What MONEY WASTERS would you recommend others avoid?

One of the reasons that I love this forum is that it reinforces the fact that I am not alone in my obsession with plants and playing in the dirt. I KNOW that I am not the only one leafing through garden and seed catalogs and making lists of all of the things that I MUST try this year. I figured that it would be nice if we shared the bad experiences we have had with garden purchases in an attempt to help our friends here from discovering the same pitfalls. Are there plants out there that may look good on paper but after growing (or killing) them, are there things that you would definitely avoid? Are there garden "gadgets" that sound like the best thing next to sliced bread, only to turn out to be junk in reality? What have you been disapointed with? What would you tell fellow gardeners to think twice before spending money on?

(Please note that no plants have been harmed in the posting of this thread...this one was already deceased when I got to it!)

I will start this thread off with a plant that I have killed probably 5 times now. If others have had success with it, I would like to hear it, but I just CAN NOT grow Marsh Andromeda (Bog Rosmary). It is always so lovely in the nursery, and always looks so good the first year....then just withers away into nothing.

LIkewise, I have killed at least three of those very rapidly. I do love them.

I always kill 'jade plants'. The indoor houseplants type.

I don't have good luck with 'lithadora' either. It stays alive but doesn't grow.

Willow, I am glad to know that it's not just me with the bog rosemary!

I have one spot in my yard that lithadora does very well, and it is very hot and very dry (full sun under cedar trees.... kind of a hard combo to find in most of our PNW yards!). I tried it in my Federal Way yard and could not get it to grow at all.

The bog rosemary does really well in my yard. I have that strange combination of soil types that it likes, no thanks to me. I do very well with difficult things, and easy things croak on me. Go figure.
Caladiums. don't bother, unless you buy them already grown, as in large annuals.
I like the idea of this thread. Now I have to think of what I have killed. Okay, here is one. I have tried Melianthus major three times. I have lost it three times. I love that plant. Other people grow it. I can't figure out why I cannot grow it. I am trying a different Melianthus species from seed, because it's supposed to be hardier. I will see if that is true.

Here are my two Bog Rosemary's. I had no idea that they were hard to keep alive. My other Rosemary's have all gone to plant heaven, but I keep trying.

My problem children:

Artemesias in general. I think they might like more alkaline soil than I have. I've struggled with lots of them - silver mound, limelight, wormwood. I am able to get southernwood to grow well, but usually just steer away from anything in the artemesia family.

Wallflower. Not sure what the problem is there, but I've planted them a couple times, they don't do well, and don't overwinter. I'm not that enamored of them and have them on my 'do not buy' list.

Buddleia. Go figure. This is supposed to be a weed. I can't get it to grow. Still trying though.

Bonehead, all the things you mention go hog-wild here!

My problem children- Azaleas, doesn't matter the kind. I think it's the soil, that and the summer dry heat. They live, and I still have them, but they never look GOOD.

You're lucky that lithodora doesn't grow! It takes over here and is a pain to pull and thin out!

I cannot even begin to tell you about all my money wasters. I've probably wasted at least $2000 over the past few years we've lived here. Please do NOT tell my husband!!!

First and foremost, as Pixy mentioned, were most of the plants I bought in co-ops. Some were my fault for not getting them into the ground. But the ones I did put in the ground, rotted and never grew. The only luck I've had with co-op plants were the co-ops where I got full size plants. Roses were one that grew but of course due to lack of sun, they've never grown much. Very straggly and unhealthy looking.
(I do have good luck the bulb co-ops, as long as I actually put them in the ground!)

My list of plants I've put in (and most of them in multiples) would exhaust you to read it! Just a few -

Echinacea - it would take a lot at this point for me to squander money on any of these. I've planted them at all stages, from plugs to full size plants. Not a one has ever done a single thing.

Phlox - I love it so and continue to plant it every year. I now will only put in full size plants. Alas, none of them have done anything notable.

