...buying 8 nursery-grown perennials for $40; reg. price $5.99/ea. This past April, following a very long, very cold and extremely snowy winter, I bought 5 Bonfire Euphorbia, two new columbine & a dwarf gaillardia. The two columbine died with days of being planted in an established bed, the euphorbias lost most of their leaves in the same period and the "dwarf" gaillardia grew 2 ft. tall. My "bargain" was no "bargain" by any stretch of the imagination.

Note to self: leave credit/debit cards at home when plant shopping.

Those 10 cent geraniums have cost a lot more in water.

This year -- Regular old petunias - even at $.85 for 4 plants when the slugs eat them they're not a bargain.

Last fall - $1 pot of annual sunflower @ H*me Depot looking a little forlorn - became mildewed & died within the week. Though it made me smile at 1st it wasn't worth the hassle.

Two falls ago -- Coreopsis & Gaillardia (blanket flower) because they didn't overwinter in my rich winter wet soil.

The worst sacrilege, I buy plants and don't have a place in mind for them. So they sit, and sit and sometimes don't even get planted. Case in point - a new daylily from the daylily farm across the road. They have so many varieties and I go ga-ga over them and end up buying three instead of just the one I went over for. Yes, right now it's still sitting in a bucket under the lilac waiting for me to put it in some dirt.

Hmmmm....I am sure there are many plants and items that I have purchased in the past that were complete duds or just didn't work out to my satisfaction . The one that comes to mind at this moment is the ever so easy, incredible, magic Topsy Turvy tomato planter........incredibly useless was my experience of it! Perhaps it has worked wonders for others but definately a waste of money and just not MY cup of tea. :(

At the moment its all those new cone flowers that just didnt pan out. Petels that just didnt develope and colors that just didnt remain true.

..."Oh, of course, this Sun Coleus can really take full sun".

Absolutely buying plants before I have a place for them! And going over the top with annuals.

Scoolhouse, you have a dalily farm across the road? OMG, I would be over there everyday.
My poor daylilies are really drying up. I hope they survive.

I divided the iris and never got them planted before it got too hot. They are just lying on the ground and in a basket. Some other assorted bulds and iris are in the garage. When it is 90 at 7;00 a.am. it is too much to get out there and do anything. I don't know how Annie does it.

$25 for a dwarf nandina they guaranteed would live over the winter here. Berry Basket zinnia seeds that were beautiful in somebody's pics on this forum. Blooming now and only one row of petals, and all the same color. Curses

-honalee, don't feel bad. I think a LOT of other people were sweet talked into buying the Topsy Turvy. When my neighbor worked at a local hardware store he tried to sell me one. I figured if the tomatoes did terrible the year before in 7gal. containers than there was NO way they would do well in such a tiny sack upside down, lol.

-flowergirl70ks, I didn't get a 'Firepower' Nadina to overwinter here either. Thankfully someone gave it to me and I wasn't out anything. That is something I have likely done a few times before (and liekly will do again!!), fallen for new plants that supposedly are bred to be hardier. I'm a sucker for trying to grow things above my zone!
CMK

I LOVE Malva zebrinas but they are so hard to find here. One year I found them and they were $10 each--for an annual. And they were not great looking plants either. But I bought six of them. Total insanity. Still feel guilty.

Ginny12 ~ So sorry you haven't had any luck growing M. Zebrina. I am a sucker for all the mallos and bought M. Zebrina about 3 years ago. She did bloom nicely the first year and I thought she was going to act like a perennial here. Nope. This year, 3 years later, I have her children popping up all over the place! Moved one into the iris bed and she bloomed a little for me. I think they really like water but good drainage and like to self seed like hollyhock. My experience anyway. You might have better luck winter sowing some. Thompson and Morgan had seed last year if memory serves me correctly.

Ginny

Blooming today

Buying things I don't have room for.

lol

p.s.: My Malva zebrina got so crazy I had to stick a tomato cage over it to help support it. I think it's taller than me--

I drooled over a wood chipper, to chip up stuff for my new tumbling compost that I HAD to have...never fired it up yet, and composter is only had one batch of compost so far and have lost interest. HAD to have this fancy watering system for my porch plants...didn't even get it set up this year! HAD to have a garden wagon...says it can carry 800lbs! Ya, just not down hill...full of cement blocks, on sharp corners it tips over...like a runaway train with a Jane caboose in tow...ya, it sounded good in theory! I have at least 60 plants needing to be in the ground....water barrels(250gal) not set up, a whole yard watering system never redone and running this year....but I did buy one item that I am in LOVE with, a very nifty lightweight fork...I could use that baby all day! If I didn't still have this wry neck thing going on....and working full time.

LOL for me it was the green wizard coneflower. Have you guys seen it???? http://www.botanical-journeys-plant-guides.com/images/green-coneflower-wizard.jpg

I had actually been looking for the green envy, but thought this was close enough. I planted it and realzed my mistake, but it was still pretty interesting. Here's the kicker thoguh; to really enjoy it, you have to wait for it to fully seed, so what was kind of cute 2 years ago was a monster this year, they got 6' tall, flopped all over everything. Plus because I planned for 2'x2' plants and this thing has clumped out over at least 3'.....I've had to make room for it....

I have great luck growing Malva zebrina and its cousins, and I have grown them from seed when I remember--not often. That's not the problem. They just don't come back a second season and they never reseed. So every year I go on the hunt for them. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But I'll never spend $10 each again...how dumb am I.

