Tapping into your collective wisdom here.... Since I will be starting a new garden in a new home next Spring, I was wondering which shrubs and/or plants did you plant that turned out to be invasive and/or a nuisance that made you wish you had never planted them?

I want to plant some shrubs and plants that will be highly attractive to honey bees, butterflies, and lady bugs, but I do not want to plant anything that I may regret a little later down the line. Recommendations?

Mexican Petunias and Turks Cap are trying to swallow the farm here.

Avoid Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon' at all costs. Prettiest weed ever but SO invasive!

Hootenanny (Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon')

Look up native plants for your area. That will attract them while being easy to grow. Some do get a little spread happy so do your research when you find one you like but at least they won't be harmful to the ecosystem around you.

Our biggest invasives around here have been sweet autum clematis and bush honeysuckle but not the native one. It's the one on the back of Gurney's catalog that they advertise as having pink blooms. We tried them and they reverted and added to the population of them in the area. Tried killing them whenever we could but it's been pretty hopeless. Oh and Bradford Pear. Not allowed to plant in MO anymore for any reason.

pirl said: Avoid Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon' at all costs. Prettiest weed ever but SO invasive!

Hootenanny (Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon')

Agree...
And still... supposed to be really good for us!
https://www.potsandpans.in/blo...

Unfortunately, I find it to taste as unpleasant as it smells.

Florida stachys (rattlesnake weed) actually tastes good and well worth the space it demands.

soapwort is pretty aggressive, and no getting that space back ever... But maybe a prep for SHTF? you can use as soap or so they claim...

Avoid periwinkle and Euonymus fortunei (wintercreeper)...

I like turks cap... I even like Mexican petunia... Just about can't grow it, too dry here, and deer eat it.

We could suggest great natives if you would fix your profile...
Zone 8 doesn't tell us enough to suggest plants likely to do what you want.

Many natives have particular niches... Often a plant that refuses to grow where planted can be quite content just a short distance away...

Wow, Bradford Pear trees are not allowed? I have never heard of that before. They are attractive trees and were planted extensively in new housing neighbourhoods in the 1980's and 1990's as I recall.

I like Clematis. I had no idea it was invasive, either.

porkpal said: Mexican Petunias and Turks Cap are trying to swallow the farm here.

I was seriously thinking of planting Turk's Cap. One of the nurseries here told me that the Hummers adore it. I had no idea it was invasive. I wanted to plant Trumpet Vine which is very pretty and showy, but the nursery told me it is invasive, so I took it off my list.

pirl said: Avoid Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon' at all costs. Prettiest weed ever but SO invasive!

Hootenanny (Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon')

Thank you for the heads up. This is indeed pretty. Shame....

What would be a non-invasive, pretty, showy vine to grow along the fence line?

stone said: Agree...
And still... supposed to be really good for us!
https://www.potsandpans.in/blo...

Unfortunately, I find it to taste as unpleasant as it smells.

Florida stachys (rattlesnake weed) actually tastes good and well worth the space it demands.

soapwort is pretty aggressive, and no getting that space back ever... But maybe a prep for SHTF? you can use as soap or so they claim...

Avoid periwinkle and Euonymus fortunei (wintercreeper)...

I like turks cap... I even like Mexican petunia... Just about can't grow it, too dry here, and deer eat it.

We could suggest great natives if you would fix your profile...
Zone 8 doesn't tell us enough to suggest plants likely to do what you want.

Many natives have particular niches... Often a plant that refuses to grow where planted can be quite content just a short distance away...

I am in zone 8a (DFW). What about some that are invasive but very pretty and would grow well in pots? I have a TON of paved space in the backyard that I need to fill up with potted plants.

Elysianne said:

I like Clematis. I had no idea it was invasive, either.

Not just any clematis, but specifically sweet autumn clematis. See the photos and comments in our database.
Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora)

Calif_Sue said: Not just any clematis, but specifically sweet autumn clematis.

I was going to say that... And still, I have it... Always gorgeous at bloom time...

I have some that grows through the hardy orange trees outside the window... Just went in with chain saw and cut both to the ground...


Cypress vine


On tipi with perennial sunflower

Cypress vine is a seedy annual. My control method is to take down tipi when I stop seeing hummingbirds... give vine to chickens, they eat leaves and seed.

In the Spring I tilled all those cypress vine seedlings under, and still had lots to cover up the bean tipis.


Physostegia... pretty, but spready... Not that easily controlled... I have it growing behind the grill where I'm content to allow it to grow as much as it wants...


Salvia, always a good choice...


Lantana with Florida's state butterfly...


Verbesina... Another spready one, but gorgeous!
Not that hard to weed out.

Most everybody grows echinacea, but for a beginning gardener... might be a bit more effort than you would be up to the first year...


I have a few in town where they aren't happy, I think the bed is too wet. They do fine in the sand...
I took sand to town and filled a couple boxes, and the echinacea seed I planted in one of those boxes produced plants that were perfectly content...

I've had several Salvias and happy with all, for long bloom, insect appeal, and easy care.
Cypress vine is horrible to control (here) if you do not have chickens.

I adore Salvias and had several colours planted at my old house. I planted some Echinacea, too. I think they are so beguiling with their pretty pink colour and big red-brown eyes in the centre. I do not know how well they fared. I had to move house not long after I planted them.

I found this on Birds & Blooms's website. Butterfly Bushes are invasive??? I have never heard anyone say that before. I had one growing in a big pot, but it died last year after I was unable to bring it indoors.

https://www.birdsandblooms.com...

Yes, I have seen butterfly bushes volunteer in the middle of the state park along the riverbed, when they removed a dam and allowed the river to create its own path. I have had them self sow, a few, in my yard. In your own yard, no big deal, but they do escape and grow some wild places.

Yep, up here as well. Barberry is another bad one.

A good bush though that has color is Ninebark. Color and blooms to boot plus native. I miss mine at the old house.

As that article mentioned, there are sterile seedless butterfly bushes.

I was just reading that a pretty, showy plant called Purple Loosestrife which was common in many gardens many years ago is now considered undesirable.

pepper23 said: Yep, up here as well. Barberry is another bad one.

A good bush though that has color is Ninebark. Color and blooms to boot plus native. I miss mine at the old house.

I am not fond of Barberry either.