For me this year, it's mainly a colour. There's a particular shade of pink I hate, and I have NO idea why I went out and bought 2 flats of petunias in this hated colour! I think at the time, I lost all perspective and in the nursery, all together, they looked nice. It's a strong bright pink that just looks... cheap and kind of gaudy, a;most like something plastic should be made of it instead. It has no leanings towards salmon or magenta, it's just so... PINK! I tried to explain it to my husband and he just gave me this incredibly blank look, LOL.

Annuals I won't bother with again:

Begonias -- they just don't do it for me.

Nicotiana -- as usual they look like a mess until a lot later in the summer. Maybe they don't like too much heat.

Snapdragons -- love them will all my heart but they don't do well in my yard, they flower late if ever at all, and never amount to very much.

I have never been terribly successful with Lobelia. I've always admired the cascades of blue and longed for it, but it always peters out and looks crappy within a month/two.

Those little tiny cascading Petunias ("Million Bells?). They sounded great in theory, but the reality was they lacked the size,vigor, grace, and frangrance of good ol' Cascade Petunias.

New Guinea Impatiens. I haven't every found the place they want to grow... but the other kind? can't beat 'em with a stick!

It's so much about the environment we have to offer. I can't miss with Begonias, but struggle terribly with those listed above... which I'm sure work beautifully for many of you!

Calendula...I wanted every type of calendula seed last year. I didn't get to try all of them yet, but the three I have, were a big disappointment. Unless I discover some totally awesome one in the seeds I still haven't tried, I think these are completely off my list. I am disliking the foliage a lot and the habit of growth and I am tired of the yellow/orange.

:-)

Just goes to show one persons treasure is another persons dis-pleasure. Seems what I have in these two containers is much of what is on the not next year list.
Annuals
Pink
Bergonia
New Guinea Impatiens
And there are snapdragons behind the NGI's, (too small to be seen)but as Pam mentioned they are not doing well for me either.
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Cosmos, of all things, did badly for me last year. Grew to be about 6' tall, with stems as thick as my thumb, and NO flowers. They finally fell over under their own weight (growing close to a wall) and I gave up. I'm afraid to try again, at least in that place. And I don't have many places...

Janet's Garden

FUCHIA!!!!!
Way too tempermental and disappointing for me and expensive to boot. Never again!!!

Fuchsias are great along the coast of Northern California, Oregon and Washington State.

OHHH yes! Fuchsia for me too -- they do GREAT for my mum but last year mine for the third year in a row were small, insignificant, very shabby looking indeed, and had hardly any flowers.

Rich, your pics are lovely! Even the begonias :))

Janet, thats such a puzzle with the cosmos. Its the one thing in my garden that goes crazy with flowers. Even when one got severely damaged by a storm last year, it kept flowering horizontally even though the stem was 90% snapped off! I'm very happy with them this year although I never know exactly what i'm going to get. The labels always just say "Cosmos" but there seem to be two types they sell around here - a compact one about 30 inches high with dark bright magenta blooms, and a much taller one with pink or white flowers.

I will not buy lobelia again. I agree, the pretty blooms are so alluring in the spring, but they do not hold out for me. If you feed your cosmos or they are to "rich" soil you will get all plant with few to no blooms. I have a row in my cutting garden that I feed. I use the foliage as a filler in arrangments. Then I have another row that I just let grow as they will with little to no care and these produce my flowers.

So, what's the "trick" to Fuschias?!

the trick to fuchsias is to live in a place with a cool, damp climate.

Well, I've got that here on the coast of Maine! but I struggle with Fuschia and many greenhouses here don't bother with them, at all.

Could you please be more specific with your culture of these plants... I love them and want to learn how to "massage" the requirements to be successful with them.

This URL is from Great Britain, but the advice would apply to Maine or anywhere else for anyone wanting detailed info. on fuchsia culture.
Good luck to you.

http://gardenaction.co.uk/garden_diary/garden_mini_project_march_fuchsia1.asp

I have to say, I am surprised that some people are having trouble with nicotiana and snapdragons. Mine are always beautiful, and I don't fuss over them at all. I do make sure to dead head the snaps regularly. This is my first year with calendula, and I like it. I have pacific apricot, which is a really pretty pale yellow with apricot-peachy flush. I will agree about the fuschia and cosmos though. I can never get fuschia to grow well for me. And, although in the past I've grown nice cosmos, this year, like last year, the sonatas just aren't doing anything. They're small and puny, not growing or flowering much. Yet I put some in my mothers garden, and they look great. As for lobelia, my baby blue cascades look really great, but the regular bedding types are not thriving either. Some years they do well for me, others not.

