Bad Luck Plants

Oops, I am the culprit who gave you the lingonberry, Kathy. It is the variety "Ida" and stays a foot high or less. I planted 5 as a ground cover around blueberries because it also likes acidic soil. It really does stay looking pretty nice all year long, but it does spread. I haven't been unhappy with it yet, because I wanted it to spread in the area I planted it. It didn't go far the first 3 years though, and has not been extremely aggressive for me as of yet, so I don't think you are in any immediate danger of run amokness. It wouldn't be good in an area with a lot of little perennials, but seems fine under shrubs. Hopefully I will not regret this in a few years.

wannadanc, that's just gross! Blech! I hate those things and I certainly wouldn't want one in my ear. I bet you did quite a dance when you found that one! I noticed today that they've attacked a planting of primulas. Yes, apparently they love them.

Those look like badly pruned little nandinas to me. Nothing to do with them but toss them. I think they are a hard plant to keep looking nice for many years.

Hey, I think a couple of the dierama seedlings survived.

My purple asters. They look so lovely in the fall, but they are becoming a vicious thug in my garden.

This is what happens if you allow the English Ivy to have its way. Time was when I could have used hand pruners to cut the part that was growing up the tree. Today, it took a chain saw!!!!!!

english ivy should never get its way! Glad you are saving that tree, though. We had to do that to almost all of our big trees when we moved into this house. What a pain. And to think that nurseries still sell that stuff.

I would think with all the problems in our parks and wild areas that English ivy would be on the no-sale list in Washington. Guess not. We ripped a whole bunch up during our regrade, and I am hoping (with fingers crossed) it is gone. All the vines are in a huge bonfire pile.

I am also fighting a batch of ivy that has been on a cedar tree for over 15 years. Thank goodness it isn't quite as huge as yours wannadanc, but It will take lots of effort. I did resort to round-up but see that new shoots are growing again. Anyone have ideas on how to get it out of there completely other than continuous ripping out?

The only way to get it out is to pull it out down to the roots. Portland parks has a wonderful volunteer group who is getting rid of all of the ivy, in our huge, huge Marquam park and our even bigger Forest Park---all pulled by hand. They pull it, and then roll it down the slope in bundles, kind of like rolling up a sleeping bag. Ivy spreads locally, but the main reason for the invasiveness is that when it gets to berry stage, the birds love them, eat them, spread the seeds. So a key thing is to remove it before it gets to berry stage. When we lived in Portland, we spent about 60 hours of our own time, plus hired a crew of 6 for an additional 24 hours to get ours removed from our 1/4 acre lot with 13 old growth doug fir trees. We did this so that we could then post a little sign in our yard that said we were "Backyard Habitat certified." Such a Portland thing to do, right? Removing the Ivy exposed an eroding slope which then required a $4000 retaining wall. (Contrary to popular belief, Ivy actually contributes to erosion rather than anchors slopes.) Then my husband changed jobs, and we moved 4 months later! Thank goodness we still made a profit on the house after all of that. You can not purchase English Ivy in Oregon.

Why am I practically the only Oregonian on this Pacific NW garden forum by the way? Calling all Oregonians! Summerkid, mstish, beahive, me. Where are the rest of the Oregon gardeners? I swear, we really do garden down here.

I didn't know - back when I could have made a less costly difference - that the arboreal form of ivy was the seed making stage. Ignorance was hardly an excuse, but it was what it was back in 1978. So - I will be paying for my ignorance with having to remain vigilant for any attempts on part of ivy to climb more trees, or even climb up my house! I don't envision that I will ever be able rid myself of the ground cover, but I can prevent it from moving into the arboreal stage. I don't have a civilized city lot, but rural acreage.

When we pulled up all the ivy that the neighbor had planted between the houses it never came back. It was only about 6 feet up the fir trees but about 2 feet deep.

Careful with the Roundup, folks. Glyphosphates don't break down as quickly as Monsanto said they did. There is evidence of lasting ecological damage with the indiscriminate use of Roundup.

There are ivy pulling parties - I think you can ask the county for help.

I've found that the best time to pull ivy is in the early spring when the ground is still wet - you can get lots of plant without it breaking off. I, too, fight it, doing the best I can to protect my wetland. It requires constant vigilance (for that and the Lamiastrum), but I figure it's the price I pay for living here. At least it doesn't hurt like the black berries do.

