I "gave up" on....

Is there a plant that you have just "given up on" because --for some reason-- you just can't have any luck with it?

Mine is the annual periwinkle. This is the Last year for them in my gardens. Just went out today and pulled out awful-looking droopy dead stuff from several pots.
I always kill them...I think because I tend to overwater....or perhaps this year it was all the rain we've had...but I'm tired of trying!

Connie that is a shame....were they in a position with a little shelter from the hottest part of the day?.....our Summers are harsh and I find they like a bit of shelter.I don't grow them in pots but what I have found is that if they like the position they are as tough as old boots.....now they may be leggy from too much shelter ....morning sun afternoon shade is best and don't love them too much.treat them mean...let them dry out a little.Mine self seed all over the place.....ps make sure your pots can drain off properly....check for holes choked by roots .....pots should have the drainage holes that go up the sides so they drain freely. Now what can't I grow....Azalias
....for all the effort that put into it...I think it is a lost cause.....I can grow almost everything but they hate me.

I have a list of plants that I just can't grow for some reason. I give myself two tries with the same plant in different areas after that I figure I don't have enough time for it. I cannot grow mums if my life depended on it and I am a failure with lavender and believe it or not - sweet peas!

Mobi come on tell me what you do with those sweet peas....does something eat them .....and the mums and lavender.....I bet you love them to death....too much water? they hate it...I have noticed that most failures if can call it that...is too much water or feeding...think of things like lavender...as almost wildflowers...thriving on hard conditions ...

I know, I know - I can't believe it myself. Probably overwatering. I may try lavender again for a very dry area. I can't get sweet peas to sprout!

Start them in damp paper towels....lavender grows wild in limey soil in Italy no one waters and the goats chew them every now and then.
:)

I believe Chrissy is right....I know I overwater, and that is a problem with many plants.

foxgloves and coreopsis. just can't seem to get them going.

What's strange is that my neighbor can grow things I can't and I can grow things she can't. LOL

i gave up on some coleus ....which is a shame cause it ends up being a staple for my yard...but i hate about this time of the year and it really starts looking bad.....and/or i don't do something right...

i gave up on torenia...as beautiful as i think it is...no more

hmmmm there are many more....will be thinking

Funny isn't it you seem to get a feel for this plant or that tree and instinct just kicks in (easy) and then there are the ones we can't get the feel for and I reckon they know it! cheeky little blighters do their best to outwit us.....who knows the soil may be more acid than they like or there may not be enough lime there...the humidity may be lacking here and it may be too dry there....too hot /too cold...too much sun /not enough...overwatered/ underwatered....not enough shade /too much.......when you think about it ...I think we do alright.
So why would a plant that grows in a cool mountain area in China like it in Texas.....or a tropical palm that loves a warm life on a Winterless Island in the Pacific enjoy a cold Winter in Kansis?
Gardeners are always pushing the envelope...these things come from all over the World....and we expect them to live happily in our
gardens......for most of us it is a success but we can't win them all!!!!! but we will do our darndest right? :)

Chrissy,

You are exactly right..and what a great philosophical bent you have...I love it! :-)

I guess we think that because the nurseries in our areas sell them (like the periwinkle/vinca) that we should be able to Grow them, but you are right on with all the variables.

I should count my blessings, I know!

Goodness, let's see if I can remember them all, LOL:

Asclepias - one try, that was it. Talk about an aphid magnet!

Geraniums - true ones, not pelargoniums, which thrive in my garden. Too much competition, need too much water.

Almost any deciduous perennial. It has to be really, really tough and aggressive to make it in a Northern CA garden where there's hardly any frost and the evergreen plants grow to twice normal size/width: the competition here is fierce! I love my dahlias but some of them have croaked from too much overshade from their bigger neighbors.

Abutilons - I absolutely love them. But in a dry summer garden they are magnets for black scale insects, lovingly tended by ants. I used to have four big ones and am down to one large "Nabob", which somehow manages to hang on by being tall and spindly instead of thick and bushy. The nearby white oleander standard hides the abutilon's stark lower branches, or it would be off to the greens recycling cart for the "Nabob" too.

I have a pink cestrum which also suffers black scale - I'm trying to keep it alive because (1) it flowers 365 days a year, and (2) the hummers adore it. The back half of it is pretty much dead, though, and in looking it over today I thought the rest of it wasn't looking so hot either.

It's hard to keep that 'cottage garden' look with a minimum of watering - I usually water once every two weeks, since it never rains here during the summer at all. A lot of plants marked "drought resistant" are anything but! I find I'm replacing some plants over time with the ones that have proven to be "tried and true" performers for me.

