Well, I TRIED to shovel prune an established Stella d'oro, but the dang roots were so thick and tough I couldn't get it done. Or maybe I just need to sharpen my blade.

a crooked bumpy stick that is supposed to grow into a Rose of Sharon. I thought it was dead and pulled it up. The root resistance indicated it might be alive. But it was so butt ugly among the blooming azaelas and rhodies I let it go.

All of my holly hocks. They were taking over everything, but we're a pale peachy color that I wasn't fond of. Plus, the Japanese beetles make mincemeat out of their leaves.

Martha

Lemon thyme and some wimpy Heathers, I couldn't bear to look at them anymore--they had their chances! LOL . I'm sure there will be more as I go through the beds.

2 large hostas next to the front walk. They were tall ones and last year their leaves were half way across the walk. We had a devil of a time getting the one out close to the house. It's roots were right up against the foundation and refused to budge. It took my husband and I both with shovels to get it out. I replaced them with shorter smaller hostas that have green and white leaves and made sure they were planted further from the house

I dug up a big stand of a burgundy brown colored bearded iris. I have more around the yard so it's not lost to me, but I didn't like the color well enough for the prime real estate this huge patch occupied. I also took out a languishing heuchera to make room for a hosta that I'll enjoy a lot more.

Iris: I love them but cannot get them to boom. I think I pamper them too much.

"Baby lavender": I do not like the color.

Foxglove: I do not like the pinkish color (noticing a theme? Lol)

Yarrow: It us just meh for me....time to move on.

Orange mum: You guessed it....I do not like the color. Lol

All of these, except some foxglove, went to a new home. I like certain shades of colors. With all the plants to pick from, why settle? :)

So far this year it's just been a bunch of plants that came with the house that are more trouble than they're worth. These plants are also ubiquitous around here and bore me:

• Three yews in too narrow a foundation bed that required extensive pruning each year.
• Numerous hosta sprouts whose roots I apparently missed when digging them out last year. A common variety with light-colored margins and unimpressive, messy, non-fragrant flower stalks. Every year they ended in tatters by August.
• Two overgrown peonies that flopped immediately to the ground every spring.
• Two Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracilimus' also in too narrow a space, and where I often pile shoveled snow.

I also removed two Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star' I had planted about ten years ago. These always struggled. I think it was a bad combo of clay soil and a hot location with southern exposure next to a driveway.

All replacements were perennial flowers/grasses, plus a Calycanthus floridus 'Michael Lindsey' that was subsequently chewed down, probably by rabbits.

@Woods -- there were two plants that came with my house... a dwarf alberta spruce and a kousa dogwood. Sometimes I wish I started fresh instead of playing doctor. The spruce has some sort of mite infestation this year that I'm battling, and the kousa takes until the end of May to even START leafing out and always has dead branches I need to prune. I'm not sure what's up with it... maybe canker, who knows. Eventually there will be nothing left and the shovel will come out!

Woodstea, I just planted two more Blue Star Junipers recently, I love the color, I believe that blue goes with everything---I'm embracing oldies but goodies in my beds--just trying to cover bare dirt!
Out went a straggly Dianthus and a variegated Lavender. In with new stuff!

I left a few 'Blue Star' at my previous house - I just loved the color and form! I was afraid the transplant would kill them, so I left them. I would definitely plant them again.

I just dug up three old potentilla shrubs that came with the house. It had been bothering since we moved in, but I had bigger fish to fry so I let them languish along. I feel so much better now!

GH, it is a relief, isn't it! I like this thread. Seems like we like to keep things around till they wear us out...