Peonies - again in the phlox category as far as being a plant I love and continue to try. Is there a category for must have money wasters?!?!? I've put in full size plants with good eyes and all that. Wondering if they rot in this weather. I've put in so many. The ones that do come up, don't do great. And at least half do not return the following year. The one that does the best for me is a cutting I brought from my mom's. She took it from the farm she grew up on in Missouri.

That's it for now. Am getting very depressed from this thread!

Oh Gwen! I have no idea why your peonies would not do well, unless the voles get them. I have discovered, yet again, that the voles eat more things than I can even begin to say. Just today I discovered peonies with vole holes underneath their roots. I wonder if that is what happens with yours. Also, you know not to plant them too deeply, and that they do need a good amount of sun? If they disappear, it's probably voles.
Same with echinaea. I have wasted so much money on echinacea plugs. These get eaten by slugs when they are small like that.
$2000 is nothing. I don't want to think about that.

Forgot to say that in reading my garden journal notes from last fall, I had made a note that I should not bother to try overwintering coleus since it never lives. This is true. I have lost all but two of my coleus, rooted from cuttings from the plants I had in the gardens this year. Also, I will never waste time and money trying to grow these plants from seed again. We just do not have the heat required to grow these well.

Also don't bother buying early blooming tulips because they always get spoiled by the rain. Unless you can plant them underneath something, you will be disappointed. The same thing happens with the tree peonies. I wait all year for those fabulous blooms, only to have them pelted by rain. This year, I may protect them with an umbrella.

This message was edited Feb 14, 2010 1:00 AM

I figure I must be about the least knowledgeable gardener on here! (lol) but as far as phlox go.....I sprinkle them with a dab of garden sulfur when they are about 4" high in the spring and they don't get powdery mildew, which seemed to be the thing that wanted to do them in every year. Probably killing them slowly with that practice but they are spreading and blossoming every year and they smell wonderful! Ah well.....
I agree on the artemesia.........it grew nicely two years and then just disappeared.

Ladyfire, does the garden sulphur work with roses and hollyhocks and other things that get powdery mildew?

I absolutely FORBID my mind to wander into the dollar zone of lost plants. I look at it this way.... dollar for dollar, I could spend far more money on clothes and spas and having my nails done etc, with a lot less satisfaction. Besides, even the joy of the anticipation of a new baby performing well in the garden (whether it does or not) is worth the money spent. That does not mean, however, that I don't want to avoid knowingly "pounding money down a rat hole" (sorry, one of my Dad's old sayings that pops up in my brain now and then and won't go away!

I have had the same problem with and of the fancy echies. Slugs.... pooh! I got a couple plugs from Lynn this year, and have tried putting them in pots so I can at least keep the slugs off of them long enough to give them a chance to bloom at least one year for me. The standard old fashioned kind thrive for me... aparently they aren't as tasty.

Along those same lines, I was cleaning out a garden yesterday and found a tag for the Iceland Poppy that I bought last year. I knew better, but I still bought it because it was just so beautiful. I slug baited all around it, and the flowers lasted ONE day. The plant itself was gone within a couple of weeks. I did a slug patrol on that baby every night, and STILL they managed to eat it into nothing. I swear it called slugs from every part of the yard until it was gone. Same goes for corydallis.

Melissa, I went through the same experience with the coleus. I had bunches of rooted cuttings that I lost in that cold snap in November because they were in a cooler spot in my greenhouse. I have had success starting them from seed, but you have to start them LATE... April at the earliest... and keep them warm. That is usually easy for me that time of year, because my greenhouse gets quite warm during the day, and I still keep it around 55 at night.

Mock oranges... a crapshoot, and I will never buy another unless it is blooming. I just dug up a monster of a mock orange that had been in place for around seven years, and had never had a single flower. I tried everything... pruning, not pruning, feeding, not feeding... I have a couple of them in another area of the garden, and the bushes are not anywhere near as happy, but they bloom beautifully. After doing some reading, I found that this is a very comon occurence.

