Message Boards

What are some that you can't seem to grow? I love the ruffles lavender but killed it twice. How about you?

Delphiniums, foxglove, hydrangeas to name a few.


ve

Lupines - tried twice but failed both times. I give up!
Jm

Gardenias - my very favorite flower; mandevilla; and too many others to name.

Azaleas and rhodies, love em, but can't grow em!

Oh yes, I ended up tearing out my gardenias because they were such a pain.
And I did put in a delphinium only to have it die.

Just lost my red mandevilla,2nd year in a row. Also kill African Violets.

Soooo many over the years. You can't always grow what you like. Your location, soil, $ available & so forth all play into it. No luck with delphiniums either...did grow them in a huge pot with canna tubers one summer. Sometimes you waste so much energy on one plant & so many others out there. Sometimes a nutrient is missing in your soil & once improved the plants might be teeming!
I have lost so many acid loving plants & not interested in worrying about feeding them the fertilizer for such. So just look for others...

I seem to destroy annuals like ranunculas, african daisies and petunias. I don't know what I do wrong.

We are too hot to grow a lot of plants you northern gals can grow...lilacs, peonys and a bunch of others.
I've tried sooooo many times & they just won't work!

Well Karen, same goes for us up here not being able to grow those hot southern beauties.
Couple of things don't work for me. One being delphiniums and the other lavender..

hollyhocks. had them in new york but don't think i've seen them in CA. i tried to grow them with no luck. would love to try again.

I learned early on to look around you and see what sort of plants are "natives" -- then grow varieties of those. Although we are zone 6 -- we have the heat of the south and the cold of the north and it takes a tough plant to survive a prairie year. If the heat and drought doesn't get them, the snow and cold will!

I did try for a couple of years to grow some of those garden perennials that you so admire especially in English gardens -- sigh, no amount of love nor water could make them endure the heat and drought and drying winds of summer!

My garden (and I) am much happier growing things that like our kind of weather!

Martha

Lupine and delphinium. It's about the drainage I think. But, hope springs eternal so I bought 3 delphinium while out shopping for annuals this spring. I had some problems with hardy hibiscus and now have 2 in a different spot that are ok so far.

for me there are a few but the one that is driving me over the edge is a clematis that i've been nursing along for about 6 yrs. roots are shaded, plant gets sun, kept watered & fertilized (homemade compost), etc. i might have pruned it too severely thus the lack of flowering this yr but my real problem is that the foliage never looks good; it's brown spotted, being chewed by something, then leaves turn completely brown & dry. meanwhile, house around the corner has a gorgeous, lush, thick plant growing at the mailbox. guess i'd better knock on the door for some advice!

Plants that like cooler weather like hostas, and plants that like drier weather like rosemary and lavender.

Zone9, you need to try again on the rosemary. A gal across the state from you had one by her pool...it got HUGE...lots of humidity where it was located! She finally ripped it out. And I have one doing well too. Mine is in a fairly dry spot...at one end of my clothesline but I had killed several others I had tried.

Lobelia and lavender. I'm trying Lobelia again this yr. being on vacation maybe my friend hasn't killed it:-)

Hosta & clematis wont grow for me.The planr look good but wont grow.

I bought the small rosemary bush last fall. It did fine and grew a lot over the winter and spring season, but as soon as it started in the 90's and raining....that was it, now it looks like a small dried Christmas tree

I had a huge rosemary plant for probably close to 10 years before it finally died. It got sprinkled regularly during all that time, too. With out sand, though, the soil drained very fast. Maybe you need to try again.

zone9, I killed 3 or 4 and then on a whim bought one of those marked down "trees" 2 yrs. ago..in winter. It looked pathetic, half dried up but I babied it thru the winter in my little garden house & planted it last spring. It has almost tripled in size now. I need to "harvest" LOTS of it. I think I paid like $1.25 for it at Lowes (originally around $15-16). While I was checking out, someone else was gathering up the ones that were left...they were headed to the dumpster.