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aachenelf

So what have you yanked lately?

aachenelf z5 Mpls
11 years ago

Just got done murdering my Adenophora confusa. Up until this year, I've really liked this plant. It's been moderately well behaved, blooms were nice, but all of a sudden I didn't like it anymore. It didn't help that the foliage got all weird from some sort of fungal whatever - probably because of all the rain this year. I probably should have given it another season, but what the health. I could use the space. There's always something better. It got composted, so at least it will serve some purpose in death.

Feeling ruthless today.

Kevin

Comments (63)

  • denninmi
    11 years ago

    Nothing yet for me, either, but I have a giant patch of Weld (Isatis tinctoria) that is going to seed, and I have GOT to get it out of there before they seeds drop, or I'll be fighting billions next year. It's a really beautiful plant when it flowers in May, a soft sunshine yellow and kind of airy, like a cross between baby's breath, mustard, and the yellow meadow rue Thalictrum flavum, but it is a prolific self-seeder. I have at least 100 plants in this one area because I didn't control them last year, it was vacant so I just let them go, but they original dozen 2 years ago is now about 100 which will be thousands next year.

  • wieslaw59
    11 years ago

    Inspired by this thread I went out and dug up 3 flopping Papavers. When it stops raining, I will go out again to yank 2 flopping Sibirian Irises. Thank you.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    11 years ago

    I find it difficult to 'yank' for the purposes of putting it in the compost bin. I first think long and hard if there is another maybe out of the way location I can tuck them into.

    As well I try to decide what if anything to put in its place (lots of fun).

  • marquest
    11 years ago

    Nothing for me. I need to find the time to plant what I brought. I guess it depends on your space. I need to add the more the better.

    Ooops I take that back. I am yanking grass. I have a acre of grass and I want it gone with plants and walkways. So I am yanking lots of grass. The most invasive plant on earth it will creep in where you do not want any.

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    11 years ago

    I have Hosta 'Francis Williams' and it never looks very good, but I am currently blaming it on being too close to the birdbath and getting splashed with dirty water all the time. I am thinking of
    moving it in the fall for one more try.

    I dug out a ton of Aquilegia this year. Despite having deadheaded last year, I guess I missed enough for it to seed around a little too much. I don't want to get rid of it completely, but I see that I don't have to worry about pulling out too many and have to be more vigilant with the deadheading, which is all done for the season.

    I've just started last year using Weigela and mine was very slow to come back this year, but it looks okay for first year plants. I have Wine and Roses and Midnight Rose which are still small. Wine & Roses hd a minimal flush of flowers this year but Midnight Rose is just foliage. I think it was a hard winter for them with no snow cover and maybe next year they will be better.

    I pulled the last of my Siberian Iris and I have two varieties of Bearded Iris still in the garden that look awful this year. I decided I'm done with them. If they are not needing division, then they have diseased foliage. I don't think I have the conditions or the time for them, so out they are going and in the fall I hope to replace them with dwarf shrubs.

    I tossed a perennial Poppy that was always flopping on it's neighbors. Not worth the trouble for the week of bloom. Again, I'm not sure if I have the best conditions for them.

    I'm ready to dig out and throw out a Golden Princess Spirea that has turned into about 10 spirea and has reseeded in my neighbors beds.

    I dug out 'Little Joe' Joe Pye Weed a couple of year's ago but I see some of it is back. I'm keeping my eye on it.

    I have a 'Red Wing' Viburnum that was my favorite shrub for two years running. Fast growth, clean foliage, nice fall color and huge heads of berries after the flowers. Then the October ice storm broke off the largest branches of it, and now the new growth is growing in diseased for some reason and the branches that are left are flopping badly. I am going to cut it back to the ground when it is dormant and give it one more chance and then it's going if it doesn't improve.

    I think last year was the year I did a lot of ruthless yanking and this year, I'm much happier with how everything looks. I also took the time this spring to reposition plants that were too close in my full sun bed and finally I am really happy with it this year. We'll see how long that lasts....lol.

