All sorts of grasses. For a long time “grasses” and “weeds”
were synonyms for me – I couldn’t understand why someone would waste precious garden
space for something so dull and which never blooms and looks like common weed. Then came a zebra grass which I thought was OK
– until it grew a few years later into a magnificent specimen and became WOW… Then
I purchased a few more grasses on final sales – which also grew into something
spectacular… and then I got addicted. Now I have at least a dozen of different
grasses of all heights, shapes and colors. Love them!

You do know there is a flip side to this don't ya? Plants you loved until you got one yourself.

Plants I snubbed and then changed my mind about are Lantana and Echinacea. I hated lantana for years but I've got several now. I'm now hot to get E. angustifolia to grow among native grasses, after snubbing these for years I'm now on a serious seed hunt & anxious to sow them this winter hoping to get blooms on the first year.

I believe our taste changes and our garden changes over the years or maybe we simply get tired of certain types of plants & looks. I'm growing all kinds of plants now I would have never liked before or more to the point, wouldn't have even noticed.

I don't think I will ever like Elephant Ears, Palms, Lirope, Cannas, Phlox, Pampas Grass or Day Lilies. They are very popular plants that appeal strongly to many people but I find them distressing to look at, its like a gag reflex.

I have an aversion to palms as well. They are perfectly hardy here but seem so out of character in my woodsy PNW locale - I feel like I should be in SoCal or Florida when I see them in landscapes :-) Ditto with bananas. But then I love succulents, so go figure!! They're not exactly very woodsy in character :-)

My avoid-like-the-plague plant was Hydrangea macrophylla 'Pistachio'. The photos of it when it first came on the market were of this garishly colored flower I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to include in their garden. Then I saw it in in bloom in person and I was hooked. As a real hydrangea afficionada, this is possibly my favorite of any of the hydrangeas I have grown. Photos still do not do it justice - the coloring is complex and changing.

E. augustifolia seeds are on the way to you TR.

good question!

When I was just starting out a few years ago, I wanted to create a nice design plan for our barren backyard. I enlisted the advice of a local nursery owner and we drew up a plan together. She asked what I didn't like and the only plant I could think of at the time was heuchera. I ripped one out at our old house as soon as I saw it - I thought it was heinous. Now, I can't get enough - I have 6 right now and I have to resist buying more every weekend at the market.

Plant I'll never own? Shasta daisy - things look despicable when they're spent.

I thought roses would be more trouble so I avoided them. When I got one as a wedding present I was pleasantly surprised.

Lauren, the best Shasta daisy is Becky. You can easily trim off spent blooms or kept them for fall, but the plant stays nice and tidy all year and blooms from Mayish until fall.

I never liked yarrow, I thought it looked too much like a weed. Now I love it. I also thought coneflowers and rudbeckia looked "old fashioned". I am striving for the cottage garden style and love all types of plants now, especially the old fashioned ones:)

I never thought I would like the spiky desert natives here in New Mexico. But slowly I began to appreciate their stark sculptural beauty. I bought an agave neomexicana last year, a sotol this year and have moved and planted several other agaves and cacti. I still can't warm up to yuccas, but I've learnt to never say never.

I disliked hellebores because the foliage looks ratty in winter. When a plant looks that bad, who wants it to be evergreen? I'm trying some newer ones and they did okay last winter, not as ugly as a hellebore can potentially be. Maybe I like them.

Steppskie - you may have convinced me to take a 2nd look at the Becky! I do love the way they look when in their prime, but their ugly stage is so ugly it outweighed everything else lol

I'll second the yarrow too, it was almost laughable when I first saw it, now I like it, especially the red variety.

Shade plants!

I want to garden for changing flower colour throughout our growing season.

I'm strongly in favour of a number of low-light spring plants. After flowering, they live in the shade of taller herbaceous perennials through the summer and get exposed to the low fall sun as many larger summer perennials are cut back by the beginning of fall.

However, as our magnolia has increases in size we have had/have some more opportunities, with an area of reduced light, for a few more shade plants.

Below July 25, 2015.

Mostly planted in fall 2013. (Use a number of lungworts throughout the garden).

Mostly planted mid July 2015.