Gwen, I just dug some phlox out of my front garden... would you like me to pot a couple for you? They are common ones...either pink or white... I didn't label them when I was digging, just put them in a pile and was planning on moving them down to the terrace where it didn't really matter how they were mixed up. I can pot at least four nice clumps, ad they are yours if you want them. These have been pretty bullet proof for me as long as I stay with the common types. Fancy ones seem to go the same way that the fancy echies do.

Pix, I agree with the depth of planting of peonies - too deep and they won't blossom, but as far as shade I find they will actually tolerate a lot - I have some in areas that really only get 3+ hours and they do a smashing job. They are hungry plants - I feed like roses, but otherwise I find them absolutely tough as boots. Gwen - I'm wondering if you are not giving them enough time - they do take a year or two to settle in. If you want the double blossom to stand up, just build them a twig or wire cage (you need to use something like stock fencing with good size openings) and place over the plant before it starts to grow - the leaves and buds go up through the cage openings and cover it up - plants look great and nice tall straight stemmed blossom for cutting and bringing in the house. We do twig cages on all of our every year - takes 3 of us a full day to get through, but absolutely worth it. We also do it for phlox and papavers - stops all that gawky adolescent posturing.

artemesia and coleus are short lived perennials - I treat them as half hardy annuals and always take cuttings in the spring and over winter in the greenhouse. They bulk up very quickly once planted out. If the winter has been mild I can get two seasons out of them just by leaving them standing until last frost, cut them down to three eyes and letting them grow on for the summer. But cuttings are easiest and surest.

A note on the artemesia. I bought one for a pot last year, and brought it in to the greenhouse for the winter because I have lost several as well. The cool thing is that I found out that it is very easy to root cuttings. I love the foilage, so my plan now is to keep a "mother plant" in a pot that comes in for the winter, and then put the cuttings out to enjoy in the yard.

I just buy coleus as an annual now. Last year I spent some money on some beautiful varieties from a place in the southern US where they grow like weeds. It was just so worth it to me! I'm going to do the same this year. I took cuttings from all the plants and they rooted beautifully. Then after potting them up, I lost almost all of them when the greenhouse got too cool for their liking, even though it stayed well above freezing. I simply cannot keep the greenhouse warm enough to please them without wasting too much energy just for them. So they are going to be annuals for me. Oh well... that means I get new varieties every year!

In terms of the artemsia, that's a very broad category of plants we're talking about here. As a rule, I lime the soil around them because I tend to have soil on the acid side. They also require good drainage and don't like the soil to be too rich. That, evidently, is not as much of a problem for me as I thought. The one I have trouble growing is the annual kind that seems to take over everyone else's garden. Likely that's because I'm trying to grow it under the birch tree.
I love the one called 'silver mound', such a nice little edging plant, all silvery bun shaped softness!

Julie, thanks for the info on the mock oranges. I have several, which I will keep my eye on. Any idea of lack of bloom and out they will go! Likewise for the scent. Some are better than others. Why grow a mock orange if it is not going to intoxicate with fragrance?

Here's another 'money waster' in my book: Endless Summer hydrangea. I our zone, almost all of our hydrangeas bloom during a long period because we don't really lose them to long hard freezes like they do on the east coast and in the midwest. If that were to change, then maybe I'd need to pay more for 'endless summer', but I never did see the benefit to that,, frankly. All of my hyrangeas, once they start blooming, keep going and many of them put on a second flush of blooms.

Julie, would love the phlox. I can never have too much!

I have my peonies planted shallow. If anything, they are too shallow rather than too deep. Peonies are one of the first plants I ever 'learned about.' My mom brought a clump home from their family farm many years ago. So did her twin sister. They live about a half hour apart but it's much warmer at my aunt's. They each brought peony clumps as well as lilac cuttings from their family farm. My mom's peony did outstanding but the lilac never did anything. At my aunt's it was the opposite. Go figure.