  • mxk3 z5b_MI
    11 years ago

    Wieslaw - have you tried using grid-type peony supports for the Siberian Iris? Mine had flopped in the past, too, but I put the supports around them in the spring, and the foliage covers the support completely. Problem solved :0)

  • buyorsell888
    11 years ago

    I yanked Geranium 'Claridge Druce' a few years ago. My friend wanted her and now is yanking dozens of seedlings. She is a real loser.

    It is my understanding that Hosta 'Frances Williams' burns on the edges with even a touch of sun. I've moved her around multiple times and Portland isn't sunny to begin with and she has always been ugly.

  • adona6ct
    11 years ago

    Veronica prostrata 'Trehane' - a beautiful chartreuse cushion until the moment of bloom, when the entire mound flops open in all directions and looks like an sad, sad, chlorotic weed.

    Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Boulevard' - Six years old and was looking worse and worse every year. The inner branches of this evergreen began to brown with age and were very visible. Particularly unattractive in winter, when it looked dead. Sad, as this was such a beautiful plant for three or four years.

    Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Mop' - I just woke up and realized I could not stand that acid-yellow color another day! I had three of these and couldn't shake the feeling that I was stealing garden design ideas from McDonald's.

    Laburnum x watereri 'Vossii' - Lovely when in bloom, but plagued with an unidentified problem that caused predictable discoloration of the leaves every summer. Also suckered like mad.

    On my Naughty List:

    Hydrangea 'Let's Dance Starlight- Nice enough, but I would like a little more impact. I fell in love with the beautiful pink lacecap blooms, which almost immediately turned blue in my acidic soil. Attempts to manipulate the ph of the soil in that area were unsuccessful. Why fight mother nature when there are superior blue hydrangeas on the market?

    Phlox paniculata 'Tracy's Treasure' - I probably won't toss this one, although I threaten to do it every year. It is a lovely, soft, baby pink variety that blooms later than any of my other phloxes. It is also one of the tallest. Unfortunately, it is absolutely covered with powdery mildew by July. Last year I moved it to the very back of the border and planted a caryopteris 'White Surprise' in front of it. Let's hope that does the trick!

    Geranium 'Rozanne' - I wrote about this in a previous post. I used to love the weaving habit of this plant. Now the prostrate stems look so sad and ugly to me. I have many of these plants and am going to find someone who has a better spot for them. Life is too short.

    Out with the old and in with the new! Here's to a sharp shovel and a welcoming compost bin!

    Adona

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    11 years ago

    "...Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Mop' - I just woke up and realized I could not stand that acid-yellow color another day! I had three of these and couldn't shake the feeling that I was stealing garden design ideas from McDonald's..."

    OMG, Adona, I almost snorted my drink through my nose when I read this, lol!

    See, I think just the opposite. I think darn, why do these things look so good at McDonalds (or the gas station, or Wendy's (you may have seen my previous remarks on the gorgeous creeping phlox at Wendys)) but not in my yard?

    Although, maybe I do think somewhat along those lines - I was never a big fan of grasses because I felt they looked very "corporate office park".

    Was going to do some yanking today but got sidetracked by extending a bed lasagna-style, planting out some annuals, and spraying the poison ivy with vinegar. Eh, who am I kidding, I won't yank till at least fall, because even if I yank, I can't compost; I give away to friends or at the swap.

    Forgot to add, I'm yanking all the forsythia bushes I stupidly started a few years back around the property, from cuttings. I love the yellow blooms in the spring but whatever kind I have (from previous owner) is just too weedy, sloppy and floppy and I've decided I just don't want it anymore. So I have to try to get rid of the four or five bushes I started along the edge of the woods.

    Dee

  • wieslaw59
    11 years ago

    mxk3, thanks for your advice. But apart from being floppy, they also had only 2 flowers per stem, which is too few. I will not tend a plant for the whole year to get one week of bloom in return. Out they go! 3 flowers as an absolute minimum from now on, and only if extremely pretty. Otherwise 4 blooms required plus nice foliage. No exceptions.

  • ramazz
    11 years ago

    All you yankers and 'murderers,' I hope you realize that someone else might love to have these plants that you are composting. We have a plant trade group and there are numerous local ways to give away plants. Myself, I also have plants that I have too many of, or am tired of. I offer them to friends or to strangers on the web.

