You might want to try Thryallis.

It is evergreen, does not freeze (or at least it hasn't here in 4 years) and blooms pretty little yellow flowers. Profusely blooms BTW.

I have mine in fairly dense shade. Under a pecan tree, kind of. It gets a little morning sun, but not much.

Sorry 'bout your esperanza.

Janie

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1369161}}

Last year, my esperanza stopped blooming for a while, then had a magnificent flush in September. It got hours of direct sun though.

Pam

Okay, here's mine: Zinnias. I seem to have the "kill Zinnia" gene. They always look so beautiful in other people's yards, and every year I try again. Pill bug attack, fungus, brown spots, and just plain Zinnia Malaise (okay, I made that one up).

Cynthia,

All 3 esperanzas that I planted this year have done the same as yours - no blooms but the foilage shot up like crazy. I think it's the rain. Next year I think they'll do better.

I won't plant osteospurnums again. They had flowers for a couple weeks and that is all. They are still alive but they just never bloomed for me after that first flush, even when it was cool outside in the spring. But, hey, they were a quarter each on the "dead plant" rack at Lowe's.

Are you maybe fertilizing your Esperanzas with a lot of Nitrogen? That can cause excessive foilage, rather than flowers. Mine bloom the most late in the summer and in September.

Cynthia, maybe your esperanza "reverted" to one of its parents' strains and ceased to bloom. I mean, like maybe you have seen with some hollies. Some have relatively few spines on their leaves, then suddenly sprout a branch or two with (relatively) super-spiny, almost porcupine-like leaves.

Or rumbum may be right.

I know there's been a lot of work done with esperanza in recent years to create strains that bloom more, for commercial sales. So far we've been lucky with ours - reliable and abundant flowers, not constantly but usually some are visible. Your post may be a fair warning for us. Some combination of age and weather could ruin ours.

I won't plant these again (but DW might):

- petunia: every one I've ever planted has died within a few weeks, no matter what we do

- lantana: never bloom and eventually die

My Esperanza didn't bloom this year either. I'm thinking maybe we haven't had enough real hot days yet. This has been a real mild summer and nothing like the norm.

I won't plant geraniums again. They only bloomed for a while and died off.

My Esperanza didn't bloom but it's gearing up to when a lot of stuff is starting to pout. I know my Esperanza did "throw back" after the first freeze to it's parent form. It went from a 4 ft shrub covered in large and very yellow blooms to a 12 ft "tree" that falls over when it's wet. The blooms are much smaller/darker than the origional plant as well. PJ

Huh, my esperanza has bloomed on & off since I got it in April but as far as I can tell it hasn't grown at all (wally world purchase). Crazy little plants doing whatever they want for each of us.

As for what I won't plant again, my list would probably be shorter if it was what I would plant again. My first year gardening was last year, I failed miserably. I'm doing a little better this year.

Thanks all! I feel better about the esperanza and you've give me "hope." I know mine is getting lots of heat because it's on a corner by the drive, but maybe not enough sun. Sooooo, with the shift in light and its new height, Maybe Sept will bring yellow and orange bells for me.

Jani....that's a lovely yellow shrub. I'm making a note of it.

I kill zinnias too! In fact, they even died for me in pots this year. Mildew or fungus gets them....and I went for a bottle of broad spectrum fungicide this year too...errrgh! I don't do that for my roses.

First the fungus, then the pillbugs eat the decaying plant. DH loves them so I got some already blooming for Lowe's and kept them for him until they bit it. Those lovely rains in June and July took their toll on my coneflowers too. I went for some of the old fashioned ones and the new Big Sky varieties too.

Petunias are another story. Whoever has them die in a few weeks. That was me too! But the deep purple Laura Bush or VIP varieties do well. They have smaller flowers and at the big box stores they might be labeled trailing. They do really well for me in blazing hot sun or part shade. There is a lavender hardy petunia too that has returned for me for a couple of years even in part sun. Found that at Redentas as a Texas native maybe???

c

rubrum
I won't plant osteospumums again either. I love those flowers but I've never made it through the summer with them...even in my part sun garden.