A horrible trollius (ledebourii) - normally, I like orange...but had ordered and expected 'Alabaster'
Hakenochloa - I love this grass...but in a pot where it grows thickly and fountains nicely...as opposed to a bed where it spreads around and looks sparse and limp.
Geranium 'Crystal Lake - useless - a massive amount of unmannerly foliage and titchy, tiny, pallid little flowers - this one is a disgrace, imo, and should never have been released...but in the general wallichianum frenzy after Rozanne, it seemed the public were happy to be fobbed off with any vague relations (and I include the rubbish Syabru in here as well).
Hemerocallis 'Stafford'' and another all red one, Mallard - we never reached the US levels of day-lily adoration in the UK...so many of us still have the old favourites such as Golden Chimes and Joan Senior (my son loves that one but I don't)...but they are oafish, large and although I love those early leaves, they had to go.
A large number of perennial foxgloves - again, I found the squat (4 feet) rusty colours of Pippa, Polly et al. sickly and prefer to rogue out the biennial pinks and stay with the tall and graceful d.purpurea albiflora...and anyway, even the daintier d,lutea or grandiflora looked wrong in an urban setting and took up precious space....and anyway, I now have hundreds of them growing in the woods.
3 roses - Pomponella, Sweet Pretty and the ailing Zepherine Drouhin. I did chop ZD down last year but owing the weird setting in tiny raised bed, didn't do a thorough job and back it came - a mildewy horror until it grows enough to escape above the high brick walls (so 3 years of grief, I think not).
Oriental poppies (again)
Alstroemeria psittacina (puny)
Another heap of Papaver spicatum (poppy fails have been varied at least).

Shovel prune = eradicate?

Great thread. I can't tell you the satisfaction I'm feeling as I get rid of my spiderwort. Pretty blue but too brief and not enough of it and I just dislike how the plants look the rest of the year. I'm yanking up gooseneck loosestrife which has taken over a large bed and about to do the same with a white phlox which just doesn't bloom well enough. Truly need to divide some massive Iris Caesar's Brother plants but not sure if I have the energy (and then where do I plant the divisions...?)

Removed some Happy Returns daylilies, had too many. Put in some different varieties of daylilies that bloom at different times through the summer and fall. Replaced a dead shrub. Dug out a myriad of misc. ground covers and planted a few mature hostas, looks much nicer!

Sherry

Nothing yet, but the pyrethrum may have to go. I gave up on them a few years ago because the deer and woodchucks kept eating all the flower buds. I do love them though, so I decided to give them another try. Started them from seed last year, this year they set nice buds, and even though I sprayed them, one morning all the buds were gone, as if someone took a scissor and cut them off. I didn't even get a chance to see what color they were. So......they may have to go, as more and more I am putting in things that the wildlife doesn't like. Too much work only to have it end up as candy for the little darlings.

So you all inspired me this weekend to remove the dwarf alberta spruce that was half dead next to my door. No wonder it was struggling! It must have been there since build... there was a thick layer of rubber weed barrier and concrete poured up almost to the trunk. Poor thing.

Red Heart Hibiscus syriacus that has never bloomed!

I am going to shovel prune physocarpus 'Dart's Gold' this weekend. This is the third growing season in my garden and every year more of it dies. Not a good performer for me so out it goes to be replaced with another shrub that should perform better. Space in a garden is too precious to waste on a laggard!

Interesting about Dart's Gold. Any ideas why it might not have done well where you had it? I've been thinking lately about planting some ninebark.

Don't know but I think I remember reading that this cultivar was not a stellar performer. Maybe someone else can chime in who also has experience with this plant. I grow Summer Wine in a couple of places in my garden and it is a stellar performer. In fact it grows so enthusiastically that I have to prune it back by at least a third every other year to keep it in bounds.

felisar, what's your zone? I love your attitude toward 'laggards'--shape up or ship out!

I just saw some ninebark at my nursery on Monday. Fell in love! I have the perfect spot for it! Shovel pruning? Wow! My neighbor always laughs when I exit the garage with shovel in hand. I bought a Siberian Motherwort that was pretty in the pot, but weedy in the garden. Gone! I "pruned" a baptisia, but it came back. Roots must go on a ways. My artemesia had a baby and I gifted that one to a co-worker.