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    11 years ago

    I have a neighbor who has often been the recipient of whatever is looking for a new home, but I try to be careful not to give them discards. And if I have a plant that just doesn't perform, I don't want to give an inferior plant to someone else. Or a trouble maker.

  • a2zmom_Z6_NJ
    11 years ago

    About 10,000 echinacea seedlings, 5,000 heliopsis seedlings and some phlox that returned even though I moved it from this bed a year ago,

    Do anyone know if rhododendron are fairly shallow rooted? I'd love to yank the one directly in front of my living room window since the prior owners planted a plant that's way too tall for the location. The only thing is, I don't want to kill the garden that's in front of it.

  • WendyB 5A/MA
    11 years ago

    I'm about to yank (actually cut down) a 10' Butterfly Maple. I've had it for about 10 years but it has never really looked good. Its not a good shape and is all bunchy at the top and bare in the middle. It gets a lot of winter twig dieback. It tries to revert to green and now it is too tall to easily snip off the reversion branches. Out it goes.

    The only problem will be 3 Frances Williams hostas are underneath the maple. The maple doesn't provide all that much shade, so maybe it won't matter too much. I think FW's real problem is excessive thirst more than sun sensitivity. I recall one year was ample moisture all season and not a single scorch.

    I like my Goldmops in part-shade where they stay a nice chartreuse color. Too much shade and they get thin, but a few hours morning sun seems just right for mine.

  • linlily
    11 years ago

    We removed a LARGE, GOT TOO LARGE, Shibori Spirea earlier in the spring and replaced it with a dwarf forsythia. The spot where it had run rampant over several bearded irises and daylilies looks better already!

    I've dug up several irises, traded them away and rehomed them to the next door neighbors. Yesterday, I took the clippers to my Rozanne and cut it to the ground. I think she will be looking for a new home now. I have Jolly Bee in an area just perfect for the rambling habit of this type of hardy geranium, but Rozanne is just too tall and too wide for where I have her growing. She is choking out two newer daylilies, some hosta, and tumbling over my dwarf amsonia. That area looks better already too.

    This fall I have to do some serious culling - too many daylilies and irises to take care of. And I find myself more interested in regular perennials now. I love all the new, colorful Echies that are coming out every year - so many I can't keep up with them any more!

    Linda

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    11 years ago

    a2zmom, I do believe rhodies are shallow-rooted. I'm dealing with the same problem - rhodies, pieris and yews that were planted in front of a cape. The rhodie is about 15 feet high (higher than the roof line), and the pieris I have whacked back yearly to keep them about 6 feet, the yews about 5 feet. But I hate cutting them back all the time, and they still block the windows and the house and I don't know what the previous owner was thinking. They are planted about two feet away from the foundation to boot.

    I looked into have them professionally moved but it would cost thousands. I have decided to sacrifice the pieris and yews. The rhodie, well, I just don't have the heart yet - beautiful soft pink flowers. I think I will do some serious whacking back and either let it grow back for a few years, or maybe even attempt to move it myself. I don't know... probably been there at least 30 years if not more, in a corner of the foundation, in soil that's packed like cement. We'll see...

    Dee

  • a2zmom_Z6_NJ
    11 years ago

    Dee, I feel your pain. I had to cut down two gorgeous hemlocks because the prior owners had planted them as foundation plantings! They were already 15 feet high and were going to get bigger.

    People really don't think it seems.

  • hostaholic2 z 4, MN
    11 years ago

    Potentilla Helen Jane, it really took a hit this winter, was starting to make a comeback and was attacked by some type of sawfly. By the time I murdered the sawfly the poor things looked so pitiful, I simply put them out of their misery. I have one healthy one remaining, we'll see if it produces any offspring for me. Pretty much all my aquilegia, tired of fighting columbine sawfly.

  • ornata
    11 years ago

    This thread makes me aware of how much of my precious garden space is given over to plants that for most of the year I tolerate rather than love. A few examples:

    - The vast number of Astilbes that I grew from seed to fill the shady borders near the house; they look lovely for a few weeks when in flower but they spread their foliage over everything.

