I am not sure that this topic belongs to the Hosta forum...

My number one would be ditch Lily (Hemerocallis fulva). Our neighbor gave us a couple of rhizomes. In three years this monster killed everything on the bed and started to break driveway pavement. Getting rid of it was a nightmare.
Nevertheless, we kept nice relationship with our neighbor :-)

well.. the hosta forum is so dead.. i just wanted to talk with my hosta friends... so here it is ...

lets widen it to include ... what hosta did you spend good hard currency on.. that only let you down .... and lets .. upfront .. not turn this into a long moan about GExpectations ... we all have gotten ripped off on that one ... except for those 2 peeps in MN or WI who can actually grow it.. if you want to moan about GE ... use the search function.. or start a new post ....

and they truncated the title ... add HATE IT to the end ...

so ... what plants do you hate ... what hosta do you hate.. and why .. and do you still respect the person who gave it to you..

let me forward one more... i hate everyone who sold me an undulata under a new and improved name .... man some of those have 4 or 5 names ... there ought to be a law ...

and do we really need another striptease knockoff ....

and if you see NEW AND IMPROVED for any plant in a catalog .. don't believe it ... presume its just a rename of someone else junk plant ... done only to separate you from your hard earned cash ... if i see it in person and it really is special.. OK .. otherwise.. i have a bridge to sell you ....

and whats up with the wayside catalog... if they removed every use of the word RARE ... there would be half as many pages .... and if you look hard enough.. you can find it 3 other places at half the price .... boy i blew a lot of money with them.. before the advent of the worldwideweb ... knowledge is money ...

ken

The bane of my garden is a prickly pear cactus that has been following me since 1976 . I swear, each of our 7 moves; I have taken one div & potted it to please my dh who absolutely loves the darn thing.Our last move, ten yrs ago,I purposely left it behind in its little pot & smiled an evil grin as I jumped in the moving truck. Good riddance I thought to my self :), so you can imagine my surprise,when I awoke to it sitting on my porch step the first morning in my new home. Never found out if it jumped on the truck or had help....So I figured it was here to stay , even made dh his own plant bed complete w/ p.pear & sedum . But no dh thought it would look great in the shade of the hosta bed..NOT...so after a whole summer of waiting for it to die in the shade & getting stuck & pricked too many times , said plant now resides all by its lone some on a hill at the far back of the property. The person who gave me the original start is long gone on to better gardens , so I guess its ok to post this now. And I know this plant & its off spring will out live me as my gf & her dd got , very big starts from me last year! The plant is pretty & now has sentimental value, but boy do I hate those sticky little needles ,takes days to dig them of of your skin if you brush up against it.I am sure one day my "well meaning" future grand kids will pot me up a tiny piece to follow me to the rest home ...yep I give -up.:# Dot

Gee Dot, don't you know God made Prickly Pears so that we think better of Yucca plants,lol!
Those sticky needles are called glochids, and you ought to experience 'back up into it while you're peeing' for a real thrill! (I used to live in Az!)

The worst by far in my yard is Gooseneck Loosestrife. I asked a former friend for some plant advice when we moved to our current home. I have tried spraying and ripping. I've dug out large areas onto a tarp, searching for root bits. It all grew from one tiny piece. It's a true garden thug.

As for hostas, my biggest disappointment is Galaxy. Mine has almost no streaks. It is bo-ring. And was very expensive. I could have bought several other really attractive hostas with the money.

Dot...I managed to kill my only specimen of prickley pear cactus. Don't know how, so can't offer any advice. Found it dead one day.
The 3 most expensive Hostas I ever purchased were:
'William Lachman' (OS) - Reverted to all green one year and then began a slow decline, now only one eye left.
'Regal Rhubarb' (OS) - died the first year I had it.
'Spilt Milk' (OS) - Reverted and then died.

I have 2 invasives that I am still trying to eliminate, without killing any desirable plants that still exist in there.
Iris japonica - nice Blue flower, w/Orange signal, sun or shade, early, stoloniferous and can travel to Anchorage in one season, at least it seems that way. I don't give it away anymore. Don't want enemies!
Disporum sessile 'Variegatum' Japanese Fairy Bells - Very pretty foliage and flowers, but do not be deceived, it is a Trojan Horse!
Both were given to me by a close friend(and still is), because I have observed them in his garden and they didn't exhibit those robust characteristics there. In fact, the Iris japonica doesn't bloom for him!
Go figure!
Rb

Great Expectations, is a disappointment because we bring unrealistic expectations to the plant.

People confuse happiness and success.
Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.

Great Ex grows here! So, I guess since I wanted it to grow, I was successful. I'm happy about it as well. :-))

As far as rogues go.....Bunnycat, any Lysmachia is a poor choice unless you live in Alaska. That crap spreads by runners and I had to use roundup to rid myself of Lysmachia 'Fireworks' a few years back. I have heard the Gooseneck is worse, but wouldn't put odds on it.
Ken--I love Monarda. Plant a mildew resistant variety.....there's lots of hybrids that are clean plants, plus they bloom in part shade, and blooms last a long time.
Another rogue here I bought in a big box greenhouse is Obediant plant...LOL Terriable name!
Good thing nobody sent me these. I bought them by myself....Live and Learn I guess!