I've had some of my peonies in 4 years now. And as I said, a good number did not come up either the first year or did not come back the second year. I am nothing if not patient (altho you'd never know it). The 'third year leap' thing has never come to pass for me!

Julie, I adore mock orange. I also really like styrex japonica, japanese snowbell. To me it's similar because it gets the pretty white flowers and is scented. So you might try that. There was a mock orange near a store up in Coupeville that was some sort of double and was just outstanding. At one time I investigated the name of it and tried to find it but nothing ever came of it and I don't remember what the cultivar was. But they are such outstanding plants! I've planted belle etoille (sp?) a few years ago and it did not come back. Will try again as I love it so.

Peonys like kelp and compost. And rose fertilizer every other year.

Utasol: I think the problem for both of us is the acidity/alkaline. We probably both need to just accept our soil and go with what likes it.

Gwen,

Just came in from the rain/hail, and had to post before I took a well earned rest. I planted a peony that my Mom transplanted from her yard in Federal Way when we first moved here. It bushed out but never bloomed, so I transplanted it into a different garden and it didn't bloom there either. Four years ago, we bought the house in Ewa, and I dug up the peony and moved it there (the do incredibly well in Ewa). It has STILL never bloomed for me.

In the meantime, Mom shared a "double pink" and "red" with me that she bought from Costco. Planted both in the same garden. Double pink has gone absolutely nuts and is just gorgeous. Red has just kind of sat there and limped along... never seen a bloom. The are planted about four feet apart.

I purchased a few from a co-op (Thanks Lynn!) last year, and planted them where my "BAD" mock orange was, so I will see how they do next year. Along the same lines, all three tree peonies that I have planted over the last six years have done wonderfully.

I have a single and double mock orange that are wonderful. The one that I dug up was supposedly a single, and I bought it several years before the other two. I have decided that it was just a NON bloomer.

BTW... the phlox are yours. I will pot them and they will be ready to travel your direction for the get-together on your turf in May!

I have a mock orange that's 50+ years old. It blooms & blooms & blooms every year. I do nothing for it - to it - with it except stuff my face into the blossoms. Truly, this one is the most fragrant I have ever experienced. If anyone wants to root cuttings, I'd be happy to provide them. It needs to be whacked down this year. In fact, i'd like to move it but that would be a bit much without horsepower & several pairs of elbow grease.
I can cut it myself. Easier...

As far as peonies in the shade - they do just fine, but don't flower if they're in deep shade.

Artemesia - be careful which variety you plant. I can't get rid of it!

Gwen.........um......yes I powder the roses too ( and also have less black spot)........have not tried it on hollyhocks because I don't have any........I am really cringing because I feel like the plant purists surely must be clucking their tongues at me.........but it seems to work...I guess I'll know if it was the wrong idea if they all croak on me some day but so far, after 4 yrs., they have not!

LFS - no clucking, I think the others, like me are wondering about the organic issues of using sulfur on gardens. Its interesting, but I need to do some research before comment. Please keep posting -

Yes, I would need the sulphur to be organic because my roses are surrounding my vegie garden. I should say I'd like my roses to be surrounding my vegie garden. I planted them but they never really took off.

Bog rosemary - mine died before I even had a chance to kill it.

And I've had the same problem with native mock orange. No blossoms at all. I have heard that they take awhile - and most of my research indicates that nobody really knows exactly what they need to get them to bloom . . .

Probably sun. You know, that little thing that plants need to actually grow and flourish.....that one little detail that we seem to be lacking here.

We had a beautiful mock orange out be the outhouse when I was little. It was 25' tall and did almost cover the OH. So I bought one and it has bloomed a few times but is ugly and short.

Money wasters - Trumpet Vine. Anyone who has ever dealt with this vine would gladly pay someone to take it away.

