What are you growing that you loved at one time and now you may decide to just kick it to the curb and say GOODBYE??

The entire bed along the west fence and almost the entire bed on the south fence.

Some will get heaved onto the compost heap and some will get transplanted into a holding bed where I keep plants until I donate them to charity sales.

I ripped out my front bed, it looks bare, except for that one spot where that gailardia reseeded and that cicada killer nest is. I am still scared to mess with that. My head says that it is safe my heart says eww do you really want to find out the hard way.

That is an awesome idea of donating the plants, I never thought about it. Though I would actually feel guilty selling some of these plants I am tossing.

I seem to be getting to the stage where I love most everything I grow. I may cull because I have too much of something, but taking it out completely is not an option for any plants right now. :O) I think they are happy to hear me say that!

Martha

The purple blooms are really pretty in autumn, but until then it just takes up a lot of room...I hope the roots aren't really deep & that I don't kill it by transplanting it. I think it will work well as a low-ish screening shrub, depending on if the groundhogs munch it to death or not!

Lots of people are ripping out beds, I can't wait to see pictures of the new plants that I figure people are going to put in the next few years. I guess I chose to do mine the right year!!

Martha, good luck with that verbena bonariensis. I've been trying to get rid of it for 3 years, but they're still popping up. And, though the plants aren't supposed to be hardy here, they do survive our winters just fine.

PV- I got rid of my yarrow after one year. Too big, acted like a thug. And it reseeded like crazy, too.

What I'd probably like is a yard full of sterile plants. Suggestions welcome.

Karen

My neighbor grows the most beautiful flowers which bloom months on end. She buys non-fading plastic flowers (the types you would by for a grave) and sticks them in the ground where they look fine all season.

I have actually seen people do that, what kills me is that I forget sometimes they are the plastic plants and I will drive by when things should not be blooming. It will catch my eye and I am like what is that blooming I got to figure it out...

To funny!!

Karen - had my pot of yarrow for 6 years. Even confined in a pot, it was a thug. Just got sick of it.

PV

Karen

Recent discovery that the seeds I collected from some poppies from my parents neigbhor are one form of the opium poppy. Hilarious here she is about 70 years old growing opium poppies and I collected some grew some and have been giving out the seeds clueless to what they actually were.

Needless to say I think that is another plant I can mark off my growing list. I was reading and you can get 5 years just for growing them and 20 years if you are extracting from them. Wow!!

Karen

I was doing reading yesterday about it, and they said just for growing the plant or having the poppy straw it was illegal. Though it doesn't look like it is really enforced. I wonder how many people seriously grow these things without knowledge of what they are. I was one of them and I guarantee the little 70 year old woman didn't know. My dad said "Carolyn now those aren't the poppies that make heroin." I was like "GOOD!!" Oh my now if he only knew!!

I don't know if I am going to grow it or not, as of right now I am pretty much in shock.

When I was a kid the little old Italian lady next door didn't speak much English. But when I complimented her flowers and asked what they were she said "opium poppy". She grew them every year.

Poppy somniferum are sold and grown all the time in the U.S. Seeds are readily available anywhere. If it's illegal, it sure doesn't seem to be enforced.

I'm far more likely to have the police show up to see what I'm growing under those fluorescent light shelves in my dining room. But I'm not worried, I'm not making or selling drugs. I don't think you need to worry.

Karen

That is a lot of poppy, I am not going to stress over it anymore. I have no idea for sure that is the poppy I have even been growing. I do not plan to find out either, lol. If someone ask I plan to say a pretty pink double frilled close to coral color with hints of purple inside. That is as close to botanical as I plan to get. LOL

I can't believe that is on the list, that is crazy. In the picture with my coreopsis is my victoria blue salvia. There is no way I am going without my salvia's I love those plants. Spring to frost bloomers. That picture was taken the day this thread was posted. We have had light frost and one hard frost. Those things are still blooming. My salvia blue bedder is wonderful also, both types come back for me each year. Both come true from seed!!

If I am not mistaken my salvia's and my garlardia have been known to bloom till after thanksgiving.

I moved some stuff around to make room for my ws babies, and if winter kills what I moved, I won't be heartbroken.

Next on the list is to decide what to do with the fish in the pond this winter.

It's so nice to have a nearly blank canvas. Some of the plants will remain as there roots are too big for my shovels. Oh well.

Randi

So, out they go and with WS I'm sure I'll find something better to fill in the spaces.

The sage people are getting high off of is salvia divinorum. The local head shops have signs advertising that they sell it; it's legal here. From what I've read, it's unattractive and difficult to grow outside of its native climate. The salvias / sages we grow for decorative and culinary use are "cousins" to it but are not going to get anybody buzzed or arrested.