Wow, watering once every two weeks! I am watering every other day here because of the hot summer we are having! The usual is every third day.

`i'm realizing that the usda zones don't mean much, neither do the ahs heat zones, especially when so many plants are rated zones 4-9 etc.! I think it is less about what the plants like and more about what they just can't endure.
I could grow tropical plants here in the summer but they wouldn't(?) survive the winter.the winter hardy plants hate the summers here.
grass seems to do real well. the hot humid summers is the biggest challenge as a lot of plants can go dormant in the winter. if they go dormant in the summer, the grass might overtake them, and if they aren't primarily a root plant like iris, peony,bulb etc., they just don't stand much chance.but i think most plants are just half-hardy here.

Connie I had given up on Periwinkles (vinca) a long time ago but for some reason decided to try again this year. Wouldn't you know it! They are blooming their heads off. LOL

I have totally given up on Azaleas (our soil is not kind to them) and Coneflowers. I love purple coneflowers or any coneflowers for that matter but just don't have any luck with plants or seeds.

Dancey....do you just water when bone dry? Someone told me they actually love to "stress" with dryness and that's when they take in oxygen from the soil...??

Connie - In our area at least, Vinca suffers from a fungal disease called aerial blight that stays in the soil. Once they get it (carried by air currents) you can't grow them again in the same area for years. I have had the same thing happen, and each year they would die. Gave up, and some came back from seed. I thought hey! that's the ticket! They grew up and died. I don't plant them anymore. And they have some beautiful ones out there now. :-(

http://hortipm.tamu.edu/ipmguide/path/diseases.html

Ah...Ceejay...that makes me feel better!~ I even planted them in pots this year..with lots of rocks on the bottom for drainage...to no avail...they still rotted. Thanks for the explanation!

Try the Zinnia profusion series instead. That is my latest favoritist (that's just for you!) plant!!! Just keeps blooming its little head off - no deadheading, no falling over, no diseases, no insects. Just a nice neat mound covered always in flowers. I particularly love the "fire" color. The ones in plantfiles don't show the shape and richness. I'll take a photo for you...if you want me to. After all, you may already have it!

Ceejay...yes I have them and Love Love Love them! In the thread concerning "If you only had 20. to spend on a new beginning, I named them as my annual!! I have the orange color....don't know the true name. I think I have a picture...will add later.

Was there ever a happier more joyous and giving flower than the Zinnia......happy happy flowers.....hundreds of them ...pretty colours ...no fuss and lots of seeds to save! (smiling)
My favourites all though I love them all are the Elegance series not all that new but.....aptly named ...the scarlets and reds are soooo elegant with those velvet petals and that golden crowned centre...

I posted somewhere here about 6 months ago about a garden childhood memory...mine was about taking a zinnia and pulling off the petals....and "glueing" red ones to my fingernails so they looked like "Lee Press-Ons"!! I could have invented those things...haha

Connie I only water the periwinkles when they are really bone dry.
I am really surprised they didn't croak when we were having all the rain.

Zinnias (all types) are my very best and showiest hot summer flowers. They attract soooo many beautiful butterflies.

Last summer I had purple verbena in my "kitchen garden" and had hundreds of butterflies. This year I tore that out (too much "old growth" that looked bare) and planted the little short zinnias (orange) and where are My butterflies??? Could it be that they migrate to another area?

I finally gave up on fuchsias. We have the mites from the hummingbirds, and it's impossible to get rid of.
There are resistant plants, but they don't have the nice big flowers...
My mother had every fuchsia in the book! Oh well... I found other plants I love just as much.

Christie

I gave up on Tacca for the time being. Tacca hates me and I hate it back for always dying on me. I've done everything by the book and everything not by the book and the darn taccas still die on me left and right.

Psst, do me a favor everyone. Please don't tell mrs_colla what her green bug is. Even if she tries to bribe someone here, please do not tell her what the bug is.

SHOOT EQUI, you're on to me! I thought for sure someone is going to say " wow, look at this so-and-so!"

Oh well, I should have known; you told me to get the ID myself, haha. I'll try again after I clean the mudpool that is the fishbowl.
Christie

Ooh, great photo there of a _____________!!!!!

Merci beaucoup ceejaytown!

Christie! The minute I saw you add your green bug I thought sneaky sneaky sneaky! Busted!
Muahahahahahahahahaha!

Anyone for a self-help group called "Embrace Your Garden Enemies...Learn to Forgive Them!" hehe

Really, tho...it is a wonderful picture of the ___ and it is cute the way he's hanging onto that plant __ (here, I honestly don't know what it's called!) for dear life! :-)

Equil: What is a tacca? Never heard of them!