Pam, I've grown them before in much richer soil with no trouble. Anyhow, if rich soil is the problem, I'm better off not trying them again. But in my mind I am building a bed of plants that like it lean and dry, full of naturalized tulips and foxtail lilies and portulacas and California poppies and salvia and... well you get the idea. For a future home, because I can't do it here.

Janet's Garden

I have always read to not fertilize cosmos, too much nitrogen and you get all foliage and no blooms. So, I havent fertilized mine in the past couple of years (except at seedling and grow on stage--once in the ground I dont fertilize them) and they bloom like crazy. I have Sonatas, Sensations, Picotees, Daydream, Bright Lights and Cosmics. I also recommend pinching your plants when very young, so you have a bush of a plant rather than a straggly tall almost single stemmed one. It will keep your plants more dwarf and you will have tons of blooms on them. Now, if I can just keep the Japanese beetles off of mine, I'd have no complaints!

I think if I have to scrap one particular plant, it would have to be the 'Toto' Rudbeckias and other dwarf ones such as 'Sonata'. They look okay for a while, but then peter out mid season, plant and all, and you are left with a hole in your bed where the plants were.

I am about to give up on Amaranthus also, which grows very well for me, but it is impossible to keep the beetles off of them. They look like colored swiss cheese plants!

I have success with fuschias when I would spray my roses for blackspot/mildew, I also gave a very light spray over my fushia basket. That seemed to do the trick - I always lost them before when they would look wilted (even though watered), then start to turn black and then they just died. Started spraying once a week, and they thrived! I also kept them where they just got a few hours morning sun under the eve of the house. The only reason I don't have them this year, is that they already looked bad (wilty and starting to turn black) at the nursery. Did not want to bring that home to my other babies :~) Hope this helps! -Dianne

Salvia splendens: really beautiful BUT impossible to grow in my garden, there's nothing to do: slugs eat all their leaves and it becomes so horrible to see..

Surfinia: I like it in other's people's gardens but in mine always looks too bold.

Impatiens: for the same reason, they were very useful to fill a shadow corner (my garden is still mostly under construction) but how to say? their red is too red for me and the same for their white too.. I think that in Fall I'll put some hostas in their place.

At the top of my never-again annual list are vincas. I officially give up; they will never grow for me.

At the top of my never-again color list is the hideous magenta of some impatiens that suckered me in at the nursery. They looked so cheerful and pretty in amongst the other annuals, but they're just garish in my yard. They're growing wonderfully, so I couldn't bring myself to pull them, but I wince a little every time I look at them.

Nicotiana Tinkerbell - the entire plant is so sticky, and it just got tall and lanky and the flowers were so tiny for the overall size of the plant.
Pretty blah, imo.

Double petunia, Purple Pirouette...I tried Purple Pirouette this year, my first ever double petunia. They grew from seed really well, very vigorous. I guess I just like the single form of the petunia better. The blooms are not perfect. They are also inconsistent, all looking a little raggedy. They are supposed to have a white edge and some do and some have part of one. Plus the Purple Pirouette for me was an awful purple. I grow a lot of purple plants and this is the first one I disliked so much I wanted to pull it out. lol But they are growing so well, for now they have a reprieve. I would hate to pull all my containers apart..

I have seen them together in a pot with the singles and I like those better. A lot of singles with a little double is nice. I have seed for the red pirouette too and might try those next year.

For me, Scaevoa aemula (Fan Flower) has been a disappointment. Nice flower, ugly plant. Torenia has also been a bust, and the jury is still out on my Angelonias.

Some people around here do manage to keep their fuschias looking nice, but I don't know how on earth they do it! I've tried more than once, and as soon as the original blooms wear off (the ones that were already on when I brought them home from the nursery), that's pretty much "it" for the rest of the summer! I tried a cuphea once, and it was the same way.

