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catkin_gw

Are You Ripping Out Any Non-Performers This Year?

catkin
9 years ago

Which plants and why?

I have a huge, variegated hosta (green w/white edges) taking up valuable real estate that I've tolerated for years and it's going away finally! It starts out fine but then turns to crap. I bait for slugs but it still gets rusty, holey and ratty looking for the most part--and it's close to the front entrance.

I'm sure there are more offenders--gotta make room for my new stuff!

Comments (18)

  • green_go (Canada, Ontario, z 5a)
    9 years ago

    I am usually getting rid of over performers, not underperformers. I am usually babying underperformers till they die their natural death. ïÂÂ
    My constant underperformer is delphinium. This plant simply doesnâÂÂt like my heavy, moist soils and thick layer of mulch on top - looks like it needs drier soils. It usually languishes for a couple years and then dies. I tried a dozen of them already with the same pitiful result - I think, IâÂÂm done with delphiniums.
    My over performers that are not welcome anymore:
    Ajuga reptans âÂÂCatlinâÂÂs Giantâ - this monster was threatening to swallow the whole flower bed in just one yearâ¦. I am ripping it out since spring and the battle is not over yet.
    Also, some unknown variety of yellow bearded iris - it grows so quickly that every year I have to remove half of the rhizomes and compost them to keep this iris in check.
    Monarda (not sure of the variety - tall, red)⦠it was spreading like a wildfire in my flower bed in moist fertile soil, so I had to pull out every single plant and re-plant t them at the far end of the property near the forest where it is now growing in lean, dry soil and competing with all local weeds - this keeps it in check. ïÂÂ
    Dead Nettle - made its way to a compost pile for the same reason as monarda.

  • pitimpinai
    9 years ago

    I understand exactly how you feel. There is always a point when you can't stand the look of your once beloved plants, isn't there?

    In my garden, a huge hosta and a few Alchemilla mollis will be moved somewhere else this fall or next spring.

    I ripped out an entire clump of Hydrangea 'Annabelle' last year, another clump this spring and another clump will be removed next spring....or maybe next month.... to make room for my growing hostas.

    This summer, I ripped out a huge clump of Miscanthus sinensis 'Yaku-jima' to make room for 20 new Colchicum bulbs. :-D

    I will rip out another clump of ornamental grass to make room for a tree seedling.

    I was getting tired of their unkempt appearance.

  • pitimpinai
    9 years ago

    Talking about ripping out large plants. What tools are you folks using?

    My favorite tool is this one:
    {{gwi:268169}}

    I bought it 20 years ago as a bulb planter after struggling with the one with tube at the end. This red planter has become my most favorite tool in the garden. I love it especially for digging out large clumps such as hosta or ornamental grass or plants with deep tap roots such as dock.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Interesting question.

    I avoid planting runners and seeders in the first place, though I appreciate that there are reasons for some gardeners to use perennials that function as "ground-cover" and the like.

    With me, the perennials I intend to remove are usually those that have volunteered themselves for elimination by lacking vigour. I'm sure, however, that most/all mixed perennial bed gardeners have also eliminated some plants by mistake.

    I just divided some garden phlox and moved some (latter with flowering height in mind). In simultaneously upgrading the soil, I just disposed of a hybrid fall aster which was doing very little for a fall flowering plant.

    I'm also currently thinking of getting rid of the one Frikart's aster we still have. As said elsewhere, most Frikart's aster plants don't live that long here (at least in our mixed perennial beds). So it's not possible to maintain several individual plants close together to get blocked colour.

    A both over- and under-performing (?) perennial I'm am going to get rid of is false indigo. It looks nice in bloom, but it takes up too much space for a spring plant in a mixed perennial bed. For spring here, smaller perennials, like primulas and columbines, fit in better both when they're flowering and afterwards.

    I've also just about given up on tall bearded irises, but I'm only removing small scraps of once stately plants. Tall bearded irises often just don't seem to like sharing flowerbeds beds with other perennials. Perhaps that's a reason why some large old (e.g. Edwardian) gardens had separate iris beds.

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

    There is always a point when you can't stand the look of your once beloved plants, isn't there?

    I thought this would never happen to me. But it has. To minimize the pain of forsaking once treasured plants I start small, first removing some of the multiple copies I almost always acquire when I am love sick with a certain perennial.

    (This might be obvious but acquiring extra copies of a fave plant very likely accelerates this eventuality...familiarity breeds contempt?)