-on_greenthumb, LOL! I fell for the naked coneflower too, except I think mine was 'Black Beauty'. Not a fan of it either. Plus it is SO hard to place in the garden since the black cones don't show up unless planted in front of something light colored. I ended up stuffing mine in a corner against the neighbor's garage. Not even sure if it is living now, LOL.
CMK

"Perennial of the Year". I have some of them that are great: Baptisia Australis, Nepeta "Walker's Low", geranium "Rozanne", leucanthemum "Becky". Some others have been complete busts: coreopsis "Moonbeam" (Zagreb is better), penstemon "Husker Red", scabiosa "Butterfly Blue".

Live and learn I guess.

Sally Holmes rose...
She grows in the shade and has lovely white/pink roses but..wasnt ready for the huge stiff canes, she shot through my little metal arbor, pulled it up from the ground and waved it around in the breeze. Found a new home for her ....

Soapwort. I've been trying to get rid of it now for 8 years, and it keeps coming back.

My Heuchera have been disappointing also. Bought some the last two years which are rated zone 4 and I'm in 3b and they looked so wonderful in their pots and so pathetic this year. Oh well, I'll give them another year or two. I had planned to fill my shade bed with various colors but that's on hold til these shape up!

I bought a pulmonaria and it barely stayed alive for several years until last year when I said I would only give it one more chance. This year it finally grew a lot so guess it's staying! Maybe I should threaten those Heuchera also!

Years ago I bought a large strawberry pot but it was too high maintenance for me during a very hot summer.

Last year I bought what was supposed to be a hardy azalea and it wasn't.

I'm sure there are a lot more but I have a convenient memory!

Honalee, thanks for posting that pic of your Malva Zebrina! That's what my little plant was that the birds must have brought me! Unfortunately it didn't appear this year in time to be moved and I enlarged that bed so it's buried. They are so pretty and now that I know what it was I'll seed some, even if they grow as annuals it will be worth it.

Here is a link that might be useful: My mallow seedling

Yep. That's it! malva Zebrina and my little lady is really putting on a show now. When I took those pics she was just starting to bloom. I hope I can overwinter her if I tuck her in all warm like. :)

For sure, I fell for the new heucheras and fancy echinacea, let the iris and heaven knows what else wait toooooo long. However, my worst was to see a beautiful potted sumac and ask whether it would spread like I see them in the wild. The nursery owner assured me that it was a new cultivar and would not spread. I fell. The next couple of years, I was digging it out of the grass and nearby flower beds. What a mess. I was so glad when it died within 5 years or less. gramma jan

"waved it around in the breeze" heh heh- Teakettle- you got me. Dang funny.
Sun coleus? I'm glad I have not run into those yet.

$110.00 weeping cherry. Yes, they had lots of them at the nursery. Yes, they were spectacular in full bloom- so beautiful they could make anyone weep. Yes, I was assured they would easily grow in my zone and it said so right on the tag. Then why have I never, ever seen one in my area? Ever? I bought it. It got a few leaves the next year. It got a few less the year after. No blossoms at all. It made a very nice stick, though. Cherrywood is hard.

Hosenemesis ~ I was still laughing about your stick when I went to your page just for curiousity. I'm a bit of an astrology buff so had to check if you posted your birthdate and I have often wondered why you picked this particular handle, although it is probably self explanatory. I too have issues with hoses and today they were really getting my goat! I have tried many and thought I might have discovered the perfect hose till I realized that they and perfect husbands only exist in my dreams! I've learned to live with both in the real world......

Two categories have been the source of my follies--new plants that were busts here (some of the new echinacea, for example) and plants not appropriate for my zone (such as delphiniums early in my gardening years--they just hate our humidity and winters). I could add more examples, but don't want to dredge up unpleasant memories.

ah, any number of things which promise:
- clay tolerant
- zone 9-10
- don't need much water
- take full sun

BUT STILL DIE ALMOST IMMEDIATELY.

and don't get me started on the garden magazines that are really mostly for people in cooler zones than me (and get more water than me) who recommend stuff for my zone, but it still dies almost immediately.

mind, I'm probably doing some things wrong, but it shouldn't be that hard!

Never needs staking.

Bah humbug. Talk to me about "never needs staking" after we've just had a rainstorm or a bout of Santa Ana winds (or an enthusiastic job of watering by a husband who's dialed the garden hose up to puree), and those "shorter, sturdier" delphiniums (or cosmos, or zinnias, or, actually, insert the specimen of your choice) are bent over mid stem, right below a gorgeous bloom that was just about to explode!

I hate staking, but there have been so many times when it was the right and necessary thing to do, no matter what the plant tag said.

Kay

Lol " puree'"

Mine was the "White" daylily with striking "blue" eye. I now know that this usually means parchment or light muted peach with purple eye.
This is why I Love home pics :)

Flowergirl, the nana dwarf nandina died? I got one too, it was in pot in basement last winter. But I read and read and it claims it loses leaves at 10 degrees, but it's supposedly hardy to zone 5.. no???

I used to have a ton on Malva Zebrina, from seed. This year one survived, in a wierd spot from a bird. The rabbits ate most. At this point in the year, I don't know if it will have time to flower (and get more seeds).. .the rabbit tore away at it..

Garden mags, like aimekitty...don't get me started.

lois, years ago I got 3 bouncing betty soapworts. Yes, they are double, yes fragrant, they take over the yard and then some...

And the plants I bought, and just don't have the energy to put in... or the rabbits eat so they are in pots...

I too DESPISE STAKING, and so much this year wanted...something...

"Fell for"... some things, but I vented enough

Japanese Maples....they are always near death in our dry, hot conditions.
Molly