide the stem of the rose (except in the winter) and add more flowers lower down, plus fall color. We'll see how it goes.... If it doesn't work QE will probably leave the garden.

If you like wildlings, campanula, have you ever tried growing the Angel roses from seed? They're supposed to be Rosa sinensis minima according to the source I got the seeds from (I think it's usually spelled chinensis - but that's not how the place where I got the seeds spelled it....) Most of the flowers on mine are small singles in shades of pink but the bloom is profuse and it blooms for months. And then they have vivid red hips for winter. They quickly form a hedge. Nothing seems to bother them and they're quite hardy. Sometimes there's a bit of tip die-back over winter that needs trimming off but doesn't cause any serious damage. They are prickly little devils though! This picture from the end of October shows both the flowers and hips:
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yes.. yes ... i was speaking of hybrid T's .... there are more bulletproof shrub type roses ... but again ... not in sand ...

ken