I have several large maple trees in my yard. Last year, I found a maple seedling. I lovingly scooped it up, potted it up, nurtured it and gave it lots of tender care. A month or so later, I figured out that it was Virginia Creeper.

LOL! Thanks for the chuckle.

I thought of another. About 17 years ago, this really cool plant came up in the backyard of a townhouse I was renting. I watered it when it wilted a couple times, and staked up part that started leaning. My neighbors and I were in awe of the beautiful berries. Then I realized it was pokeweed! There was no room to dig where it was, so that's how I learned that boiling water will kill it.

I started this thread hoping to get more action on this forum, and I've started several discussions on other forums of a similar subject but it seems people are very reluctant to admit mistakes. These discussions are usually contributed to very sparsely.

Ok here is my story....

I spent the first spring after we moved into our house trying to yank out these "weedy trees" that were all over our front yard. No success and since I did not want to use a weedicide, I put it on my todo list and moved on.

A year later, same story.

Finally after a couple of years of getting extremely frustrated as I was unable to pull out a single weed tree, one spring they all bloomed and I finally figured out they were - Redbuds!

I now have 14 redbuds the last I counted and they have been blooming every spring for the past 10-11 years and I love every single one of them. Thank goodness I was unable to yank out a single one.

Hope you get a chuckle out of this one.

Usha

That IS funny! Thanks for sharing!

Here's the dumb thing I did this year. I scattered a bunch of Zinnia seeds in one area, then completely forgot about doing that. That weekend, I asked honey to dump the lawnmower bag in that same spot. Then I started moving the clippings around, and even threw a couple scoops into some potting soil I was mixing. Fast-forward a couple more weeks... there were Zinnias sprouting in some of my recently repotted house plants. I left one of them alone, so now I have a pot with a little jade plant about 6" tall, and a Zinnia that's about 3 ft. tall. Both plants are doing well, but it's pretty funny-looking!

I'm not so sure if these are funny, but being as I was literally just starting out (the ultimate noob! Lol), the cheapest route I could take for starting my garden at the time was purchasing seeds. I tried growing zinnias, peonies, cacti, columbines, Bolivian rainbow peppers, baobab tree, joshua tree, sweet peas, mondo grass, white datura, purple datura, dragon fruit, ying yang beans, & these are just ones that immediately come to mind. Out of all of these thing I tried growing, only one plant survived to maturity. That was a ying yang bean. Even then, it only produced one pod (with ONE bean inside) before it, too, keeled over. The rest never made it into their second week. The majority of these seeds are now up for trade.I am having better luck this year, except for the Bolivian rainbow peppers. They still do not want to give me the gratification of living : /

I order all these plants from far away places: Madagascar, South Africa, and Canary Islands just to name a few, thinking that the ordinary Florida deer should not be familiar with them and perhaps won't eat them. Wrong, they think my yard is an international buffet. Once they ate the middle out of a bush, leaving a very bushy top and bottom. During mating season, a buck took out a banana tree and drug it around the yard. I have no idea what the banana tree did to the deer! I guess my big mistake is underestimating Bambi and crew.

see link

Here is a link that might be useful: Oops...

My big oops: Against the wisdom of many previous gardeners, I planted mint in the vegetable garden. It has been 8 years and I'm still trying to eradicate it.

These are good!

Here's my latest bonehead move - planting Cannas in a bed with nothing restricting them from invading other plants, like a Gardenia and jasmine shrub. In the process of making a new bed just for them, in the middle of mowed grass, by smothering a patch of grass. Doh!

One year my mother in law gave me a clipping of clematis and told me to stick it in the ground and give it lots of water. I watered that thing daily and I swear I could see it moving it grew so fast! It was extremely healthy and full and finally it bloomed, but instead of the large purple flowers I expected I had little white flowers that turned yellow and smelled unmistakably like honeysuckle! Needless to say I spent the rest of the summer trying to kill the baby plant I had so lovingly nurtured.

One year my mother in law gave me a clipping of clematis and told me to stick it in the ground and give it lots of water. I watered that thing daily and I swear I could see it moving it grew so fast! It was extremely healthy and full and finally it bloomed, but instead of the large purple flowers I expected I had little white flowers that turned yellow and smelled unmistakably like honeysuckle! Needless to say I spent the rest of the summer trying to kill the baby plant I had so lovingly nurtured.