(Gives an idea how closely I plant, Annette!).

cecily, I'd urge you to reconsider hellebores :-) And maybe explore some of the other varieties available. Helleborus x hybridus (often sold as "oriental" hellebore) has the least appealing foliage of any but is arguably the most popular type grown and sold. It is recommended that old foliage on this plant be removed each winter before the bloom buds appear as it does get limp and tacky looking after a full season of growth.

But many of the newest hybrids (ballardiae, ericsmithii, sternii) sold under the 'Gold Collection' moniker and others have outstanding foliage that holds up well and seldom needs to be cut back or removed. In fact, the foliage of many of these selections is so attractive on its own that the flowers are just a bonus feature. Plus, both H. argutifolius and H. foetidus produce very handsome, year round foliage.

Find all the Hellebore cultivars I've purchased over the last few years live happily, out of sight, under/behind the tall herbaceous perennials of summer.

I love nearly all the desert natives. Sometimes the problem is a plant doesn't love me rather than the other way around. Ever happen to anyone else? Still, I experiment a lot and some like me fine. I go to extra trouble for these guys building up sand, gravel, drainage and giving them well chosen spots in as much sun as I can muster. Then I do my best to treat them like motherless orphans by giving them zero kindness & never letting a drop of water fall from the hose on their dry loving little heads & never say the word 'fertilizer' within hearing distance.

I didn't care for Echinacea initially. But I've definitely changed my mind on that front.

I also hated daylilies. That actually turned out to simply be a hatred of Stella, which I still can't stand.

Echinacea for me also. Now I have them thru all my beds.

Never cared for Sedums either, yet I have many different varieties now.

Yellow sun drops (AKA Oenothera summer solstice). I'm not a yellow lover, but this one is so bright crisp and clean! It's now one of my favorite plants....

I also grow sun drops. You are absolutely right about it being such a great yellow.

Count me as another who had a change of heart for Echinacea. I thought they were so overdone, but love the clump of the oh-so-common purple ones I have now. And I never thought I'd want any sort of hydrangea for their ridiculous and somewhat comical giant pom-pons of flowers. I added a H. quercifolia this year for the promise of interesting fall foliage (and maybe a little for the pom-pons).

Did not like echinacea or rudbeckia, love them now.

nothing that I loved then and hate now

can't see me ever loving opuntia type plants

Yep, I was another hydrangea hater until I was totally done over by the black stems of Zorro

To be fair, the list of hated plants which change to beloved (and even cycle back into hate again) is looong...having the shallow temperament of a bored toddler and the attention span of a hyperactive flea, being besotted with a plant today is no guarantee I will still be loving it tomorrow. I am ashamed at the vast numbers of plants which have run through my careless fingers (only the toughest survive).

As per A2zmom, I was never a daylily lover. Perhaps ditch lilies, with their invasiveness, was part of the problem and I agree that 'Stella d'Or' can get more than a bit much. Daylilies also seemed a bit easy!

Some fancy double-flowered daylily cultivars, however, broke the ice for me. I also like the lengthy bloom time of my 'Mint Condition' (below - to me a very nice yellow). Daylilies are generally far longer lived in our mixed perennial beds than medium and tall irises; hence, in our growing conditions, I'd say they're a far more intelligent buy for us).

Below (yesterday) we do water both the grass and the perennials (as required), but the latter are far more inclined to uphold their side of the bargain.

Orange flowering tiger lily. A volunteer showed up a few years ago and since it was in the holding bed area I let it be after having unsuccessfully tried to dig it out the year before. This year as I gazed out my windows during my short walks about the house I found it was the favorite of the swallowtail butterflies. Now I appreciate it.

Orange flowers in general! So very garish.

And now? I have a yellow and orange bed.

Some of the orange flowers I have:

Geum 'Totally Tangerine'

Kniphofia 'Alcazar'

Echinacea 'Tiki Torch'

Asclepias tuberosa

Hemerocallis
'Fire King'

The last photo is from Garden Crossing. I have been unable to take a decent photo as the color is so incredibly saturated.

mnwsgal, I don't think I'd ever plant a ditch lily (way too aggressive), but I do like seeing them along the road - they definitely add a cheerful note.

Sunnyborders, I have to agree that daylilies have to be the easiest of all my plants. I think my only complaint is the foliage looks a bit ratty once blooming is done.

a2zmom, I am referring to a lily, tiger lily, not the orange daylilies, which I gave away. I used to give away every orange flowering plant I had but have come to like some of the same ones that you posted above.

Ah, that makes sense! 8-)