Have You ever Planted a mistake ?

[Nyboy]

I am finding out planting Flag iris was a BIG mistake. Most of the time NY winters keep plants in check, that can be a problem in other parts of the country. Who doesn't like iris flowers? I planted both yellow and blue in a stream that runs near my house. I thought I was being really smart by planting them in plastic baskets for water lilies. Kind of like how people plant mint in pots buried in the ground. 1st year didn't do much, 2nd year grew nice, 3rd year growing crazy!!! insult to it all is very few flowers mostly leaves.Not sure how i am going to get rid of it, don't want to hurt wildlife living in water. The water is shallow but stagnant, don't think i would be able to find anyone willing to go in and digg out. Should have listened to the warnings about it.

 

[lesa]

Nyboy- I had no idea those were invasive.... Looks like they can cause allergic reaction to your skin too. Be careful about pulling them up. Have I ever planted a mistake? Ha Ha! I just found a recipe for amaranth. Next I need one for amaranth, chives and mint!!

 

[Nyboy]

At lest you can eat your mistake lol thanks for warning didn't know about rash.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've made a LOT of planting mistakes. However three in particular come to mind

1. Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkekengi). One of the many plants we put in to brighten up the various parts of our yard. What we never knew until it happened was how FAST the stuff propigates, both from birds eating the fruits in the middle of the lanterns and pooping out the seeds and from runners, and by extension, how FAR those runners can go. It took us YEARS to get rid of them.

2. Blackberries. On our property Japanese wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius) are native (well, are naturalized). The produce well enough, but after a while we got a little bored with the monotony and though adding a few other bramble fruits would provide a little diversity. BIG mistake. That is, the idea may not be such a mistake but we picked the absolutely WRONG strain of blackberry from the nursey. Leggy, spread canes all over the place, prduced nearly NO fruit and what little it did produce was small, seedy and sour. Again, took us AGES to get it all out, and even now we get the odd cane showing up from time to time. Though whether these are leftovers from our own blackberries is unclear. They could also be leftovers from the wild bank of berries that used to exists in a hollow on our neighbor's property (until the area got basically razed to make another house). That one was much the same sort as ours; the berries, while more numerous than ours, were also not worth the picking or eating. (There was a tiny blackberry cane that I found one year behind our neighbors property one year that WOULD have been worth bringing onto our property, as it made excellent large berries (well berry, when I found it, it was so small it had only made 1) but I've never been able to find that one again.

3. Senna obtusifolia- This one might not count as we never "planted it", at least, not on purpose. But as a result of all those seed searches I do, I often toss large amounts of legume leftovers out on the lawn and the mulch pile, for the birds to eat and or to rot into mulch. Because of this, were pretty used to finding little patches of volunteer legume plants popping up in odd places all over our property. Mostly these are at best a minor concern. Most modern legumes are bred to soak swell and grow as soon as they are rained on, so nearly all seed thown the birds don't eat either sprouts (and gets mown) or rots (and stops being a concern). And plants that live so long they can actually reproduce without intervention are rare (and those that do tend to be so obvios I can see them and pick any seed they make before it hits the ground). But the senna is another matter. It can't QUITE finish it's reproductive cycle up here (I'm actually only about 10-15 miles from your weekday residence, NYboy) But the amount of seed that can hibernate in the ground for years and then pop up makes that all but irrelevant. Every year we get a good smattering of little senna plants all over the place. Since I stopped actively throwing senna seed out we get a lot less of the real titans (one of the years I was doing that, we would up with some senna plants that were big enough to count as small trees) but there are always some still, including a few that try to make flowers and reproduce. The flowers ARE sort of pretty (look a little like buttercups) but on the whole I am not a big fan of a lot of senna plants since they STINK when you crush or cut them.

Those are the main three I can think of. I suppose I could include things like the hellweed and the grasp vine (don't bother looking those up, they are my personal nicknames for the plants since I don't know what they actually are) but those have only been problems for a single year, and never extended furter than where I planted them. I'll write a bit about them, but only if someone asks me to.

 

[lesa]

Pulse- we can go ahead and add Chinese Lanterns to my list, as well! I also have plume poppy, which I am not quite ready to call a "mistake" but it is beginning to make me worry!