This summer I really goofed up with 'Toto.' My daughter's Girl Scout troop was putting in a school planting, and I wanted to include some rudbeckias. Like an idiot, I didn't pay careful enough attention to the variety. I had no idea that 'Toto' was dwarf, or even that it is usually an annual . . . the garden center was selling it in the perennials area, and I just glanced at the photo on the label and assumed it was a regular rudbeckia. Now the school planting has all of these cute little flowering cushions of rudbeckia where the design needed some tall plants and a lot of color . . . bummer!

By the way, a couple of years ago, I ran across a book that explained that there is a very huge difference in snapdragons depending on which type you purchase. Some (like the Liberty series) are bred specifically for early spring bloom (blooming right in the containers when people go down to scope out the gardening centers early in the year), but the bloom period is short. Other varieties (such as the Rocket series) start blooming later, but have a much longer bloom period. If you love snapdragons, but haven't had much luck with them, you might do a bit more research (or trial and error!) to see whether a different type would do better in your area.

My favorite is "Black Prince," which in my garden often survives for two or three years and continues to bloom off and on throughout the summer, if regularly deadheaded. I like the dark foliage even when it's out of bloom.

I second the Begonias. I must live in a 'questionable' zone for these, as they took FOREVER to even think about popping out of the soil (nearly 8 weeks), and they still remain only about 4" tall at best. This would be the pendulous type, and I'm very disappointed.

Will try something different next year.

I live in a very hot climate, and have winter frosts. My never again choices tend to be things that really need a cooler summer to thrive, but can't tolerate freezing, like:

cleome
torenia
nemesia
Schizanthus
nasturtiums

I also can't grow a happy New Guinea Impatiens, but I think that it doesn't like the low humidity where I live. So, all you back-east gardeners, California is not paradise either!

Fuschias like lots of shade, and lots of water. Don't give them fertilizer with a high nutrient charge. Same goes for lobelia, if you live in a hot climate, they need afternoon shade. The PNW doesn't have heat they way we do in the Midwest. Our average summer highs are in the 90's, so plants behave much differently here than they do there.

I love snapdragons, and this year I tried some that have actually been blooming in this dreadful heat (100), which is usually not the case for snapdragons. They are the Rockets. Last year my snapdragons (not Rockets) bloomed fairly well throughout the summer, and I attribute that to the fact they got 4 1/2 hours AM sun and no afternoon sun. They even bloomed through several frosts, up until we had a hard freeze. It was amazing - they were the only thing alive in my yard at that point. But this year I have these Rockets in full day sun, and they're still blooming. It'll be interesting to see if they're as cold hardy as the others were.

Something I refuse to have next year - petunias. I love petunias, but for the last 3 years, they've been a huge disappointment. The reason? Budworms!! I'm so sick of budworms eating every last bloom on my wave petunias, I could scream. Next year, I just won't have them because it's too frustrating. For lots of color, I'll just stick with vinca. The budworms don't seem to enjoy vinca the way they do petunias.

On the upside, I've been really happy with my pots of impatiens, caladium, and torenia that I have in my shady area (2 1/2 hours sun). The torenia was something new I tried, and they've bloomed fantastically for not getting much sun. They're definitely keepers to do again next year. I hadn't combined caladium with impatiens in pots before, and I've enjoyed that effect, so I'll try some new combos with those again next year. The trailing plants I put in those pots were wojo's gem vinca, and silver dichondra, which looked really nice too. And another keeper for next year was a sun-lover - diamond frost euphorbia. Dainty little white flowers and thrives in the heat and drought! Love those - they're wonderful accents in the pots with the more colorful flowers!

Deanna

PETUNIAS!!!!!!!
Tried them again this year.......BIG MISTAKE!

I find that fuschias seem to want to take the summer off. great in the spring for that first flush. I cut them back a bit and feed a lot. By the time its August, they are doing well again. This year I tried a different variety that has very small dainty flowers. Its done better than others through that middle-season down time. Although the overall look is more subtle with the small flowers.

Torenia is off my list.

I wish I really had such a list because every year I wonder what did well or poor the previous year. I tend to make the same mistakes over again.

Sweet potato vine is really overpowering some of my containers. I can't say its on my never-again list, but I do have to find some tougher companions for it.

