Viewing post #632046 by Pwinget

ckatNM said:
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.

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.

It tickled me that you wrote that. I had hibiscus at my last house, but I did like them. First, I always thought hibiscus were hot-climate plants but there they were in zone 6, so I was surprised. Second, these grew like crazy and I had to cut them down to a manageable size twice each growing season (they were shaped to be a high hedge). They never had infestations and were full of flowers when they came. I wish I had taken pictures.

I, too, have crabapple trees. They grow up angry and twisted because the deer keep shaving the leaves off of their low/young limbs, then they have a fit from lack of summer water and drop all of their other leaves and fruit. They return next year just as angry and twisted. We don't eat the fruit, either. I got all excited about having apple trees on our property when we first moved here, then found out they were inedible. We have 4 and I want to take them all down.

Parsley emerges from every rock crevice in our garden and we don't even grow it.

This is a fun idea for a thread!