I've got a shelf similar to Karen's with fluorescent lights in my living room. The window across the room has the curtains open so the plants there can get sun, and the glow is quite visible from outside. My friends tease me about it. Now that I've got my Thai hot pepper plants settled in on the shelf, I can offer a sample to any guests who desire to feel as though their brains are melting. ;-)

-Edie

What kind of gooseneck?? Is it purple gooseneck loosestrife, I can't acess the botanical at this moment. Please say no!! Cause that was another I was going to ws this year.

There was lots more. Some places where I just had one plant, I'd rip it out or move it to another spot with like varieties. I tried reorganizing more than tossing. I wanted swaths of the same flowers here and there. One or two oddities remain to break up the monotony.

Coneflowers, Coreopsis Full Moon, upright sedums, Rudbeckia fulgida, R. triloba, and a few grasses make up the majority of my plantings now. Hibiscus, lilies, and a few reseeding annuals dot the beds. At least that's the plan. We'll have to wait til next year to see how I managed.

People always tell me I should be a car salesman, lol.

Karen

Anyone need any willow tree seedlings?? LOL

I still have a pecan tree I haven't had the heart to dig up either. If I am not mistaken this will make either 3 or 4 years I have just let it go, so another 11 and you will have pecans. Anyone need a pecan tree?? LOL

With great apprehension, I pulled out my "joe pye weed", it was just too tall and beginning to smother out other plants. I really do like that plant too, maybe I can find some seeds for a smaller version, I know they have them. The bees loved it!

I also pulled out my perennial mums, this plant grew into a shrub and never bloomed until late in the fall season. Sometimes the frost would arrive before the buds opened, not worth it to me.

I know there were more but that is all I can think of right now.

Linda

I totally agree about becky, that is one well behaved plant that I also love. I am even starting to like it more than my silver princess and snow lady doesn't hold a candle to either.

I have sprouts of it come up in this one bed every year and I have never intentually grown it. I just yank it out as soon as I see it and I try to get it before my dad comes around, lol, he would insist on me growing it cause to him "that is good stuff", lol.

I'm growing those same beautiful poppies (Danish Flag) you have there. This year they re-seeded true to parent extremely well for me and grew so very tall and strong and bloomed their fool heads off all season long....couldn't believe it! I have a ton of seed if anyone is interested. That and a ton of dark pink peony types and mix of Shirley's.
Anyway to the original question.
I have been considering getting rid of:
1. Catmint (Nepeta mussinii) since it seems I can never stay up on the seedsand I'm a manic dead-header yet it never fails to always be a step ahead of me....and boy does every one seed sprout. Every spring I must be at least hoeing/picking a good 200 or so itty bitty seedlings!
2. Aster laevis (Smooth Blue Aster) Same deal plus they fall out all over....too floppy.
3. Maltese Cross...love the foliage early on and love the bright red bloom, but the foliage come mid summer is just horrid.
4. Eupatorium purpureum (Joe-Pye Weed). Horrid foliage...dry/crispy ugly leaves from ground to more than half up the stems mid summer no matter how much I mulch or water it.
5. I've already started yanking out Yarrow and will keep on until it is completely annihilated!! I started with just 4 winterown seedlings a few years ago that has now grown to about 30+ plants not to mention that each one spreads very quickly via rhizomes/stolons. It's really sad though...I truly loved having the white to break up the color and I loved the look of it at night in the moonlight, but there are much better behaved white flowers like my Evening blooming Nicotiana which re-seeds but not excessively and of course the Sweet Alyssum. I introduced white Lavatera last spring and next year I plan to plant the entire border in my east to west strip that goes the entire length of the back yard :)
6. STILL after several years I'm still yanking out Sedum album....OMG what a nightmare!!
7. My sour Cherry Tree has got to go. It was already here when I moved in and already much too tall for harvesting from. I can only get to the bottom branches and the robins get the rest and seeds are sown all over.....the tree from hell!

Now I do still have quite a few plants that are really good reseeders that I would like to pull, but our town just started their first flea market and plants and seedlings are welcomed. Sooooo guess I might as well make a little money each spring/summer at $10 a table per weekend. I plan on potting up the several Lavender, Golden Margarete, Thyme (creeping and upright), Salvia officinalis, Chamomile, Alyssum, Agastache, Snapdragon, Cynoglossum, several types of sedums and other annuals/perennials and herbs that I can count on year after year!

Vera

I was inspired by Vera's pictures to grow Maltese Cross, too. I agree, I might get rid of it too due to but ugly, burned foliage all summer.

I eliminated yarrow after 1 year, too invasive for me.

Karen