Kosk, we do know that you all garden down there. Many of us make regular trips into Oregon and make sure to enjoy our favorite scenes if at all possible. You have some real heat, which we don't all get up here. As a matter of fact, that may be why the Nandina suffers for you. I have three mature Nandina under a fir tree and I appreciate their fortitude. Two years ago with our record-setting cold temperatures, they appeared to have died, but I cut them off and they came back from the roots. It's good to know I can do that. They look much better these days.

I think you're right about the heat and sun on the dwarf ones. My tall Nandinas look great, however, and they are huge. The ones I pulled out were dwarf----even at the nurseries they look all brown, crinkled leaved, weird mix of leaf colors, scraggly, spotted leaves. Seems like a commonly used plant by landscapers. Always see the dwarf ones adjacent to parking lots mixed with pieris shrubs.

Here is the recipe for the standard Oregon parking lot strip: Mix together 3 parts dwarf nandinas, with 3 parts pieris, and 5 parts kinnikinnick. Don't get me wrong---I do love our native kinnikinnick---I have quite a bit (too much) in my yard---but I much prefer the look of it out in Central Oregon. In my yard, I love wild coastal strawberry as a groundcover----lush and green all summer, gorgeous fall/winter color, spring flowering (right now flowering pink and white everywhere), and really easy to remove if you decide to plant something else where its growing. I might have to put that on the "perfect plant" thread.

If it's any consolation, we see the opposite effect with Photinia up here. They are widely used in landscaping and commonly sheared, which makes them weak. Our cool temperatures almost always mean that they get black spot. Blooming is sporadic. But when I head down to the Willamette Valley I'm always amazed at how huge and happy they are. And they bloom like crazy for you.

It's sort of like Ceanothus. It struggles along here, but it's called California Lilac for a reason . . .

I don't do ground covers for many reasons - one of them being the image of Vinca, Kinnickinnick, Strawberry with gum foil, paper, wax cups strewn in the midst of it. But the Fragaria is blooming right now and I must say that I love that beautiful pink blossom!

We used a smother mulch to kill our ivy. It covered our entire back area and pulling it would have required machinery. We had a team come in and cut it to the ground. Then we put huge sheets of heavy cardboard on top of it and wet it down. We covered that with about 15 inches of compost and let it stay that way for a year or more. That ivy never came back, but, of course, none of our neighbors do anything about their ivy so we are constantly pulling seedlings and hacking off stuff that wanders into our yard.
That's how we killed the blackberries, too, but they, and other kinds of thorny berry vines, continue to try to come back. I use roundup on them in the early spring when I get tired of pulling them by hand, because any little piece of root will continue to grow.

On the Photinia, I noted how incredible the growth is on some of the median strips in Oregon. It was such a pleasant discovery.

Yes, photinia can be a tree here. Glad ya'll enjoy it. My neighbor put up a bunch of it suddenly last year along our shared fenceline (wire fence), so it will be the backdrop for many of my perennial beds that I've worked so many hours on. Unfortunately, the red foliage clashes with my beds.....and my full sun beds will be shade beds in a few years time......and my fancy espalier fruit trees along same said fence will not get the sun they need in a couple of years time either. ***Sigh***....neighbors. I don't think I'd be completely satisfied unless I had 1000 acres and my house was located in the dead center of the property. I thought I had steered him towards green shrubbery (I prefer nice dark green laurel for a hedge), but suddenly those showed up. I found a photo that sort of illustrates it that I snapped the other day (not intending to showcase the photinia). My Salvia 'Caradonna', jupiter's beard, lady's mantle, and delphinium in front of the fence---tall variety of photinia (yes, these grow 30 feet here) on the other side. But actually, my neighbors are some of the best neighbors I could ask for---wonderful and kind people with great gardens of their own (you can see their berry gardens in background).....so not sure what I'm whining about! And now, after this chatter, I'm kind of proud of this whole lush photinia in Oregon thing.