 

[Smart Red]

Russian olive -- 50 trees planted way back when that all got grubbed out once we knew they were invasive. There are none growing wild around here, but whenever I see one along the road I fear it is there because of my mistake.

Tartarian honeysuckle -- another 50 plants in the nursery that turned from pretty wildlife-food shrubs to invasive, native-habitat-destroying pests. We dug all those up as well. After 6 years, we (hopefully) got the last of the volunteers up yesterday.

Hummingbird (trumpet) vine -- A gift from my mother, it turned out to be a very aggressive wisteria vine instead. That monster grew underground for long distances to imbed itself in hard to reach plantings where it choked other plants. Not a chance of flowering for all its growth. That took many more years to extract than I would have expected.

Then there was the trumpet vine we purchased after out disappointment with mom's plant. This vine turned into an invasive monster as well. It took 4 years to completely remove the plant from that spot, it is still running rampant in the unmowed area between the woodshed and the woods. Only the plant in the back yard where I can mow around it has stayed reasonably under control and appreciated.

And mint! I started some soon after we purchased this place and before we had a lot of land cleared for gardening and mowing. Within three years, that mint was everywhere but where I had planted it. It has been nearly 40 years and I still occasionally run into a growth of mint in an untraveled space.

Ha ha! My Chinese lanterns never "took" the first year and I learned during that year not to encourage them. We already had a wild growing relative invading the area that convinced me NOT to grow the Chinese variety.

Flag iris didn't find my conditions suitable and died out after two years.

Bringing in invasives is a big problem for gardeners who believe that "One of everything is a good start"! It has taught me to research a bit before running helter-skelter after every new introduction, though.

 

[Nyboy]

I planted 2 trumpet vines a red and yellow in 5 foot cement planters. i wanted them to grow over the light pillars at end of driveway. Both didn't make it though winter.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

You think

Bringing in invasives is a big problem for gardeners who believe that "One of everything is a good start"! It has taught me to research a bit before running helter-skelter after every new introduction, though.

You think THAT is a problem Imagine my situation. Since most of the things I plant I pull out of other things, as you recall so 99% of the time I can't be 100% of WHAT I have and often I NEVER DO. That's why everything starts in a pot; I want to make sure that, if something looks TOO vigorous I have the option of "toss whole pot in a trash bag and get rid of it" Don't get me wrong, that method has yielded me some absolutely beautiful things (you'd be surprised at how many plant that are filed weeds in the tropics are perfectly acceptable flowers up here where you have the winter to keep them in check). But I have learned the wisdom of going carefully.

Mint is actually a paradox situation for me. At one time, I kept what mint I had in pots under very tight control, precisely to KEEP it from running rampant (both my Grandparent's houses had mint that had gotten out of hand, so I was familiar with what it could do.) Eventually I chucked the pots contents as it got too leggy (it reached the stage where it was making all stems and roots and no actual leaves of consequence.) But the summer after that I discovered, and developed a taste for, limonata ( a drink popularin the Middle East made by mixing a LOT of chopped mint up with some water lemon juice and honey. Basically REALLY minty lemonade.) At that point, not only wanted needed new mint, but it actually became to my advantage to plant it directly in the ground and let it grow freely, as making the drink requires a LOT of mint, about two or three big bunches per pitcher (less if you don't strain the bits of leaf out but if you don't, it's rather like trying to drink lawn clippings). So I did. Only problem is ever since then I have yet to get a mint that even SURVIVES from year to year, let along puts on any growth. Or at least one that does and still tastes like I want it to taste (a lot of the hardier mints, like some of the peppermints, are too bitter for the drink)
Which reminds me, if you want a mint but need it to stay under control, try Egyptian Mint (Mentha niliacea) Not only does it have a pretty good flavor but it's too frost tender to survive over the winter here, so it really can't get out of control.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Something called...sea thistle? That doesnt sound quite right...but i have a vivid picture of that monster in my head! We moved since then...haha.

 

[catjac1975]

I have a beautiful Campanula, tall bells... When I bought it the woman warned me that in was invasive. In my mind that was more plants for free. Big mistake.