Hostas that have disappointed me I have gotten rid of. One that come to mind is Patriot. Edges melted away fast. I have Minuteman too. That one I kept. Maybe they are a diff. plant. Some say they are the same, but here there was a huge difference.

Worst thing that hitchhicked into my garden was goutweed. I haven't managed to get rid of it but keep trying. I let some of the varigated kind go outside the garden area by the road because the color is nice.

The biggest disappointment - hosta wise - is Ginko Craig. I bought the first one and after a year or so thought it wasn't the right plant. I didn't know yet how different the mature and immature look was. I bought another. Now I have two and really, it's just not that exciting. Of the expensive disappointments I would have to say Liberty. It was the most expensive plant I'd gotten at $25. That was three years ago - don't ask me what ceiling price I've reached by now! Last year was it's third in my garden with exactly the same number of eyes and leaves as the when I got it. I had actually put it in what I thought was an ideal position which was morning sun, space etc. I decided to move it. When I dug it up I saw a dense, fine web of roots strangling the poor thing. At first I thought it was the sweet woodruff then realized sweet woodruff's roots were delicate. It was the dreaded goutweed. It's in a different place now so I'll have to see if it does anything next year.

As far as Great Expectations goes - I had no expectations when I found it cheep at a local nursery. I have kept it in a pot as advised. It's grown steadly if slowly which is just fine if you want to keep it in a pot. The colors are great. One of my favourite pictures from this year was of Great Expectations.

Cheers - McT

Easy! The worst that I bought was Chamelion plant. I really liked the look, too! Horribly invasive! I had it only a month or so before I read how invasive it is. I pulled out the half a dozen plants I had put in, but it continued to sprout from tiny bits of root that were left behind! The funny thing is it actually gave me an uneasy feeling when I bought it 'cause it was sprouting out of the drain holes of the pot, but I ignored that little voice.

Lots of invasive plants in my woods, but not put in by me. English Ivy, garlic mustard, wild rose, wild blackberry, for a start.

I also was gifted a number of spreaders like gooseneck, phlox, sundrops, violets, etc., but I was a beginning gardener on a tight budget and those were great gifts at the time!

McTavish, your GE (and your photo) are both magnificent. By sheer dumb luck, I must have planted my GE in a favorable location. This was its second year, and it was quite lovely.

The beauty and the bane of one of my gardens is a pink, climbing William Baffin rose bush. It grows up and over a 6' trellis and spreads to adjoining trellises. It is a pink glory every June. However, it send up shoots everywhere in the 8'x 16' garden it presides over. I never thought a rose could be invasive.

I spent years and years taking little cuttings of my neighbor's ivy -- with her blessing. I got it established in about 4 difficult-to-grow areas . . . and then spent the next 8 years trying to control it. Then to get rid of it. When we tore the house down, we finally got rid of all but one patch. I was still working on that when we decided to sell the house and move. It's someone else's problem now. I'm NOT taking any cuttings to Tennessee!!

Oh, yeah, I did finally figure out why my neighbor was so generous with her cuttings . . .

Another rampant invader was tansy . . . given to me by a sweet, innocent old lady who should have known better!

Hosta disappointment: in my garden, Fire and Ice seems to burn up or melt away . . .

Well, Ken said we can't talk about GE, and I have to say that I've had a couple that just won't grow. On the other hand, I have three that are great growers, probably 3 to 4 feet across and just gorgeous! LOL. By the way, I love Liberty and don't have any problem growing it. I think it's one of my top ten favorites!

Anyway, I'll mention three plants that have been a nightmare. The first is petasites. Though despised by some gardeners, in my opinion this is an awesome plant when it's given plenty of room and planted in the right location. It looks best in filtered shade with afternoon shade and plenty of moisture. (Otherwise, it will wilt every afternoon when the sun hits it.) Throw some slug pellets under it a couple times throughout the summer. The leaves will get humungous- I've grown some close to 4 feet in diameter. But BEWARE!!! It send out shoots which travel in every direction and grows fast, even in clay and poor soil! You'll have these things popping up all over before you can say "boo" unless you install a fool-proof root barrier to contain it.
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The second plant that will run you out of house and home is phragmites australis. You won't normally find this in a garden center and there's a reason why!!! This tall grass is commonly seen growing in ditches along the freeway. There is a native specie which is supposedly okay, but I have an introduced specie which has naturalized throughout the midwest that is...well, I'll say INVASIVE!!! I thought that a clump of this would look interesting in my flower garden, so I dug a hole 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. I lined the sides of the hole with a root barrier (3 feet deep) but neglected to put a barrier on the bottom of the hole. Then I put a clump of this in the center. Later in the summer, I began seeing sprigs of this stuff popping up 6 feet away from the original clump! Hummm...what's going on here? To make a long story short, with a shovel I hand dug 8 yards of dirt out of the center of my flower bed in the process of tracing all the roots that were growing outward in every direction at a depth of 3 to 4 feet!!! I've NEVER, NEVER, NEVER seen a plant grow like that- a nightmare! (While I was trying to dig this thing up, I swore that it was growing faster than I could dig!)Wow, like playing with fire!
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The last plant, which I'm still fighting a losing battle with, is crown vetch. The Transportation Dept. uses this ground cover on steep banks along the freeway to hold the dirt in place. It loves poor soil and drought conditions! (The only thing that it doesn't like is full shade.) I have it growing all over because the previous homeowner spread a bag of seed to combat soil erosion on the hillsides along my driveway. The stuff is aggressive, hard to kill, and self-seeds in the fall. It makes a continuous mat 3 to 4 feet tall that's just about impossible to walk through it, and strangles out everything in its path including small trees. I don't recommend planting it!
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Don

