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You are here: Home / Raving and Whining / Which plants do you hate?

Which plants do you hate?

February 27, 2007 by Andrea Bellamy 10 Comments

ugly%20juniper.jpg
Juniper: misused and almost universally hated.

I’m feeling kind of bitchy today, so I happily succumbed to the three pages of ranting on the You Grow Girl “Plants you hate” forum. Heh heh.

YGG top offenders include:

Cilantro (more for the taste than appearance, it seems)
Impatiens, begonias, petunias and other bedding plants
Spider plants
Shrub junipers
Pampas grass

Gotta agree with the above – except cilantro! I have never successfully grown it, but I love the flavour. Mmm… homemade salsa.

An excerpt from the forum that made me giggle:

“I wish I could hybridize a plant that was as bland, unattractive and redundant as the Stella de Oro daylily. I would then become filthy rich because everyone and their mother has these plants by the dozens. I also think the foliage is dreadful, and the plant pisses me off with its lack of originality.”

As for me, I resent the tyranny of cedar hedging. I strongly dislike rhododendrons and azaleas, probably because they’re often overused and abused in Vancouver. And finally, I don’t really understand the way “bedding plants” are normally used – all stiffly lined up like soldiers, only to be yanked out come fall. But that’s just me.

Which plants do you hate, besides so-called weeds or other invasives? Stuart at Gardening Tips ‘n Ideas has already weighed in, as have the folks at Garden Rant (at least once or twice), and there’s another discussion going on at GardenWeb.

What I really find interesting is the basis of our dislikes. It seems that the ubiquitous, the misused or abused, and the out-of-place tend to be the most hated plants. And what is coveted in one corner of the world is the bain of someone else’s existance.

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Filed Under: Raving and Whining

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Comments

  1. london lass says

    February 27, 2007 at 4:17 pm

    i quite like cilantro – or as we call it coriander. its lovely with thai curries – in fact any curry really…
    1. hypericum – belongs in carparks and on roundabouts
    2. carnations – they’re petrol station flowers – nasty.
    3. ground elder – say no more…
    4.’coloured’ heathers – why?
    5. houseplants – the zoo animals of the plant world.

  2. Michelle says

    February 28, 2007 at 11:05 am

    I have to be careful with this because there are so few things to grow here I hate to cross any off the list, but I dislike the standard annuals everyone here plants: marigolds, begonias, petunias, pansies.

    I’m okay with petunias in white though, a big trailing mass is okay, but marigolds are never good. Stinky and stiff and pudgy.

  3. wren says

    February 28, 2007 at 5:29 pm

    marigolds may be awful (i generally agree) but they do wonders to keep aphids away…

  4. Andrea says

    February 28, 2007 at 9:06 pm

    London Lass – too funny. I was just remarking to a friend that I’d rethink my interest in a guy if he gave me carnations.

    Michelle – I think maybe we dislike standard annuals because they are usually done in bright garish colours. So cool white is such a nice change.

    Wren – I agree. Marigolds are such good companion plants in the veggie garden. Now why can’t they come in white?

  5. Beth Lawrence says

    March 1, 2007 at 3:48 pm

    Hello, I have a few plants to contribute to this list. Sansevaria! so aptly named mother-in-laws tongues. Not only are they heiniously unattractive in a pot, but when I was hot and tired after a days work on the farm in Zimbabwe, they grow like weeds under the trees, so there was no place to lay down and have a siesta in the shade. They poke out of the ground a good 6-8 inches and they are sharp! Another plant that could get axed from the landscape is that coral orange shade of Impatien, whhhhh! I do have a lead on white Marigolds check out
    http://tinyurl.com/2akdwr

  6. Beth Lawrence says

    March 1, 2007 at 3:52 pm

    P.S. The trick to growing Cilantro is to plant it in part sun part shade. It only likes morning sun.

  7. Colleen says

    March 1, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    I would have to say that agapanthus is at the top of my list-snaily and goopy when cut, and way over-planted in business parks. Maybe tied for first is the horribly rubbery jade plant. The stalks are all wrong-they remind me of an old woman with swollen ankles. Here in the Santa Cruz Mts. (Nor Cal) French broom is the major invader. It is like the Mongol hordes.

  8. Kim says

    March 8, 2007 at 1:40 pm

    I’m likely to get kicked out of the Midwest altogether for this, but I HATE black-eyed susans. Rudbeckias all remind me of the horrendous “harvest-gold-and-brown” color schemes of my youth in the 70s. Ick, ick, ick. :(

  9. felicia says

    March 8, 2007 at 9:34 pm

    I have to agree in the juniper…it’s the worst. I pulled out a bed 20’x70′ and almost four feet high last year. Errgh.
    Also, pachysandra. Miserable to get rid of. It’s been out of the ground since last May, yet it’s still green out in the woods where we threw it.

  10. Sarah says

    June 9, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    Yes! I too hate pachysandra. I don’t care much for ligustrums either. Carnations are flowers for the dead and not joy. Impatiens are just awful. And ever since I had a rose growing boyfriend who dumped me because I got sick and gained weight, I am not remarkably fond of roses, though I still like the smell and some of the unique varieties but giving red roses is just too cliche’. About all the other plants mentioned here, I do agree are a bit tiresome, too. But then again I’ll even take them over a barren paved lot.

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