How does your garden grow (without water)?
With all the strict restrictions on watering, how do you keep your garden alive? Do you have creative ways to come by water for your plants? What are they? We’re thirsting to know, and so are our readers!!
AJC.com > Gardening > Blog > Archives > 2006 > May > 05 > Entry
Confessions: Do you have a plant you hate?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s that time of year to change out the flowers in the neighborhood entryway. Every year we do begonias. Red, pink, white, whatever. I know they stand up to heat, humidity, reckless trucks and runaway dogs, but I have to admit I hate them, even if they do look nice from the street.
Do you have a plant you hate? Or dislike immensely? A relative who shall remain nameless hates petunias — mainly because she was forced to deadhead them as a child. (Now that’s a punishment!) Are you brave enough to put something bold in your neighborhood gardens?
My begonia bashing is mainly because they clump. They don’t spread and fill spaces, they clump. Marigolds are also on my death list, mainly because they always die of slug damage.
So it’s off again to the begonia store to fulfill the neighborhood wishes. Maybe I can sneak some ‘whirling butterflies’ gaura in when they’re not looking!
Comments
By MM
May 6, 2006 08:47 AM | Link to this
I also hate begonias. In my hands they start to croak in June, get buggy and are done in July. Then what? Nothing great is left in the garden center. I also resent that they are one of the few flowering inexpensive shade plants. I feel bullied into buying them.
Hostas used to be on my list. They reminded me of the rows my grandmother had planted and I always associated them as old-world-old-woman type plants. Now I enjoy them (although not love them) in the garden, planted more as specimens than in a row.
By HEK
May 8, 2006 08:30 PM | Link to this
I hate Bamboo, specifically the bamboo that is growing in the back of my neighbor’s yard, and now is sprouting all over my yard, although not anywhere in his, other than along his fence line, where he wants the bamboo to be. Every week, when I mow my lawn, there are new bamboo sprouts to mow down. It’s only a matter of time until they get the best of my mower…I feel like my yard is being invaded by an alien force. Those suckers can grow a foot in a week.
By Rufus
May 8, 2006 08:36 PM | Link to this
Must be a slow blog night for you ladies to start one about hating plants. Good grief.
By Jmarsh
May 8, 2006 09:20 PM | Link to this
Bamboo. I thought it was cute and supplied a decent privacy barrier for part of my yard. A year later, the root ball for each “mass” of bamboo is pushing four or five feet in diameter. I trimmed every few weeks, and ignored it for a spring.
Now it’s got poison ivy running through it, and it’s threading itself through the fencing. Salt and motor oil here I come.
By rednblack
May 8, 2006 10:11 PM | Link to this
1 Bradford pear 2 Poison ivy,oak 3 Forsythia 4 Kudzu 5 English ivyThese are my top 5 hated, off the top of my head. I’m sure I can think of many more.
By kath
May 9, 2006 12:13 AM | Link to this
How timely, I was just thinking about this today and wondered who would ever care. I detest roses. Every place I’ve moved there’s this spindly rose garden and that all the Realtors and/or home owners gush over. There’s always a few overweight roses falling over and they only look good for 2 days, if that. Plus, they always seem to be covered in some sort of bugs. I quietly say to myself - where’s the lopping shears. Then when I try to get rid of them the thorns tear up my hands and the trash bags. Give me orchids any day of the week.
By anthony
May 9, 2006 01:11 AM | Link to this
Tea Roses …
As pretty as they are, they cost a fortune in bug and disease spray, only to have japanese beetles swarm them.
And, oh yeah, … Canna Lillies …
By Stevenator
May 9, 2006 06:50 AM | Link to this
Poinsettias really suck, somehow emblematic of capitalist Xmas. And, pansies are so…Wal-Mart
By Sylvia
May 9, 2006 09:08 AM | Link to this
Is there no better border than liriope? Ugh, I hate that stuff. And it is all over Atlanta. The same for English Ivy. Get creative people!
By David
May 10, 2006 07:50 AM | Link to this
I hate canna lillies. They are the kind of plant that you give to someone that you dont like.
By Gayla
May 17, 2006 08:58 AM | Link to this
I hate marigolds. They aren’t pretty AND they stink!