    - Hemerocallis: great clumps of foliage all over the place, providing the perfect habitat for slugs and snails, sending up flower-buds distorted by gall midge, and not even flowering much when the midge is no longer a problem later in the season (we just don't get the necessary warmth/light here in the UK, I suppose).

    - Oh, and a million Aquilegia grown from seed, supposedly in a range of attractive forms and colours, that are mostly bog-standard purple or muddy pink.

    - Then the group of Russell lupins grown from seed last year, that have all turned out to be pink or white (and are being feasted on by the slugs in the neighbouring Hemerocallis clumps!)

    - Japanese anemones: they take years to settle and grow, and then they take over. For most of the year they just look dull, and frankly I'm not even that taken with the flowers, except for the single, simple pale pink form.

    Perhaps I should take inspiration from you lot and just get yanking...?

  • greylady_gardener
    11 years ago

    BES!...I won't take them all out, but wow!! do they ever spread. :-) I need the room.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    11 years ago

    Ornata wrote:

    - Japanese anemones: they take years to settle and grow, and then they take over.

    How about replacing your 'unruly' anemones with the UK only "Wild Swan" anemome? Much earlier blooming and much more compact...it looks awesome.

    Here is a link that might be useful: An amazing Anemone

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    11 years ago

    Got rid of a yellow Potentilla shrub just this afternoon (my day off and it is not POURING rain?! Go figure, lol). I really loathe potentilla shrubs, so this ousting was way overdue! It did go to a good home though- I gave it to the neighbors along with a bunch of extra tomato starts. ;-)

    The space it came from is in a prime location, so I ended up replacing it with a start of Callicarpa a good GW bud gave me last year. Can't wait for it to get going!

    I'm also thinking about "doing something" with a KO rose I have in the middle of my garden. I am liking it paired with my purple/blue Campanula persicifolia right now, but in general hot pink kind of disturbs my equilibrium, LOL. I think I want to re-do that entire area around the KO rose though, it just isn't sitting right with me anymore. Trouble is I have NO clue what I want to do there, lol.

    Ps. it might be a few years before we see 'Wild Swan' over here in the US. I believe this cultivar does have Anemone rivularis (also has those fantastic blue undersides to the petals!) in its ancestry, so might be a good alternative for those that want to give it a go right now or can't find that cultivar in the future. I have tried growing that species twice from seed with zero luck. Bummer ;-(
    CMK

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    11 years ago

    CMK wrote: "...it might be a few years before we see 'Wild Swan' over here in the US."

    That may be true but ornata was complaining about her garden variety 'anemones' and she lives in the UK so she has easy access to this new cultivar.

    For the rest of us there is the newer variety called "Pretty Lady Diana".

    Here is a link that might be useful: smaller better behaved anemone

  • ornata
    11 years ago

    Wild Swan looks lovely - thanks for the suggestion (it's also the name of one of my current favourite beers!) The "Pretty Lady" series are also very appealing.

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    11 years ago

    That Wild Swan is beautiful! Love the blue undersides, so thanks for the other suggestion, CMK.

    Also, CMK, I hear you on the KO rose. Is yours one of the original? I bought one and personally can't stand the color, lol. However, if you think you want another easy-care rose, I just bought a KO Sunny for a friend. Beautiful pale yellow flowers, and I would think about the same level of care as the other KOs. I really have to get one for myself. I also have a Blushing KO which is pretty.

    Dee

    P.S. I think the photos of the KO Sunny don't quite do it justice. Some of the shading of the yellow looks a bit garish and almost buttery (I'm put in mind of a bowl of fake buttered popcorn, lol) but it is really a more soft, pale yellow. At least my friend's is! When I brought it into work to give to her all my co-workers were oohing and ahhing over it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Knockout Sunny

  • hunt4carl
    11 years ago

    Finally got fed up with the Oenothera missouriensis after it crashed during
    a rain storm. . .bloom time too short, spreads way too much. It has taken
    me literally hours to remove the thousands of seedlings from the
    Chasmanthium latifolium, which seemed to be EVERYWHERE - sorry to
    see it go, because I really loved those late season seed heads. . . And all
    but one of the Siberian iris - which still gives me dozens of blooms - are
    going: if you're going to take up space, you'd better produce.

