here are mine:
Rose New Dawn (dying a very slow death)
verbena (any kind)
allamanda
Things that everybody grows but you manage to kill
I have big big issues with Watermelons... just cannot get them to grow right...
Verbena - got to tell you the key I am sure to this one is full sun and forget it is there the first year so you dig in that area several times uprooting it ... this year it is getting huge and going strong.
verbena--i'm jealous, then.
Begonias.........I kill them all. I've tried less water, more water, shade, sun, good soil..........begonias do not like me. I have one of those new ones, dragon's wing. It is still alive, but I've only had it about 4 weeks.
Vossner, I won't say anything about the verbena growing wild in my back yard(it was beautiful, a purple carpet)
Yep - Begonias and Hostas... all die here too... I just chalk it up to Texas heat.
Sure so Voss. . . looks good and blooms like nuts this year... I got it at the place in outside of New Brunfels that Hazel told me about... dont remember the name but everything I got there is doing soooooo good after the shock they took from being moved from down there to here.. .. .. I think the name is Don Juan if I am thinking strait..
agh, that hurts!
hostas hate me...
verbena does much better in fall, winter, spring for me and sorta sulks thru the heat.....ferns haven't cared for me much in the past--although the one I got from Smockette at the RU is doing quite well in the shade on the back porch in its pot.
allamandas will always freeze to death on me so I stopped buying them.
Mitch--I think melons of all kinds are tough--hardest veggie for me to grow.
I don't dare buy any more Gardenia or Jasmine....no matter what I do they always die a slow death :(
Herbs and cacti. I don't do well with things that need to be left alone.
Melons are a huge pain... and when I get out there with one just ready to get to eat I find that they have been drilled into by some of the ants around here and they are going to town...
I have a feeling the 6-8 inches of rain are going to start calling for corpses here soon...had a rudbeckia in a poor draining area that was in full bloom keeled completely over. Good thing I have a lot of those. Have gradually built up those 'drought-tolerant' plants in number over the last 4 years...then we get a normal summer. Or at least normal rainfall so far--you never know, that might be the last rain we see until October. I'm always mentally prepared for drought--not the other way around.
Petunias are my enemy I think. I see them in beds around here looking great and every type I've tried look good for a week or so, then keel over...I've tried more water, less water, more sun , less sun.. the only good thing about them is it gives me an excuse to go back to the nursery...
Good to hear from you teacup! I hope your going to make the fall RU up there. I used the excuse I lost my hand trowel (which I did, but...) to go with April today. We left a few plants for the other shoppers. She's a really neat DG person too.
Debbie
OMG....impatiens....i kill them; i don't know how...but i do....and i think they are beautiful...but alas...the die
I have several colors of verbena. The only way I can keep them alive is to pretty much ignore them. I use to baby them, give them more water than they probably needed, etc. and they died anyway. So now I just ignore them.
For years I could not grow petunias either. I just gave up. Finally this year I decided to try again. So far they still look pretty. I have several different colors and different kinds. I don't water them often.
One thing I still can't grow.........hen and chicks!! LOL I can hear ya'll laughing now! That is supposed to be a plant that is easy to grow, so I've heard. No luck here. I'll try again one of these days.
Lin
I have attended way too many funerals for Gardenias...
Vossner,try the Bayer Advanced Garden All-in-One Rose & Flower Care. I have 5 New Dawns that are 3 years old. 2 are dead from a dry cold winter. I gave the other 3 some of this and they are over the arbors and dont want to stop blooming. We have alot of beetles down here on the river and that is why I used it.Works great for that also. Good Luck
Oh and I kill Moss rose. Go figure! LOL
This message was edited Jun 2, 2006 11:43 PM
I have killed air plants. You name it and I have killed it.
Mine would be Azaleas, they don't like . Also I can't seem to keep Turk's Cap alive either.
Turks cap struggles in my care. It is stunted and manages to squeeze only a bloom or two a year. I have moved it from sun to shade, morning sun, morning shade. I just haven't got it right and leave it for at least two years in each spot to make sure the move didn't hurt it. Have even kept it in a pot. It is still alive but a mystery to me.
debbie, Where did you and April go shopping? I have almost stopped planting in this heat, but went to a local nursery for some greensand and saw some Pineapple verbena 'Moujean tea" Nashia inaguensis. it has the most lovely leaves that seem to have a glow to them..sort of like they have been sprayed with glitter.anyway they were only $1.89 for a 4" pot and I grabbed the last three. Don't know a thing about them, but at that price i had to try. So one will go into a pot on my shady patio. one in a semi-shady spot and one with a little more sun. We'll see who lives...nancy
That's what I do, Teacup. So much better than having them all die in one spot and starting over. It is amazing how much difference one spot is from another, and what will thrive where.
