Iris. The flowers I hate as much as weeds. Because they are so popular, I have tried to like all the colors and varieties. But, no. I just can't. And each time I see a parade of iris photos, I just hate them more. The smell nauseates me to the point I am weak and dizzy when I pass by some in a yard. And I passed by them all the time when I lived in Denver. Here, there are more rock gardens than iris, so I don't have to worry much about them.
Sunflowers. There are a lot of plants that other people call invasive that I would rather have than sunflowers. I never plant the seeds, but I am always getting them. I let most of them grow because I know the pollinators love them. I love to make the pollinators happy, or I would have destroyed them all.
Red raspberries. I love berries. I would eat them day and night. But red raspberries are definitely not worth the trouble of growing. I didn't even know I could love any kind of raspberry until I grew some Fall Gold raspberries I ordered from directgardening.com one year. I grew them because they were berries, duh. I thought maybe the squirrels and birds would like them and eat them instead of my blackberries and strawberries. I also grew elderberries as my first berries, so they would eat those instead of the other berries I planned to grow. Either my elderberries were extremely prolific or the birds didn't like them. Never saw one bird near the elderberries.
After daring myself to taste the fall gold raspberries, I was hooked. You can bet I will be growing more of them. I didn't mind the thorns on the blackberries, but the thorns on the fall gold raspberries prevented grabbing fistfuls of the berries to shove in my mouth.
Hibiscus. I love them in photos. But most I have seen in real life and up close look horrible, always have infestations of some kind that are really creepy. I believed for a long time that all photos of hibiscus were manipulated because of the quantity I have seen that look like they'd spent two weeks at Walmart's clearance rack resort.
Juniper. I am allergic to them. But I often manage to live where there is a juniper I can't avoid.
Crabapples. I can't believe these are grown as edibles for consumption by humans. Bitterly foul tasting. Provide very little shade. They hurt your feet when you step on them, and you are always stepping on them because every crapapple tree I have known drops their fruit by the dozens and there are few people that eat them enough to bother cleaning up the dropped ones. Neighborhood bullies pick them up to throw them at others.
Those are the ones at the top of my head.