    What is this euphoric feeling of POWER that has swept over me?

    Dee: there was a time, early one, when I would have agreed with you
    about Claridge Druse's sprawling habit. . .but then I happened to plant one
    next to an azalea, and it clambered UP and OVER rather than sprawling on the
    ground. It's like getting a "second bloom" on any shrub, Now that I'm on
    to their "other" growth habit, I have them scrambling up through lily
    stalks and all over the rudbeckia. . .try it!

    And rather than try to move that rhodie, have you considered whacking it
    WAY back - like to two feet of main stalk - and it will slowly, but surely
    fill out again. . .and then you just keep pruning it back each year right after
    it blooms, to keep it the size you'd like.

    Carl

  • rusty_blackhaw
    11 years ago

    As soon as I get up the energy, I am going to dig out the Lysimachia clethroides (gooseneck loosestrife) that I originally planted in a large tub to contain its spreading ways, but which has succeeded in escaping anyway. Some nasty little beetle eats little holes in its foliage every spring and the subsequent bloom is nothing to write home about.

    Every Lysimachia I've ever grown has been a butt-pain sooner or later, including the invasive purple-leafed L. ciliata and the golden-leafed L. nummularia variety that died out in the border but successfully spread into the adjacent lawn.

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    11 years ago

    -Dee, yup! It is the original KO rose, gifted to me in my early gardening days. I thought it was so unusual and unique back then ;0) Thanks for the recommendation of that Sunny ko- pale yellow is an absolute favorite of mine so that guy is quite alluring.

    Oh yeah, another thing I yanked (and stealthily re-planted on my neighbors side, lol!!!) a couple days ago...Rudbeckia hirta. It was SUPPOSED to be 'Cherry Brandy', but the seed turned out to be a golden yellow variety with a weird-o brownish ring around the center. Golden yellow is another color that is kind of gag-inducing with me depending on the flower, but combined with that brown shade it kind of sealed its fate, LOL.
    CMK

  • kimka
    11 years ago

    I've been busy yanking obedient plant (pink flowers), wood poppy, and spiderwort Z blue that have spread way too far. And I've been relocating a patch of cardinal flowers that have grown up on my front path and moving the brunnera that rooted under the weeping japanese maple.

  • eclecticcottage
    11 years ago

    Well...not really yanked, more took the chainsaw to...a wisteria that wouldn't behave and stay out of everything around it and a wild rose that didn't have hardly any flowers, and was poorly placed and messy looking. Both were too big to actually dig out, we just had to cut them to the ground and keep mowing where they were.

    If you're going to yank something that CAN be dug and replanted..post it on craigslist. SOMEONE will likely want it. Especially things like Hosta. If it's in an area you're not worried too much about you can even have them dig it. I've gotten a number of plants this way-peonies, hosta, daisies...if it weren't for people giving away unwanted/needing to be split plants, my gardens would be a LOT more barren!!

  • aachenelf z5 Mpls
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Add to my list of yanked - a couple of seed-raised daylilies. These were kind of hard to part with, but after a few years of blooming I had to admit them were never going to be anything special. In fact, they were kind of ugly.

    Yes, I'm very familiar with getting rid of plants and divisions on Craig's List. I discovered this method a few years ago and do a very good business in spring and fall. In fact, I now have a regular customer list. By this time of the year, I just don't want to bother with it because it's such a bad time to be transplanting. If there are any plants I think I can sell, I'll wait until the proper season and then offer them up.

    Kevin

  • eclecticcottage
    11 years ago

    I meant more on the lines of freebies...at least for the "meh" stuff/less desirable seasons for moving things.

    I'll try a plant for free any time of the season. Last summer in July we removed a LARGE Hydrangea (4' or so high) along with a smaller one (@2') and a butterfly bush (4-5') from one gentleman's yard (he didn't like that they attracted bees) and they drooped and complained but all are back and perfectly happy this year in their new homes at the Cottage.

  • eclecticcottage
    11 years ago

    I wish there was an edit button..

    By "meh" I mean stuff you think is boring or ugly or not worth selling.