Kosk, I think you will learn to embrace the photinia border. Granted, you may need to move some of your sun plants elsewhere, but that will then open up a shade garden for you. And it will provide privacy, which I find pretty special. When we first moved to our place, it was wide open between us and the neighbors. They planted rhodies and pines along our common border. A few years later, we planted a small Xmas tree farm between our driveway and the fence. Thanks to the pines, the existing cedars, and our now way overgrown firs, we have a veritable forest between us. And, we are now looking forward to neighbors #5 in that same spot - who knows who they might be. Some have been good, others not so much.

Yes, the privacy will be awesome. And I can't blame them for wanting it---with my 3 boys tearing up and down the driveway all the time. Another photinia bonus: By the time my boys are finally old enough to use the basketball hoop, the photinia will be big enough to stop the ball from going into their yard! And I won't want delphiniums next to a basketball hoop anyway!!!!!

Okay in an effort to stick with the bad luck plant topic, I thought of another one: Rudbeckia "Prairie Sun". Because they rarely make it through the winter. Very tender. Which is a bummer, because I LOVE THEM. 2 out of 6 from last year are coming back. I started 20 or so from seed this year indoors, then moved them to a hot greenhouse.......and they are extremely slow to grow. It will be a miracle if those tiny 20 survive the winter. I wish they would.

I planted three Oriental poppies last year (white, pink and red). They were quite small, and struggled along it seemed. I wasn't sure they woud even come up after the winter, but they did, quite vigorously. A week ago, I would noy have undersdtood why Pixy hates/loves them. They were large, but self-contained with flowers held upright. Now. however, they are beginning to sprawl, so I get what you mean.

I found out that once you plant Oriental poppies you always have them in that spot. I dug some out years ago and they came back. That should be on the tag. I love them but wish the stems would be stronger. They are tuff.

Holly - I KNOW I got the lingonberry from you. I think of you every time I see it. :-) Thanks for the cultivar name. This year it's definitely leaping - it looks fantastic. Such a nice little shrub and it DOES look great year-round. I'll keep an eye on it. It has plenty of room right now, so spreading a little would be okay.

Kosk, Dan Heims of Terranova (I'm 'friends' with him on Facebook) says that you can make many of their Echinacea hybrids stronger for the winter by preventing them from flowering the first year; i.e., cutting off the blossoms and allowing them to work on forming a good root system. I haven't been successful with that here, but will probably try again at some point. I wonder if it would work for the Rudbeckias . . .

Who among us is strong enough to cut the blooms off of a plant the first year? I don't think I've ever been disciplined enough to do that.

I pulled out the salmon poppies last year, and have twice as many this year. Now we know how to get a huge patch of poppies. Stick a knife down into the soil and chop away at the roots. Any piece will grow. They do look beautiful right now. Hope there isn't anything trying to grow underneath them.

I am feeling the pain of my neighbor's shade. Those large cedar trees have grown by leaps and bounds this year. We're at almost high summer now and I don't think there is anything left to call 'full sun' in my yard. So I think a lot of my plants are going to end up being 'bad luck' plants.

Well I'm happy to report all my sages (Honey Melon, Pineapple, Garden and Purple) are alive and well. Unfortunately I might have to add Pothos to the bad luck plants.

Pixy: I can't even bear to pinch out strawberry blossoms during first year. Is that still recommended???

I pinched the flowers off an entire 30 foot bed of strawberries because that's what I'd always read to do. The plants responded by putting out more flowers, so I'm not sure this technique helped strengthen the plant.Then I saw an article (don't remember where) that said their research showed it didn't really make much difference to do this flower pinching. Next time I renew my strawberries, i'm planning on leaving the flowers and enjoying my strawberries.

Melissa, I was 'man' enough to cut the blossoms off Hot Lava last summer and it still didn't make it. Don't know if I'll ever do that again. It makes sense, but certainly requires discipline.

Another bad luck plant, Musa bajoo. I know it's hardy here. I lost 2 out of 3 last year. I replaced one of those, but I'm not going to replace both. Hopefully we will not have a deep freeze in November this year.

Discipline in gardening is something I'm short of lately.

Well, I had listed cistus as a bad luck plant, because 4 of mine died this year, and 2 died last year. But I still have 4 big ones left.....and they are kind of pretty right now.....

Heaths and Heathers...... I kill them with kindness.... which is unkind in itself.
I think they die because I fertilize them. Gotta let them be.

Yes they will die if fertilized