I don't think it's unreasonable to hate a specimen for underperforming or being ugly. We invest a lot of time and hope in them and some are simply going to tax our sensibilities too much. We don't collect them from the wild generally and they wouldn't exist without our market need. It just makes the cherishable ones more worthy.

Not a conifer but one over the years I have grow to hate. I hate it so much this Friday it will be cut down.

American Sweet gum...Liquidambar styraciflua.

It produces 1000's of gum ball every year. I made 4 passes through the garden this Winter. It will continue to drop them all year. Aside from that 1000's of seedling pop up over the summer surface rooting has entered the picture.

Wonderful shade tree but at the same time the worlds worst trash tree. It was planted in 1981 and up till the last 10 years was tolerable despite its short comings. I up limbed it and also thinned it out. With that accomplished it just produced more. Record bumper crop this year

Dave

{{gwi:666160}}

I have a tree my checkbook hates. It is a 50 year old spruce, decidedly generic in nature, it looks like what you might get if you crossed a Norway and a Blue Spruce and took the worst attributes of each. It has blown up the driveway. It is hanging over the house and threatening to crush it. It has a huge divot half way up taken out by the electric company. We had a foot of very heavy snow a couple days ago, a truly windless dump. A branch high up broke falling straight down taking out the branch below it and continuing on until the train reached the ground. Nine major limbs removing an entire section of the tree. Like a slice out of a pie. The only good thing was it chose the only possible section of the tree where that could happen and the resulting 5' tall pile of limbs didn't actually crush anything. Only thing it does do is keep the house cool in the summer. One of these days it is going to be firewood but removing it will cost a fortune.

i am getting a hate on for p nigra also..

all of them.. the few i have.. seem to just keep dwindling ..

ken

In my area, and 3 large ones in my yard, it is Eastern White Pines. Every year they lose branches due to ice or wet snow. 2 winters ago we had an ice storm and I made a 5 ft tall and 16 ft long wall at the road from what they dropped. White pines get bugs which leads to forks in the leaders at various heights, so perhaps one of those leaders might break off? But, as was said before, they give shade for the back yard and many hostas. Perhaps 10 years ago it will cost a lot to remove those, and plant some new trees for shade.

Oh, before I forget - Thuja 'Green Giant' when the neighbor plants them too close to the property line, they then threaten traffic in a garden, and require a retiree to climb a rickity ladder to prune those as needed. Neighbor has 3 of those.

What to do about bad trees? My father-in-law worked on a railroad and they used to throw large pellets from maintenance trains under such trees for their instant fate.
Bernd

In many areas in Germany where we have no cold winters we had a big problem with Picea pungens and Liosomaphis abietina ( in German Sitka-Laus). All trees were very ugly, because all old needles turned to brown and only the young spring growth was normal. So all these Picea pungens disappeared during the years in this areas, because no poison helped when the trees were older.
In those areas you find today palms ( Trachycarpus),Magnoia grandiflora, Cupressus sempervirens,Pinus pinea and other more mediterranean plants. Picea pungens has gone.

Wolfgang

My feelings haven't quite reached the level of hate, but I find many of the junipers grown around here very ugly indeed. These are of the common Pfitzer types that people shear into those ugly, lumpy shapes right next to their houses or along the wall of their business, etc. My neighbors have several in their front and back yards so I get to see them every day.

I just don't see the appeal plus they smell like cat urine - what's to like?!?

Holly

Hate is a strong word when talking about plants. But I am growing a hate for the Alberta Spruce.

My house had 7 when we bought it. Typical placement, gaurding the front steps and one on each corner of the house. At first I thought, they are pretty cute (about 3 feet tall) and will be nice to decorate with lights at Christmas. But three years later I am KILLING THEM ALL (on purpose). They get infested with spider mites, I have replaced 3 in two years from dieing over night, they grow up to be nothing special.

So that's it, no more for me. I have pulled 4 of the 7 out and have three more to go.