Yep it happens unfortunately. I planted Galega officinalis and it was awful, floppy thing with few flowers.

I'm no longer afraid of ripping things out if they don't fit or come up to expectations, I just put it down to experience and learn from it.

I love dwarf tulips by the way, but only the species ones, I find they are far better than the cultivars and tend to gently increase rather than gradually fade away.

I have had a number of disappointments with "the latest greatest" type of plant. New introductions are so often made on the basis of a few cut flowers at a show with little regard for growth habit, longterm vigour, or disease resistance.

But mostly, the plants do what I want, I just have to improve my understanding of how to arrange them in the garden :)

My biggest disappointments have been down to the lack of slug warning. If only the label on the beautiful black-feathered Anthriscus 'Ravenwing' had said 'slug favourite', I would never have bought it!
I've also had a couple of disastrous old-fashioned roses: Abraham Darby, highly recommended by every rose book - the blossoms were way too big to be attractive, and just dragged the stems down. Shovel-pruned it. Comte de Chambord - beautiful flowers when they open, but most of the time they don't. In wet weather they balled up, turned brown and fell off. In hot summer weather they wilted and fell off. It would have got shovel-pruned, but I moved house...

I agree with Anyanka about rose Comte de Chambord and Gloire de Dijon was removed after 3 years of sulking. One very successful rose has been Rose de Rescht which flowers non-stop for me and has good scent. It has also exceeded the stated height in the books (4ft). I will only grow viticella clematis now - the others don't survive in my garden. Hellebores and cyclamen self seed everywhere for me.

Talking of Hellebores... I grew some from seed, and this year I was so excited to see them flowering. Huge 'flowers', but horrible miserable dirty creamy/greeny/pinky colours. Much prefer the wild Helleborus viridis I found near the local tip some years ago.

The worst thing about growing these things from seed is that you have to wait so long to find out you don't like them, after mollycoddling them for years. Then you either have to suffer something you don't like simply because you've taken so much trouble to grow it, or write off years of effort.

How odd that Anthriscus 'Ravenwing' has been a slug magnet for you Anyanka, they haven't touched it in my garden, they decimate almost everything else. I think slugs in different parts of the country have different tastes. They destroyed my Meconopsis but I hear in most parts of the country they leave it alone.

Another disapointment for me was Buddlea nivea, fabulous leaves, and the most miserable dull flowers.

As for hellebores I sow dozens of seeds each year and plonk them in a nursery bed, maybe 1 in 7-8 will be worth planting in the garden.

Great idea for a thread, Amanda 1.

Achillea millefolium. I saw a photo of it in a garden design book looking incredibly subtle and pastelly, lots of soft oranges and yellows interwoven with other things. So I grew some from seed. It turned out to be rampant, and flopped about in the most irritatingly untidy way. And the colours were all mud tinged and mainly dirty pink and dirty white. Did I buy the wrong sort of seeds?
I did eventually give it a firm, er, shovel prune, but it took a few years.

Oh Garden Nerd, thats another one I ripped out too, three years ago, again last year and more this afternoon,I will get the better of it soon!

I'm trying to come to an arrangement with the Achillea I inherited with the garden - I'll let it live if it stops taking over... so far I haven't managed to get the message across...

I get problems with plants that are supposed to seed everywhere but for some reason don't with me. I've tried all the annual poppies, foxgloves (have to put new plants in every year), etc, etc. The only thing that does seed is Ladies Mantle, but not prolifically. Also, other plants that are supposed to be dead easy and will grow in any old soil either don't come up the following year or fail to flower.
Is it just me not being a very good gardener? Or do other gardeners have this problem.

Maybe you're too good a gardener, Patricia. Too good at deadheading and keeping down those pesky weeds :)

Well you've just stopped me in time! I was about to buy some seeds of Achillea millefolium, as it looked so pretty in all the pictures. I don't think I'll bother now.

Also, what are your views on Salvia patens and S.patens 'Cambridge Blue'. I fancy giving them a try from seed. Are they well behaved?

Well, I like those salvias. They're so obliging, growing enthusiastically from seed or cuttings. But they are possibly just a tiny touch nettley about the foliage and the garden books say, rather elliptically, that the flower to foliage ratio is less than might be desired. But the same is probably true about most salvias. They are certainly a nice shade of blue. Some plants are better at flowering than others. I suppose a sensible gardener would label those carefully and take cuttings. Sniff.
If you don't like them, leave them out for the frost in the winter. That sorts them. Otherwise, best take the tubers indoors.

I grew salvias from seed once, and found them disappointing - the flowers were quite small, and the foliage wasn't particularly interesting.

I found the following disappointing & removed:
1. Phygelius Rectus (yellow trumpet flowers), the colours were just not vibrant enough - and the flowers were only spring/early summer (was expecting summer plant
2. Pennstemon
Also (but not removed)
1. Roses - fragrant cloud and deep secret. The pictures on packaging looked bright red but they came out as dark reds. I'm very particular I know but, I do like my reds bright red, not deep or dark.
2. Delphinium - I grew one or two for the first time last year with a view to increasing to about six. Though I liked the flowers very much, I was very suprised that they flower for such a short period... so I've opted to add hollyhocks this year to their number instead of more delphs. If you've got a small garden you tend to go for things that last a while. I do anyway!

I'd have to say Canna Picasso. Bought a rhizome and it took ages to get going. Just as the buds were about to open, the frost got it!

Sue

Nuggy - don't give up on the Canna, the first year I planted the rhizomes they were disapointing too, but I left them in the ground and they were great the second year, and now they are through the ground and I think will just get better and better.

If you are in an area that gets cold, jusat give them a good deep mulch, the top will die back but they should survive.

Thanks for the advice DeeDs1. I have left the cannas in the ground but was so disappointed I didn't bother to mulch them! Still, they are in a very well drained raised bed so I may have a pleasant surprise.

Sue

I think it's part of the reason why I enjoy gardening, it's the challenge to get something the way I think I want it.

Although you can wipe all that when something dies or insects get in on the act :)