I think I may have hit the esperanzas with some 20-20-20 once in hopes that would stimulate some blooms. The ornamental pepper right in front of them is covered in fruit. I won't do it again.

c

Well, this is what I think.

Ms. New_in_Texas says that she failed miserably at her first try at gardening.

I say; Did you learn anything from the things that didn't go as planned? If so, you didn't fail.

Did you get enjoyment from preparing the soil and planting all your seeds/plants? If so, you didn't fail.

Did you go out to do it all over again this year, only a little different, because of what you learned last year? If so, you didn't fail.

We never fail as long as we learn something and take time to enjoy what it is we are doing.

Gardening to me has been a long learning process, and I have enjoyed it, for the most part. When my corn was itty-bitty, I wanted to learn why. And I did; That variety of corn is always little ears. LOL But what I mean is that I was pushed to try to learn about the corn from my failure. So, I don't count that as a failure. The corn was delicious, and very elegant looking, it just took a WHOLE LOT of it to fill us up. Hehehee.

That is what I think.

Janie

Don't pick on me! :p

Lol, I guess if I look at it your way I didn't fail per se. I'm impatient and like instant gratification, gardening is slowly teaching me otherwise.

Tall Mexican Petunias!!! Those things are invasive unless they are in a confined location.

Cosmos reseed like crazy and have to be the most fertile seeds around! They're self-sowing and starting to grow all over my flowerbed! I probably pulled out 50 seedlings this evening!

Stephanie

Stephanie

False indigo...amorpha fruticosa. I had such high hopes for this shrub and it seemed as if it was perfect for the location and drainage and soil.

Well....it didn't grow even a foot tall this season - this for a shrub that should reach 7-10' at maturity. The nice green spring leaves were constantly being eaten by some type of worm or caterpillar - had to brush them off at least 1x/day. Now, it just looks pitiful, some dried leaves, a few green ones. Never flowered any of those neat-looking flowers either, although it may be too young and too stressed. It's such a far cry from what I was expecting and needing for that location. Back to the books, I guess to find another choice.

Virginia Sweetspire. In my defense, it came with the house. Gorgeous little shrub, autumn color,little flowers in spring summer, arching like a loropetalum - but it suckers. In all directions. It was too big for the spot, I went to move it out of a stone lined 4x4 spot, and I dug for days to try to get all of it. Some of the suckers went down into the clay and were impossible to remove. After a point, I got stump killer to attack the plant, I knew this would never be planted in my garden again. I had to completely replace the soil to get things to grow, the plant had leached all nutrients out of what was there. You have been warned....:)

terry

This has been fun, but I have a confession to make: My esperanza has some buds!

This is 2 for 2. When I come here and complain about a per. it gives me some long awaited buds in days. Now, I've never been a big complainer...but dang! I'm heading out to see what else is taking its sweet time.

great grins
c

Black Hills Spruce - looked GREAT until that streak of 100° weather. Terminal shoot and shoots at top browned and dropped most all of its needles. Oh, well, it was a long shot to begin with. Getting ready for the Trojan firs. (psssssst - don't tell DW)
; - )
J.D.

I bought an esperanza last fall on sale...it did not make it through last winter. I had swapped for seeds and tried WinterSowing...did not get a single one. So I direct sowed seeds, nothing...sigh! The other day I spotted a plant that I had not noticed before and it had a yellow bloom. I climbed into the flowerbed to check it out and found an esperanza full of blooms and seeds! Doing the happy dance!

Peggy

My esperanza didn't even start growing until we had all the rains back in June. Last year, it was about 3' tall by this time. This year it's about 18" tall and I noticed on Sunday that it had some buds on it!! I'm so happy!

Stephanie

i give up on coneflowers, i've tried them 4 years in a row, they ALWAYS die and slowly--it's just tooooo painful
i also struggel with zinnias, forget it if i plant them from seeds or seedlings -- if a few struggle through, and i get volunteers the next year, those seem to do okay, but i'll never purchase seeds or seedlings again

I'll never plant asian jasmine again - EVER ! I wanted something evergreen under my crepe myrtles and it's now spread to each end of the flowerbeds and is coming up through the other plants. It's impossible to get rid of. What a mess.

Carol