Northeast Gardening: Failures, Disappointments & Lessons, 0 by Rocco

Rocco wrote:
I had four salvia greggii that were probably six to eight years old and only one made it through the winter. My salvia "hot lips" is also perished. Last fall I planted thirty six Dutch irises,twenty of the came up but only eight bloomed. My knockout roses have always bloomed early and continued to bloom until fall. This year I had a few blooms in March but there isn't a single bloom or bud on any of them now. I have two large kerria plants that always bloomed from spring until fall,same story as the roses. The kerrias are one of my favorite plants with hundreds of yellow rose like blooms. I also had a rose mallow,rock rose, (photo) that was very old and its now gone.
I made the mistake of planting a trumpet vine many years ago. I cut t down about ten years ago and since then have them popping up all over. I have finally decided that it can't be killed. I have a sumac that is about ten years old and have little sumacs popping up over thirty feet from the mother plant. I plan to keep the sumac because I like the fall foliage. I toured our extension service gardens many years ago and received a tiny plastic pot with a single northern sea oat plant,now I have them everywhere. It's like a sea of oats here! The oats probably can't be killed or contained.
I am also planting more small shrubs rather than perennials. The only perennials that I have planted recently are ten astilbes.
There are a few more disasters and lots of weed stories but I'll stop here.