Of course, when I look at the bog rosemary again online, I feel like I should try it . . . I just don't have a year-round bog.

You know, mine is planted in my regular garden soil, but this bed tends to have a heavier soil and gets plenty of water. It's at the feet of a laurel stump. Primulas grow there, Rodgersia, Calla lilies, Gunnera, Thalictrum, bamboo, Ligularia. All of them do well in that bed. It gets full sun in the summer, almost no sun at all in the winter. The drainage is good, but not fast. It's definitely not a bog, though.

Most of the tall running campanulas get a thumbs down vote for me. They just get too out of control to bother with, and they do tend to flop. Campanula 'powder puff' did nothing, totally not worth it for me. I put in 'summertime blues' last year. Hope springs eternal. It's supposed to be a clumper and the flowers are supposed to be a rich purple. We shall see what it does this year. Camanula 'Beautiful trust' , hardly worth the effort. Lots of boring leaf, little flower. I've considered ripping it out three years in a row. Maybe this is the year. I suspect 'pink octopus' is about the same, but I don't have it.

Euphorbia 'Red Martin' : Beware! Great plant, too many seedlings. It goes a little nuts, even in my garden. It's the only euphorbia I have that goes that crazy.

when you are saying bog rosemary is this Andromeda polifolia?

Laurie, That's the one.

Pixy, I have tried it in three different spots, full sun and well watered, full sun with heavier soil, and part shade in heavier soil. The second combo got it to last through one winter, but still was an eighth of it's original size the following spring, and there might be a stick of it left now, but I think I remember pulling it out last year.

I forgot to ask... Pixy I would love to have the info on the man you got your coleous from last year. I drooled so much over them, and would love to try a few!

thanks Julie.

Artemesia is one of the few plants that actually grows under the cedar tree. I don't do anything to it other than rake the dead portions off in the spring so it can get new growth. It is not in a spot that gets much water and I am sure the darned cedar takes any that is there. I really do not like the plant, but as I said, at least it fills in a bare spot.

edited to add,

In keeping with the theme of this thread, I have to say that when I lived over where you all are, the Forsythia bloomed everywhere. So, when I first moved over to the east side I bought one from a very reliable nursery. Been in business for years. It is a kind of draping shape, very pretty, I think the tag said "suspensia" or a form of it, and that to me means it does not grow straight up in the air like a lot of them do. Anyway, that darned plant has NEVER bloomed. In 14 years. I have moved it 3 times, thinking it needed more sun. etc. Nothing. I paid $13 for that plant. In a 5 gallon pot. There are a lot of Forsythia blooming in the area.

Jeanette

This message was edited Feb 16, 2010 6:41 PM

Give it a shot of epsom salts.

Ya think?? I sure will try it. I got a box of triple phosphate I think it was. Didn't do anything. But I will try the ES. Thanks Julie.

Julie, I'm trying to remember. I think there has been discussion on mamajacks coop forum. Even for a coop, they were a little on the pricey side for small plants.

Jeanette, that's too bad because that forsythia sounds like it would be really lovely!

Forsythia - there is no such thing as a lovely forsythia - I pulled out a dozen mature ones first year I moved in (well, okay - probably only 7 or 8, but it took the ire of a dozen!)- I hate that plant, suitable only for motorway verges, preferably where there are lots of skidding off the road cars! They could serve as botanical airbags. Out!

Pull it out Jnette and plant something wonderful!

So, Laurie, how do you really feel about forsythia? WMPL (wet my pants laughing)

I have tried several times with a plant, but for the life of me, I can't remember which one it is. AAGGHHH! It will come to me. If I jump in with just a name of a plant later, you'll know that was the one. Man, this is annoying. It's one that everyone says is so easy, too. Maybe it's cuz I haven't had my coffee yet. The maker broke. I'll stop and get some on the way to have my hair cut. Maybe I should just sign off for now. ^_^