    I brought home a very unhappy and wilted hydrangea and butterfly bush yesterday along with some wonderful and happy daisies, hosta, sundrops, asiatic lilies and gooseneck loosestrief (all free). I am happy to work with the two droopy ones to get them back to being happy. I wouldn't have bought them, but I'll take them. I don't have a lot of gardening funds so I am not picky about plants (although I won't mix new hosta with my established ones, and I clean my shovel-HVX scares me), and I imagine others feel the same. Your "not worth replanting" plants might be worth it to someone.

    I hope I don't sound preachy or whacko or something, lol. I'm just sayin if it's not diseased (like an HVX hosta), no matter if it's ugly, wilty, or whatever, someone might want to give it a home. A garden of ugly duckling plants is better than no garden!

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    11 years ago

    CMK, I think you will like the Sunny KO rose if you see it in person!

    Carl, I have indeed thought of "whacking back" the rhodie - way back, lol! As a matter of fact, every time I walk by it I hear George's voice in my mind: "Cut it back. Six inches!" LOL!

    I do think I am going to try that for a few years, but it really is in a bad spot. But I will get rid of the yews and pieris. I keep meaning to do it in the spring (by fall I figure might as well keep the evergreens one more winter) but the last two springs we have had birds nests in the pieris, so they get a reprieve, and then the winter reprieve, and so on....

    Dee

  • DYH
    11 years ago

    Chaste tree -- gazillions of seedlings and even the tiniest ones had roots that had to go to the center of the earth.

    Hydrangea 'Endless Summer' - was endlessly eaten by deer a few years ago, so I moved it next to the house, but then it was endlessly undermined by voles so I moved it into the cottage garden where it was endlessly undermined by voles again.

    Coneflowers - 3 out of 6 of a group that I purchased at Lowe's last year had aster yellows. All of my "home seed grown" are fine...hopefully, there'll be no further spread of the disease.

    Cameron

  • greylady_gardener
    11 years ago

    a couple of more things since the BES..... more BES and a big patch or yellow loosestrife and rose of sharon seedlings--some a couple of inches tall and some a couple of feet--by the dozens (and dozens and dozens and dozens!!) :)

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    11 years ago

    Dee, I just wanted to mention that I have looked at that KO Sunny. It is very pretty and I almost bought it a couple of times. I used to have the original KO rose that I enjoyed. Deep rose and slight fragrance. Easy care. I bought it because I wanted easy care / no spray and didn't think I would find 'real' roses that were that easy. Funny though, having the KO rose, just made me want a 'real' rose more. So I searched and tried a few roses and am very happy that I did. They are one of my favorite plants in the garden. The one that I am thrilled with, is 'Julia Child' It is a yellow rose. Very vigorous and a heavy bloomer. VERY clean foliage after sometimes a minimal early insect damage, that later foliage completely covers. And it's fragrant to boot. I would recommend it to anyone wanting an easy no spray rose.

    Having said that....I hope I didn't just jinx myself. (g)

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    11 years ago

    Adona, I also had that Veronica prostrata 'Trehane' and had the same trouble with it and it is long gone.

  • buyorsell888
    11 years ago

    I sold 18 plants yesterday from Craig's List. Several were Hosta 'Frances Williams'. I not only shovel pruned her, I split her up and potted her up into five 1 gallon pots. I got ten out of 'Blue Angel' All with multiple eyes.

    I sold 9 ferns that were sprouted around my garden from spores too that I had potted up.

    Now, if someone would come along that loves ornamental grasses I've got a bunch of potted grass divisions.

    I have given to friends for years but only one is really into gardening. None of my neighbors are interested. All of these plants are too big to ship for a reasonable price so I thought I'd try Craig's List. I'm glad I did.

  • buyorsell888
    11 years ago

    Forgot to say that I have moved Rhododendrons and Pieris that were three to four feet tall and wide. They are both very shallow rooted and move easily. IF you can keep them shaded and wet during their first summer. I have lost them when moved in spring. Prefer to move in fall.

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    11 years ago

    I lost a brand new potted Pieris moving it in the spring too.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    11 years ago

    Two hours ago I dug up two very small Veronica "Sweet Lullaby" and I passed them along to a neighbour that I dont really know very well. They were so pleased to get these plants. There is no doubt that gardening is an 'ice breaker' :).