Well,most of you would say sour grapes,but for me Guacamole has always been a disappointment! I have 2 of them and they are smaller than they were when new to the garden. I have found that Holy Mole grows much faster,and I just planted one this year! Just MHO Phil

Two hostas came to mind right away. So Sweet and Leather Sheen.

I got So Sweet in 2002 because it was the first Hosta of the Year 1996. I bought it and planted in where I thought was a safe place. Well it was in the middle of some dafodils which came up the next spring and preceeded to strangle out S S. After it died off completely or so I thought, I bought another one to replace it in 2005. This one preceeded to die the minute I planted it. After the second one died I thought that is it, I'm not planting another. But, low and behold, the dead aroose from the dafodil site and I carefully removed the one lonely shoot and replanted it in a safe area. It is still struggling and is only 3 eyes and if it dies this time it will stay dead.

Leather Sheen was doing fine until my sister needed a plant to incorprate into the Oriental Garden she, my niece, and I were making in my front yard. It died from the sun shining on it most of the day so...... I replaced it with another "don't care about hosta" and got a new L S and put it back near the spot it was taken from. This one has been doing nothing, just staying the same and is eaten by everything that passes it. I replanted it as I thought it might be too deep. Nothing, nada, has improved it for me.

I have been blessed with better seedlings coming up with no help from me than the two above mentioned hosta.

Ladybells is the worst offender of perennials in my garden. It has those carrot like tubers you have to dig for and it spreads all over. I dug some plants and tubers and threw them into the compost pile and while taking out compost from that side 2 years later, found a tuber buried two feet down that was sending up a shoot to the surface!

Trumpet vine is my wildest gift from my dear 80+ year old uncle. It has been cut down but still sends up shoots multi feet away from the origionl spot it was planted. I dug down and removed most of the root(or so I thought). Round up is next for all the new shoots in the spring.

Gardening does have it's highs and lows doesn't it.

I will triumph!!!!!

Connie

Gooseneck Loosestrife or ANY kind of loosestrife, Snow on the Mountain, Lily of the Valley....

When I moved, I refused to let them into the new yard. And after seeing many trees killed by it way back in the wooded area behind me, Virgina creeper. WHY would ANYONE purchase that stuff?!!!

I moved all my ribbon grass from the front ditch beds to back by the woods. My goodness, it sure spreads fast! I have a feeling I'll be digging more out next year, too.

I agree w/ Fire & Ice as a disappointment. After being a very slow grower for four years, it got nematodes. I thought it was going to be ok after the hot water treatment in July but the new bud never developed. I'm not going to waste my $$ and time on a new one!

Char

Thugs loose in the garden presently are gooseneck loosestrife, creeping charlie and lady bells. I did win the battle with spearmint, ribbon grass and Silver King artemesia so will not give up on the currrent problems. Does anyone consider lamium invasive around hostas? It seems to be taking over. Hosta disappointments are Fire and Ice, Solar Flare and Patriot.
Linda

I agree with you,Char about Virginia creeper! Around here you don't have to buy it,it is already here. I let some of it grow up the trees,but around the hostas,it gets pulled out! Phil

Oriental Limelight is another invasive one, although very pretty. My co-worker bought it and loved it so much he gave me a bit. Two years later I was digging and spraying round-up on it. Fortunately I had planted it in a spot where it couldn't go too far. He apoolgized and killed his off, too.

Have you read the perennial forum posts on Yucca, more specifically, how to get rid of it? It's a hoot.. My daughter is battling one now in her yard, I've had the ugly things in the past, and don't ever want one.

Got some Malva seeds from a neighbor last year, they grew like a weed.. think I'm going to regret this one.

Tansy is another. but there's two varieties.. the fernleaf, grown in the shade, stays in bounds for me. The other was a rogue...

As far as uninvited and unwelcome thingies in my garden I have to put Nut Sedge and Creeping Charlie tied for first. They are wretched and seemingly cannot be killed. Virginia Creeper is also horrid, but it is mostly in the woods behind my house.