Plumbago just won't grow for me. I've lost several salvias due to water holding clay soil; wet winters just do them in. My sweetgum tree bit the dust during the winter, probably due to drought. Dwarf wax myrtle hasn't made it, though regular wax myrtle does well. Camellias just don't make it for me. The wet winter soil probably explains it all except the dwarf was myrtle and the sweetgum. Live and learn. The Mexican bird of paradise tree was dead, I thought, due to wet winter soil. I cut it down, but hadn't dug it up, and it set out new small branches, probably because we had a dry winter. Time will tell for that one.
I'm having to relearn gardening since we moved to College Station from Austin. it is only 90 miles but what a difference in the soil. In Austin we were right on top of limestone and had to water all the time. Here we have so much clay in my soil that i think most of my problems have been do to overwatering. I'm also learning where the sun is in my yard through the year. When I first moved in I thought one side would be much shadier than it turned out to be...So I have to do a lot more experimenting with things here...nancy
Its a never-ending learning experience here. As the trees get larger and drought turns to deluge...the garden is definitely a journey and never a destination for me.
Hehe, nice thread! Things people manage to grow and you can kill.....for me that would be yard weeds!!!! My neighbors LOVE to grow them. It is a never ending battle for me to get them out of my yard but I keep trying. =)
Giant liriope! That stuff just turns yellow, and then dies. When I pull it out, it is rotten where it touches the ground. Today I took out leaves of several plants that totalled over half of the plant volume. Next week I'll probably take out the rest. In the same bed, everything else is great. And this isn't the first time or the first location. Go figure.
Dancey, I am so glad to see someone else who kills hen and chicks! I've killed every one I've ever bought.
I tried cypress vine for the fist time this year, and it is not doing well, everyone says how it is invasive and grows like crazy, but mine hasn't done anything, I guess I put it in the wrong location.
Josephine.
Calalily I'm glad I'm not the only one who has trouble with hen and chicks. *g* I think I either watered them too much or not enough. One of these days I'll try again.
Frostweed Hang in there. My cypress vine never really takes off till July and August.
OK, so I kill hens and chicks too. Wasn't going to tell you that....
there isn't enough time or space to list all that I have killed. Air plants, yes...geranium...sedum....do you want me to list each variety of African Violet that I have killed? How about jade plant, several orchids, multiple roses...must I go on?
Markette (?) sorry had to do this from memory- I don't do well w/ things that need to be left alone either- and Deb, thanks for the kind words- right back at you.
This message was edited Jun 4, 2006 8:22 PM
Japanese Painted Fern. My aunt goes on and on about how much she loves hers. I bought two for my second attempt and they are barely hanging on.
I am another one that kills Petunias. Usually by now they are covered in brown floppy blooms, barely replacing themselves without a good deadhead. Then they are dead by early July. But..... this year they are still doing great. I bought some white ones as filler between the hot pink Moss Rose and Canna until they filled in. Well it's still thriving and covered in blooms. They get sun from about 2pm to 7pm and get watered about twice a week max.
Lantana - it never lives through the winter and barely blooms for me in the summer.
Petunias this evening... :)
This message was edited Jun 4, 2006 9:06 PM
I feel this is going to be the summer of things dying...I'm already noticing some things looking odd after all this rain--they may just be in shock from actually getting the amount of water required to grow for a change....
I killed a million bells within 7 days--and have learned (before the rain) that if you turn your back on thyme it will dry up and die.
sweezel - Your pansies are looking great! Especially for this time of the year. Since they don't like hot weather, I'm not surprised yours are dead by early July. I think you're too far south to grow them through the summer.
For all of you who rooted for me when I asked about growing Diascia, well this is a good forum to report that the score is two down, one to go.
yes sweezel, they do look great. I used to be terribly frustrated w/ pansies and petunias until I learned to just pitch them when they get raggedy. So I buy the cheapest, most colorful ones and enjoy them while they last.
Having said that, last winter I bought some violas to plant with the pansies and they held up a lot better than the pansies. I probably could have kept them a little longer, but I was itching for some summer colors. Next winter I might just buy violas.
I am extremely surprised that my snapdragons are still alive and even blooming! I expected them to go the way of pansies/petunias, but no. they are still doing great.
Boo hoo....I learned in the last week I kill sweet olive trees. So sad. He was in the ground about 4 months and doing fine, watered him well on Monday night and by Thursday my small Charlie Brown tree was all brown indeed. I have no idea what happened!
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1450/