Jennifer - I did mean to pot up any Hakonechloa you might get, not the sedum, which is carefree.

Bob - The Hakonechloa is fine for the young and strong, not so fine as we get older!

Oh, sorry about that Pirl! That makes more sense!

Wellllll...I planted three hakonechloa. We'll see how that works out.

Another love/hate: Kenilworth ivy. Pops up kind of everywhere, including my containers as a "spiller". It's lovely, easy, little plant. Easy to weed out. That's a good thing, it needs it fairly often. My neighbor's daughter is a twentysomething and just bought a house, she wanted some of it, I told her to just take a couple of plants, she'll have plenty within a month or two. She wanted bamboo, mint, ditch lilies, and kenilworth ivy. I warned her. lol

Celene said: She wanted bamboo, mint, ditch lilies, and kenilworth ivy. I warned her. lol

oh noooooooo. Do you think she'll still speak to you by the end of the season? Yikes.

I love all of those plants. Seriously. Although the bamboo I have is a clumping, rather than running, variety.

I have an only HATE relationship with a couple of plants - Japanese knotweed and creeping bellflower (there are several varieties) most adamantly. So I can't say those are love-hate relationships, only hate.

For me coneflowers fall into the love-hate category. They are long-blooming and supposedly easy to grow. I can't grow 'em. Rabbits like to eat them; the leaves often look bad; virtually all of mine got aster yellows two summers ago, and they often do not thrive for me, and I think part of that is because new cultivars are released that just don't do well. The one exception to this, assuming they do wel lthis summer, is Raspberry Truffle. That one seems to work.

Daylilies are definitely in the love-hate category. They are lovely when in bloom. They hold soil on slopes well. But I find them to be high maintenance; they often look very sloppy and need a lot of cleanup time. Some are in bloom for a very short time. When they aren't blooming, they are uninteresting. The orange ditch lilies are another story - don't love them at all. The previous owner of my home planted them all along the garage. I have managed (barely) to keep them contained there, but one of these days I'm going to dig them all up. And I think Stella's are very overused, so I don't care for them any longer.

Iris are stunning when in bloom, but that time is short. I haven't managed placement of these very well because the foliage is in the way and I don't like the way it looks after the bloom time is over. Same with tulips. I am half an inch away from pulling all of them out.

Campanula (all zillion varieties of them) are beautiful, long-blooming, and easy to grow. The hate part is that they require deadheading to bloom continuously. I had a lot of them and decided I was spending too much time deadheading, so I reduced my stock to just a few.

Joe Pye weed - I needed something big to block my view of the alley and neighbors' trash cans. It worked, It's pretty, it's a great butterfly magnet, but now it is reseeding itself everywhere, and it's gigantic, and it's quite tough to dig up. Anyone have a backhoe I can borrow?

Anise hyssop 'Blue Fortune' - I LOVE this plant, but....it's supposed to be maybe around 3 feet tall. I planted one in my daughter's yard, and that's how big it is, and it's just wonderful. When I planted it in my yard, it grew to 5-1/2 feet tall, and was much too big for where I put it. I've tried two or three other spots, and the same thing happened. Frustrating! It would have been the perfect plant for my corner, but it was so big that you felt like you were going to be attacked by it when you walked by.

I love campanulas. Some of them are overly enthusiastic, but I just pot them up and give them away. I'm growing Symphandra zanzegur this year, we'll see if it is as prolific.

Then, there are the artemisias. *sigh* Love the foliage. Love the smell. Enough to weed, weed, weed out the overgrowth.

I now wonder if I've made a mistake planting Blue Fortune agastache. They really get five feet tall? *gulp*

Celene said:I now wonder if I've made a mistake planting Blue Fortune agastache. They really get five feet tall? *gulp*

They are not supposed to get that tall. But Agastaches like lean conditions. Some of them will get very tall (and floppy) if they find conditions too rich for them.

I'm adding Mirabilis Jalapa to my love hate list. Last night I was out weeding the rose garden until after 9 PM and could spot those offenders easily. They are pretty BUT not welcome here. They simply self-seed too much.
Four o'Clocks (Mirabilis jalapa)

Blue Fortune is not supposed to get that big. I don't know why mine did. I planted it in nasty rock-hard clay soil with no amendments or fertilizer or anything. I also planted it at my daughter's place about 20 miles away, in the same conditions. Hers is just the size it should be, but mine turned into monsters. I still love the plant, just have to change my ideas about where to plant it. Go figure.

The first house I had EVERYTHING I planted got at least twice the size it was supposed to. It really messed me up as a new gardener.

Can I add a tree ? its a plant but not a garden variety like the subject here.

This is by way of a warning to those who are developing a large lot and adding trees.

The River Birch is the biggest pain. Even worse than Willows

It sheds something all year round.
Winter: small and large branches in wind storms
Spring: Catkins that blow everywhere and followed by blossom shells or seed covers
Summer: small branches
Fall: Leaves of course but small branches.
The RB we have is planted next to the garage which has the entrance to the kitchen in it. The door has to be closed in spring,summer,and fall because breezes carry the dropped stuff into the garage not to mention tracking into cars and the house from the driveway.

Just sayin keep it away from trafficked areas.

The birch also reseeds unbelievably. And they have huge taproots, very difficult to remove. My neighbor's tree reseeds all over my property, including within my existing perennials. I can't remove them, I can only repeatedly cut them off at ground level. You would think that would kill it, but they just keep coming back.

Karen

Interesting about the river birch. It is often highly recommended as a desirable tree, even by the U of M and master gardeners locally. Good to hear your comments; I had just been thinking I should consider getting one. Or maybe not!

I bought a 'Twisty Baby' locust a couple of weeks ago because I thought it looked really cool, and actually planted it in one of my borders. Then I started reading about it online and it would up in the trash can...I made a bad choice, but at least I didn't wait to experience the consequences for once.

How about Norway Maples they come up all over the place, grow fast and break in the winter. Even worse they lose their leaves so late that you are picking them up in Dec. and if you leave them they smother the lawn.
Then their is also the battle with English Ivy and Virginia Creeper a neighbor planted on the boarder of the properties. A constant fight to keep it off my land.

I love my sugar maple! Although they pop up everywhere, they're easy to pull up. The birch have long taproots, and are a bear to remove even when very small. The root is longer than the above-ground growth.

Karen

River Birch is not good as a "close to the house" landscape choice. There is one in an open area in this tract.Looks great, not my responsibility.

I'm adding Lily of the Valley. It's beautiful, I love the scent, but much too aggressive for me. It's fine surrounded by cement and I do have some in a location like that where it can't escape but planted where it can roam it is a pest.