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    11 years ago

    buyorsell, you moved them at that size? You didn't cut them back first?

    Eh, maybe I'll give it a try. If I am going to get rid of them anyway I guess it's worth a shot. But I keep looking at that cement aka soil and thinking how they've been there for at least 30 years, if not 50, and it gives pause! Thanks for that info.

    PM2, I LOVE Julia Child! It's a gorgeous rose. I haven't yet bought one - I kind of gave up on roses - but if I were to get one, she would on the top of the list!

    Dee

  • wieslaw59
    11 years ago

    I have yanked Thalictrum aquileguifolium Thundercloud. It is tissue culture propagated and something went terribly wrong with this plant. It does not fit to the description (only half the height), practically no blooms , but if it does bloom the flowers are very small and have the colour of dishwater. I cannot understand why this particular clone was selected for TC, when ANY CLONE is more beautiful than this one?

  • mxk3 z5b_MI
    11 years ago

    (GASP) Carl! No! Don't ditch the Chas! Love that plant! Yea, it *does* seed everywhere but it is such a pretty foliage effect and *grows in dry shade*.

    I ditched (2) azalea Hilda Niblett this past week. I *hated* the color when they bloomed, and the foliage took damage in winter, so out they went...

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    11 years ago

    When I first started gardening, I bought a few Hilda Nibletts because I read that they were evergreen. Come the first winter and they yellowed terribly and there was leaf loss. Called the company I ordered from, and they said, oh, yeah, well, if you were in a warmer zone they'd be evergreen. Grr. First (and thankfully early) lesson in paying attention to zone issues when buying plants!

    Anyway, at first I wasn't wild about the color either. Kind of a strange color, not quite the pink I thought it would be, but not really apricot; a weird salmon-ish color. But it grew on me and then I discovered there were other colors. I really wanted pink, but figured that would clash with the salmon-ish, so I went with a white Dorothy Hayden, I think it was, and interplanted with Hilda. I have to say all together they make quite a gorgeous, long-lasting display every spring. Huge flowers, especially on the Dorothy Hayden.

    Dee

  • aachenelf z5 Mpls
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I just finished my Saturday garden chores and was noticing the daylilies which are approaching peak blooming. Made a mental note: Peachy and peachy/gold ones must go. It's kind of odd how ones color preference changes with the years, but change it does.

    Kevin

  • buyorsell888
    11 years ago

    I am not fond of the peachy and peachy gold daylilies either and so many sold as "pink" are peach for me...I've given away a lot of peachy flesh toned daylilies.

    Final Touch is the only true pink I've got.

  • Campanula UK Z8
    11 years ago

    a hateful acanthus - Mr Camps had 'insisted' on this and I put up with its hugely vicious and graceless habit for several years - long enough for it to become a rampaging thug, leaning over and threatening a delicate small leafed philadelphus. Had to get my boys in to help so I made use of their youth and vigour and ordered the destruction of a horrid phormium (Mr.bloody Camps again - supposedly one of the much smaller P.cookianum, but still massive - lurking mealybugs and snails made great use of the indestructible leaves ).Heaps and heaps of valerian (but I will guarantee there will be a hidden smidgeon, waiting to blow around the allotment. Numerous verbascums (there was a mini-craze for these a few years ago, in the UK) - gets chomped by mullein moth and totally falls over every year. Note, all these plants so far have also had socking great root systems so I am not expecting this to be a one-off job - I have been yanking a lurid Beauty of Livermere oriental poppy for the past 4 years. The two gigantic clumps of daylilies (common old H.fulva) are really counted as weeding, along with a zillion verbena bonariensis but the removal of the sad and stunted balloon flowers - never got any taller than 9 inches and just looked ridiculous with oversized blooms - that was a yanking moment. Unfond farewells to lobelia cardinalis, knautia macedonica (1 is quite enough) nepeta Walker's Low - I know it's invaluable but it smells horrible and finally, the last of the bearded iris - such a faff for less than a week then nothing to disguise the hideous leaves for the rest of the summer.

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