Immortelle. I admit, I got seduced by the picture. It's not bad; a tidy little grey-green plant. But the flowers, pink and white everlastings, are really small. And ... just not enough oomph to make it worth the space.

Penny Black nemophilia. Cute little almost black flowers rimmed with white. But again, the flowers were really small, and didn't seem to last very long. In a pinch I could say the low-growing foliage was interesting but... won't be growing this one again.

Agapanthus. Last summer my mother bought be a beautiful steel blue agapanthus, and I loved the tropical feel of it, even if the flowers didn't last terrihbly long. I carried over the plant inside this winter, and come spring when I saw the bare root plants on sale I bought about 10. Last years plant looked pretty sad when I brought it out, but it's plumped up nicely, and looks healthy. Still, it's almost August and there's no sign of a stalk. And the ones I bought this spring -- are only about 6" tall and I don't think they've grown a millimeter since May!

Delphinium. I love these so much, and I've had such beautiful ones I bought at the nursery, but they don't last year to year, and I simply can't grow these from seed. The ones I winter-sowed 2 years ago are only 6-8" tall! I'm going to have to stick to larkspur and chinese delphs.

Winter-hardy glads. I may have to wait on these and see. They were pretty enough, but they flowered for less than a week. It was during our 90+ temps, so maybe that did them in prematurely. I'm not ripping them out, but if they prove to not actually be winter-hardy and don't come up in the spring, I won't be too broken up about it.

Dwarf forget-me-nots. I started Victoria pink and blue, and I swear they've grown no bigger than they were when I potted them up for the swap back in May. If anyone here got them at the swap -- I hope they did much better for you!

There are so many things that have done well in the garden it seems ungrateful to focus on these, but I just wanted to share.

Anyone have plants that just didn't live up to your expectations this year?

This may sound funny...but, that wonderous Rozanne Geranium that blooms all summer and fall is so, so big & wide that I've had to prune it. I didn't realized it would be so big & sprawling it's second year.

I waited 7 years for my climbing hydrangea to finally bloom...the plant is huge and I had three flowers. ONly a token jesture. I hope for more next year.

I lost two butterfly bushes. I was very sad to see these 8 year old plants go. Luckily, I had 2 year old seedling volunteer butterfly bush growing under my Japanese maple. So, I got to replace one.

I am disappointed (mad as can be) that a ground hog lives in my neighborhood. Mimi is my back yard neighbor. I heard rumbling from her potting area through the trees & I hollared hello. With no reply and went to see her. Well..the noise was that dern groundhug burrowing under her potting bench. When it saw me..it ran right past me and went under my deck!!! Some nerve!!

....Beverly

I guess the biggest scare is the thought that the person who was buying my house was going to bulldoze it all right away...but this deal is now in question.....but...I now have a garden in CT which is supposed to be on a house for sale with a green fish pond and so many weeds it will take several days to get it straightened out....

oh yeah....and the fact that I can't do everything at once. That's a huge disappointment.....

Allison, don't give up on the agapanthus. My bareroot ones didn't bloom the first year...they don't like a lot of messing around and I think they have to get to a certain size before they bloom. Hang on and treat them nice and they may produce for you next year.

I'm also glad to hear about your experience with they nymophilia...I wanted to try these and so I am glad to hear your appraisal.

Oh yeah....poker primrose...they look so neat inthe pictures...but they are TINY. I think the whole poker is about half the size of my pinkie and about 1 1/2" long.....sort of disappointing, but it may redeem itself.

Then, paper moon scabiosa was so wonderful for me last year. I sent seeds everywhere and winter sowed them again. Not only were they not perennial, but the winter sowed ones rotted. I had to BUY seed and those are doing darn near nothing. I have sowed my last seed and those aren't germinating. WHAT THE HECK?

That pennie black did nothing for me last year. But folks keep raving about it, so try try again i suppose.

Six Hills giant catmint. This is the second summer and it looks absolutely no different than 'Walkers Low'. I'm bringing it to the plant swap because I think I've got plenty of catmint already.

Alabama Sunset honeysuckle. How the #)(#&%P(#*%& do you grow this plant and have it look good? I bought it for the hummingbirds and they like it o.k. but it's so gangly and it doesn't seem to twine around anything. I have to weave it through the wire and then it just sticks out in a really weird way. I'm not at all fond of this plant and it may be on the endangered list in my yard. If anyone has an idea how to make this plant look good, I'd love to hear it! :)

None of the packages I saw were labelled as to what type of Hypericum they were, so I took a chance. I was hoping to get the kind I had in my herb garden at work; a big, sturdy bush with gorgeous yellow pompoms. Instead I got what seemed like an evergreen groundcover. That spread. And spread. And.... I ripped it all out before it got too far!

Won;t plant that again unless I know is the perforatum.

The whole ordeal could have been a little better had I been more prepared. Having a tree cut down is nooooo thing to take lightly. Good thing is that I have only one more tree on the property that might have to come down in my lifetime, so that's a definate plus!

Still looking for homes for some of the plants that were around the tree, so the fall will be a busy time for me to try and get ready for next year. Hopefully I can actually take the time to enjoy the garden next year.

Shannon