  • dbarron
    9 years ago

    It's a constant process...sometimes the weaker help themselves out (by dying)....and there's always room to put something else in, right ?

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Rouge.

    They're only plants!

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

    SB, looking back at my post it does seem over the top...yikes...I need to get another hobby ;).

  • dbarron
    9 years ago

    Do you suppose anyone is weeding out their hostas and eliminating under performers ? ? *cough* *cough* Ken?

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Sorry Rouge.

    Please stick with gardening.
    It's always a pleasure to learn from you.

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

    No apology needed SB. I do love gardening for lots of worthwhile reasons.

  • Min3 South S.F. Bay CA
    9 years ago

    Pulling up many plants that have declined because water is so scarce here.
    And also because the gophers just won't give up. They like moist soil so when i do water a plant, it just leads them to their next meal. After 20 years tho, I finally trapped one because I used a Cinch Trap- got him the same night i put it in the hole!!! Had never used that kind before so I have a little hope now. Min

  • lilsprout
    9 years ago

    I will be pulling about half of my asters....that I so loved. This year with all the fungus I'm seeing (no thanks to the mountains of snow that sat forever) including lots of dog vomit fungus (gag) they are just not doing well. I will put the very sorry looking things in a holding bed, and if they survive...I'll find a new home for them next year. I just can't throw them out knowing how much of a show they put on in the fall.

    Sunny, I just ordered several false indigo. Curious if you cut yours all the way back each spring? I'm guessing they grow out like a hybiscis/butterfly bush? I do have large areas planned for them. There is one down the road from me that is quite large....and just beautiful.

    I do have several coreopsis Zagreb I'm on the fence about removing. The color is alittle too harsh for my liking, but great bloomers. Now Moonbeam I love....

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Lilsprout, the two in our own garden are both 'Purple Smoke'. I did very largely cut them down after spring (and have for several years), but find the few flopped stems left grown at strange angles, such that they seemed likely to trip me up when working in the bed.

    I have the species in another garden, where there's a lot more space available. In this case it was staked and also wedged in between a wall and several other tall and tough plants at the back of the bed. I did cut out the unattractive dried seed pods but the foliage actually didn't look too bad when I started cutting it back (reducing the number of stems - to further expose a 'Nora Leigh' garden phlox) only this week.

    The plant's too big (in flower or not fully cut back) for our own small garden. If you have more space, it may be a good choice for you.

    False indigo does grow up and out, but the stems are weaker than those of either the hibiscus or butterfly bushes I've dealt with.

    The usual pattern here with our spring plants (primulas, lungworts, brunnera, Jacob's ladder, columbines, etc.) is that they're hidden under taller perennials in summer and put out new foliage in/by fall as spent summer perennials are thinned out and cut down. I've not noticed that, in the past, with false indigo. Maybe I just missed it.

    This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Thu, Sep 18, 14 at 8:08

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    9 years ago

    SB - digging out a Baptisia is easier said than done! We removed one from the front bed last summer as it was too big for the spot - the roots are huge and woody - and go to China! :-) We had to dig out more bits that reappeared - from roots we missed undoubtedly - this spring. We have another one along the south wall of the house that really should be removed too but we are not keen on tackling another excavation job so try to ignore the issue for now!

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

    'woody', I recall seeing your very large Baptisia. They must be extra impressive in the late spring early summer when in bloom.

    I planted in 2013 what I hope will be a much more compact variety from PW ("Lemon Meringue").

  • pitimpinai
    9 years ago

    :-) This thread makes me smile. :-D This bantering warms my heart after reading negative things on various webs.

    lilsprout, Coeropsis! I just dug out all the shoots of my coreopsis to make room for a miniature Solomon's Seal last week. I got rid of my Aster 'Purple Smoke' a long, long time ago. Frost always zapped it before the flower buds began to open. I don't understand why it bloomed so late in my garden, because it blooms much earlier for my friend who lives only 3 miles away.
  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Thanks for that info Woody.
    Appreciate the warning.

    As said, I like well-behaved perennials.
    It's a pity that you can't be sure what they're doing beneath the surface.

    Pitimpinai mentioned Solomon's seal.
    Am sure that the miniature one's fine, but digging out blocks of the EurAsian one was quite a surprise to me. The tubers were layered and interlocked. Pulling them apart was a bit like separating out irregularly shaped Lego bricks.

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