Petunias from seed- waste of time...they are still barely an inch tall (?!)
Fuscia
Glads- I love them, but really can't find a good place for them to look.
Bulb lilies- the few I have will be going this year
Pinwheel & Profusion Zinnia- just didn't work at all.
The bi-colored snapdragons. I like the single-colors- the Tall Tetras seemed to do well this time
Lemon-something marigolds. Not gem...they were smallish-bloom, and sorta 'feathery.' They didn't perform as well as the other kinds.
Celosia. Must keep telling myself that they really have no place in my yard. They're so pretty...but they really look ridiculous among my other things.
Persian Shield- too 'formal' looking for me.
African Daisy- pretty, but the blooms aren't big enough for my taste
Nemophilia- same as A. Daisy.
Ageratum- just don't like it.
I'm sure there's others...I've tried a LOT over the past couple years...

Lobelia: the darkest blue cascading type. When heat hit mid summer, it petered out, BUT the light blue that I had in 06 which performed extremely well (so I bought double the amount this year!) reseeded itself so I have a few misplaced light blue ones.
torenia and bacopa also do not survive summer heat.
Angeloma in my garden last year performed extremely well. NEVER stopped blooming, even thru the heat. This year I have 2 and they also are doing great even with the late June and all of July drought. Boy,don't we all get sucked in shopping in the spring!!! Faye in MD

Nasturtiums. I have tried every year for at least 20 years and no matter what advice I follow to make them happy, they never do well for me. I always say I am not going to waste time and space. 2008 is the year I say no to Nasty Nasturtiums.

I'm tired of buying petunias and then they get all lanky after a month. I'm tired of being a sucker and buying them. They stink!!

Bacopa: when the heat hit blooming stopped, although how gorgeous it looked when the cooler weather arrived - for about 2 weeks until frost hit.

DragonWing Begonia: I received a cutting from a friend that branched out beautifully, but it gets HUGE, with large leaves and an overall coarse look to it. By comparison, my BabyWing Pink begonia is smaller in leaf and plant size, and looks so cute that it made the larger DragonWing variety look worse.

Angelonia: I must have done something wrong, this one got yanked end of July.

Allyssum: What is that tiny black hopping beetle that devours my beautiful mounds of blooms in mid July, and leaves a dried out non blooming plant in my containers?

Calibrachoa: Thousands of aphids. Every summer. Doesn't bother the other plants in the same container, just sucks the life out of the million bells.

Salvia: Good bloomer in my containers, got wilty in the afternoon sun but recovered well each night, but the flowers....looked vulgar to me.

~k~

Alyssum: What is that tiny black hopping beetle that devours my beautiful mounds of blooms in mid July, and leaves a dried out non blooming plant in my containers?

Fea Beetles

Gerber daisies. I love them, but the squirrels love them more :(

There aren't many annuals that I've grown that I wouldn't grow again. I love my nicotiana's that have been reseeding for years. The bulbous fuschia's are probably the never agains. The squirrels loved them too and destroyed 2 beautiful hanging baskets. I moved them, but they never rebounded. Now, the tubular Gartenmeister fuschias are spectacular and the squirrels don't bother them at all. They definitely need shade and do great hanging underneath & inside my forsynthia. This was also my first year with snapdragons; as long as they're deadheaded, they do great.
I'm also sick and tired of trying cosmos; I love them, and am jealous of everyones tall gorgeous plants, but mine normally remain under 2' and don't bloom well at all. Maybe I'll try one more time, giving them some "steroids" early on, just to see if they'll amount to anything...

Nasturtiums! I love them, but this year I got masses and masses of beautiful leaves but very very few flowers! I planted them hoping for the flowers. The foliage did make a nice filler because I transplanted them out (started them all from seed) into areas that were rather bare, but -- where are the flowers?

I've never had luck growing nasturtiums either. No blooms are due to too much fertilizer. I had the largest leaves this year I've ever seen on one. Everyone was awestruck. Not a single bloom. I had amended the bed with compost. Usually they yellow and die for me and don't bloom then either.

Wave petunias-get too leggy and sprawling in the heat-have tried them three years in three different areas

New Guinea Impatiens-need way too much watering to survive