A wisteria was so jealous of my time that it grew several feet a week and ate my house and a locust tree to keep me at its side, tending to its tendrils. Twenty years after the divorce and I still get pathetic little sprigs popping up in my lawn screaming for attention. That plant put me off purple permanently.

Thanks for the heads up on the chasmanthe- I always wondered...

Renee

Blue morning glory, Ipomoea violacea. Spectacular from afar, absolutely covered in the most gorgeous true blue trumpet-shaped flowers. A show stopper. Up close - requires a machete (yes, we actually had to use a machete) or blow torch to keep in check. Sigh. It is still alive and well on my back fence ONLY because my husband loves it. I swear, I am not exaggerating when I say this, it can grow 6 inches a day. When we first viewed this house with our realtor, the previous owners actually apologized to me during the walk through the garden. They must have heard my gasp. I have to spend HOURS cutting it back to prevent it from swallowing up my new stone fruit trees. Gonna give the job back to the morning glory lover. See how long they last after that :-)

Patty S.

A heck of a lot of trees are best enjoyed in other people's yards. Eucalyptus globulus. Magnificent--in someone else's yard. Ditto Jacaranda, Phoenix canariensis, and Liquidambar. I live surrounded by neighbors with huge trees and huge problems with huge roots and huge tree-trimming bills every year, while I enjoy their shade and the view from my treeless yard.

Ha! Ha! Patty S. on that delegation of MG clearing! Smart idea!

The only big mistake I made was Wisteria. Wisteria is just Bermuda grass with purple flowers. I'm still pulling up suckers, but they are more manageable now. Get them before they can do any photosynthesizing.

Mexi-primrose (Oenothera speciosa) pulls out easily enough, but the flyspeck seeds sure go everywhere.

Interesting....we have room for things here, so I have a large stand of matilijas and love them. I have Blue Dawn M.G. and it doesn't get too much out of hand here....gophers and rabbits love it. I also have Mexican primrose here and it's not invasive for me...have large Liquidambers and Eucs and Ash...love them. The chasmanthe is not worth growing. What I *really* don't want is bougainvillea and pyracantha.

Ipheion, the cute little clumps of grass-like foliage with pretty little star-shaped periwinkle flowers. It grows from little bulbs the size of garlic cloves, and spreads like wildfire in Santa Ana winds to form colonies and HUNDREDS of new baby bulbs wherever just a few are planted. I should have taken the clue from the plant description that said they can grow in sun or shade and any soil. Finally got rid of them by redoing the front yard and I haven't seen one since.

In my experience, the huge pruning bill associated with most trees - including so-called, "trash trees" (such as fruitless mulberry) are a consequence of improper pruning. It's amazing what one bad haircut can do. The extra cost of a skilled Arborist is usually well worth the cost (if you want to save money and are reasonably athletic, you can research how to do it properly for yourself) whatever you do, don't let your "gardener" do it unless you have first hand knowledge of his abilities - some of those guys... I sometimes wonder if we ought to license lawnmower operators :-)

I love most species of Eucalyptus, but have absolutely no use for E. globulus except as a large scale windbreak - where it excels.

Ryan

gypsy, you and I are in nearly identical growing conditions. I love my bougainvilleas, they are spectacular and bloom nearly all year 'round. Messy, as they drop a lot of debris, but worth the extra effort for me. The MG's, however, I can barely keep up with their invasiveness. I have lots of room, too, a little over an acre, and have considered Matilija poppies up on my front slope, where I have all my natives and water wise plants, just don't want to have to thin them out, or prune them when they get leggy and scraggly, but I really love their flowers. Won't grow euc's because of their frightening fire hazard potential, and surprisingly, the previous owners didn't plant any Liquidambers on the property, which as so popular here in my part of N. San Diego county. They really went with a Tuscan themed garden, so I have lots of lovely olive trees, which I just love. Now, use your imagination, since the second summer flowering flush is just about over, but we've trained this magenta bougainvillea to arch over our side gate to our backyard. For the majority of the year it is simply covered in magenta pink flowers. You can see a peek in the foreground of a very lovely non-fruiting olive tree specimen that sits in front of the garage wall, that is just gorgeous, one of my favorite trees on my property:
{{gwi:548616}}

Patty S.

Very pretty, Patty.....lol...seen from *afar*. I've had bougainvilleas before, just don't want to be pruning them again. Your property is much more maintained than mine. Mine is messy and wild. Would love it if I'd inherited olive trees, what came with mine was dead avocado grove...lol..

In my opinion each and every one of these dreaded plants can have a place in a garden, with perhaps the Eucalyptus globulus the one exception. It seems that too many people plant fast growing trees in areas and at densities inappropriate to their mature canopy sizes, and then pay for decades of heavy pruning that butchers the natural character. The worst mass offenders seem to be in Orange County, from what I've seen, but in general is more widespread throughout southern California than here in the SF bay area. I'd have no qualms about designing with any of the previously mentioned plants, keeping in mind the caveat, use the right plant in the RIGHT spot! In particular I love the more vivid cultivate if Ipheion in gardens, and find it particularly useful for bloom interest in low ground cover plantings of street strips below deciduous trees with aggressive surface roots that suck up all the surface water. It is unparalleled in such a tough spot, and its ability to colonize and actually thrive in such a spot presents no threat elsewhere. Similarly, Morning glory planted on a free standing cyclone fence surrounded be confining concrete sidewalk is a perfect situation for this aggressive vine. Bougainvillea, only with enough space to let it actually bloom without needing constant shearing, and never for a client who can't stand sweeping up fallen blossoms regularly and wouldn't value the brilliant wall of color sufficiently to put up with the messiness, ditto for the Jacaranda. Mexican Evening Primrose,just recognize it wants to spread at the roots, and give it space or confined quarters and/or vigorous neighboring plants that wont be overwhelmed. I've never seen this plant seed itself around in coastal California conditions, just at the roots. Ditto for the Romneya, and recognize that those beautiful blooms of these two come with the seasonal task of chopping them back to the ground when they look shabby.

My pet peave would be the Olive tree, lovely enough in the right spot and surroundings but also highly allergenic in bloom for hay fever sufferers such as myself. While the Acacias GE really get blamed by hay fever sufferers when it is more likely that conifers such as pines or deodar cedars also in bloom in late winter/early spring g are the true culprits

That's very interesting, bahia. So true about Orange County. Just look at all the ginormous Orchid trees that get hacked back to these huge branch stumps. I am always somewhat horrified when I see that. And interestingly about the Morning Glories on a cyclone fence, that's what I have going:
{{gwi:548619}}

I just have to keep them out of the fruit trees, lol!! And my bougies are in areas where they can get big. We either blow out the debris (which is really important to do, as it can be a breeding ground for rodents), or, we suck them up with our shop vac :-)

And I am apparently not allergic to my olive trees. At least, not that I'm aware of. Most of my allergies are with grasses. But, I'm going to pay more attention during bloom times and see if that's when I have hayfever issues. They are so lovely, I will just use my Claritin as needed, because no doubt there's something else probably blooming at the same time that may bother me, too. Fortunately, my allergies have significantly subsided as I get older. So, glad I can enjoy the olives.

Patty S.