yaupons

Sam

I still have it in a pot or two where I can't get to it to water very often and there it is very colorful and pretty, but otherwise ... no thanks.

And I have a love/hate relationship with barberries.

I tolerate my asian jasmine, because it's great cover, but it gets on EVERYTHING so I'm constantly pulling on it. The liriope is a nice plant, but I have so much I'm sick of it! When we moved into the house two and a half years ago, the only things in the yard were asian jasmine, boxwoods, liriope and purslane. Is it any wonder I'm sick of all that stuff?

Only other plant I despise is blackberries. Same story. I can't get rid of them, and they are covered in thorns. So everytime I try to control them or get rid of them I look like I tried to give the cat a bath.

I'm afraid you're going to tell me it comes up from the roots everywhere and will show up on the other side of the yard.

Plants that I despise - elephant ears if they're loose in the ground. Around here they just take over the world - my neighbor planted some a few years ago and then panicked when they took over her yard, our yard, and escaped into the woods behind our homes. I'm still pulling out ee babies. Also, we fight cedar elm seedlings - they show up everywhere! (and I don't even have a cedar elm tree)

'Nuff said. St augustine grass is so much better...

DAY FLOWER, stay away from this one. Looks like a wondering jew, green leaves with blue flower. I thought I had pulled it all up last year but it's backkkkk ACKKKK. It will take over and you'll have nothing else.

Another one is Seven Sister rose! It roots wherever it hits the ground. I chopped up some pieces of it and put it in our back yard thinking it would die....nope....new leaves coming off of it =(.

Lyreleaf sage is pretty, but be careful how you deadhead the finished flowers because the seeds will grow where they fall - even far away where you didn't think seeds may have fallen. There will be so many new little plants, it will drive you crazy!

Asian jasmine didn't last long in my garden. Once I saw how aggressive it was and the fact it was growing where I didn't want it, out it came. Bye, bye Asian jasmine. You are no longer welcome in my garden.

Bermudagrass . . . need I say anything else about this one? We all fight the little rhizomes on this one. The St. Augustine in the front is choking it out and I planted some SA sod pieces in the back, so hopefully in a couple years it will be choked out of the back too.

I used to have bluemist flower, but not anymore. It was pretty for a year or two, but after that - oh my goodness, did it become a bully! The butterflies loved it, but it wasn't worth it the way it was taking over my garden. I remember pulling up a thick mat of roots out of the garden that were at least four inches thick, and about 2'-3' wide and long mat of plants. I'd rather allow that one to grow in the wild.

missinformation - I grow the thornless blackberries - 'Navaho'. They are easy to tie onto a trellis and when they done producing for the year, you cut the old stalks all the way back to the ground and let the new stalks grow and tie those up as they grow. It is the same cycle every year. I wouldn't plant the thorny varieties due to all the work at getting in there to get berries and trimming back, tying, etc.

'nuf said

HONEYSUCKLE!!! Need I say more? I hate that stuff. Smells great, but is soooooo invasive.

Stephanie

Bermuda. I wouldn't have grass in some places if it wasn't for bermuda. Is it in my flower beds? All the dang time. But if I tried to water st augustine I'd constantly be replaceing well pumps.

It's a love/hate relationship for me.

Also, beautyberries. they also were everywhere and just really, not that pretty of a bush in a woodsy yard.

Dorothy

I would really like to see English Ivy be outlawed. My neighbor has a lovely bed of it that is contained. That's because it would rather move west through the hedge and into my azaleas and hydrangeas the out into the sun. Each year I cut it and pull it. I confess, It looks nice under the azaleas...it's the climbing over that gets to me.

She has a crew of yard guys com each week, I guess that's the only way to contain it. Now they've planted Asian jasmine!

Other than those, I like the invasive flowering things. I even like the vines. Make a flower and you're pretty much welcome here.

'Nuff said.

Carla in Rowlett

As for all the other weeds, like sand burrs and such, we got rid of a lot of them by treating our yard with zeolite, compost and cow manure. Enrich the soil with trace minerals, nitrogen, potassium and all the other good stuff it needs, and the really noxious weeds can't grow in it. We make our own compost, buy the zeolite, and bum the cow manure off our neighbors. Cow is better than horse only because of the extra stomachs and the weed seeds get broken down and digested by cows. Take a close look at the two and you can see whole seeds and whole weeds in horse manure. OK, or you can just take my word for it and you don't really have to look at them real close if you don't want to.

And after all that enrichment of our yard, and the sand burrs died out, it didn't do anything to erradicate BG and JG. I'm still fighting them.
Cheryl

2. Bamboo. Curses to the person who planted this behind our shed. Why???? There was no reason.

3. Bermuda grass, O most evil of weeds.

even in a protected place in the burbs of houston, mine have only "stayed green and upright" one winter out of six

when we bought the house,they were so thick and tall, they almost hid the pool from the house (less than 10 feet) and some were 6 ft tall
right now i have several taller than a 4 ft fence

under different growning conditions, they might grow in a pot (a big pot)

they love our sandy soil and don't need fertilizer and if you spread some seed now, they might come up next year, i know they reseed themselves every year

if you have a place you can keep them contained and don't mind pulling volunteers all over the place, you might try them!!

Ruellia, Bermuda Grass, Nut Grass

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

I cut the nandina flush with the ground and covered the whole area with clear plastic in a VERY hot/dry summer.
I kept it that way for a year(not very attractive but all I could think of organically) The following year I cut and smothered the shoots that come up with black plastic. I haven't seen any new shoots in the third year so far. PJ

To me, an agave is like a loud, ill-mannered, big-nosed & big-boned woman.--Ugly and obnoxious. Apparently, the word in Austin is, "If nothing else will grow, then plant an agave." So everyone has. They are everywhere. It's the invasion of the agave body snatchers! (All those agave pups are the souls of people who have fallen asleep and the agave got them.)

I heard a young man call into one of the Austin radio gardening shows recently to ask what the perfect Christmas gift would be for his mother-in-law who gardens in the hill country. The show's host recommended agaves. He said she'd love them. (((Shudder.)))

You would have to pay me to take one. Fortunately, there are Agave Snout-Nosed Beetles to help me out. (Smiling wickedly as I type this).

I plan to make big donations to the foundation for the pension and retirement plan of the Agave Snout-Nosed Beetle. They're so cute!

On that note, I'm not real fond of cactus around here either, especially prickly pear. Once again, in the desert, fine, but not here...

I give most Yuccas a free pass though. I don't feel they're quite as harsh looking and their flowers are pretty. Especially Red Yucca.

We planted two or maybe three Mexican petunias years ago at our old place. Within two years, it was everywhere, even in the lawn and in the cracks of the sidewalk and in the shade. If it could have come into the house, it would have. One of my neighbors down the street has it now, and it's everywhere in his yard. Plus, I had a boss years ago who said she had a black thumb and couldn't grow anything. I gave some to her and 13 years later ran into her in the grocery store. She still has it (everywhere) and she rolled her eyes--if that tells you anything--when I mentioned it. Our Mexican petunias would literally pop (no joke!) its seeds out like little missiles when we'd water it. It sounded almost like popcorn popping.

Glad I'm not the only one not overly fond of agaves. :-)