My dad just did the ultimate bonehead move. He went to spray his roses and other perennials with a pesticide to get rid of the Japanese beetles. He didn't have his reading glasses on, and after a few days everything went brown and died, he's sprayed them all with ROUNDUP!!! He has both of them in the same type spray bottle, but couldn't read the label without his glasses. He is heartbroken about losing some of his favorite roses that he has had for years.

Funny you should mention lobelia in this instance. I have some in my shade garden, and every, single year I have weeds that I hesitate to pull because they look just like the lobelia. So I let them go and then later find out that most of them are NOT lobelia! But I always wait, and then I always have these big weeds to have to clear out.

Good luck next season!
:)
Dee

All the people who read these things and smirk, thinking that THEY would never do anything that stupid, obviously haven't been gardening long enough.

Sue

vtandrea, I feel your pain! If the lobelia naturalized this year, it will do the same next year. Now you know!

I pulled out a whole patch of reseeded petunias this year...who knew that petunias self-sowed!! So don't feel so bad...you have plenty of company. LOL.

One time I pulled out my beautful Japanese painted fern thinking it was spiderwort, which I wanted to get rid of. But luckily, the fern shed spores which came back the next year. Now I have a huge patch of them!

Oh yeah, yanking the volunteer lobelia in spring -- I've caught myself, midway through that "bonehead move", several times.

Don't beat yourself up about it; stuff happens. And better luck next spring!

If there is a lesson I have learned once and then re-learned again and again it is to resist pulling "weeds". So many nice flowers resemble weeds early on. I always know AFTER I pull because as a rule I have found weeds pull easier than perennials. I have been known to find milk weed and other such things in my garden because better safe than sorry. Embarrassing every time, but such is life. One of my first years gardening I spent time pulling all these one leaf odd deals I was sure blew in, probably choke weed I thought. Turns out they were my tiger lilies that were seeding themselves. Now, if it is "new" to me I let it be and see what comes of it. So far I haven't been invaded by anything too nasty and hard to get rid of later vs. sooner.

Last year I planted an Endless Summer hydrangea that wasn't real happy until I moved it to a bed with much better soil. It grew well in the fall and overwintered well but I forgot I planted it over there. This spring when I was cleaning out the beds I thought it was one of the choke cherry volunteers from my neighbors trees and tried to pull it out. The roots were in there so good I just ended up stripping the foliage and fortunately it grew back. Note to self, tag end of the season transplants:)

Kate

Well, I'm relieved. I don't think I've pulled anything by accident, but I never remember where I moved plants from one year to the next, so who knows? I thought every other gardener knew exactly what they had, and where.

Usually I err on the side of leaving a weed that I should have pulled. :-(

This spring I forgot I had planted toad lilies and yanked a couple of them out.

LOL, scorpiohorizon. This spring I was weeding a bed with toad lilies, and after I had weeded about half of it, I was horrified when I realized I was pulling out some small ones. So I was much more careful from then on, and even dug some of them up to move them to better spots.

A few months later I realized I had moved weeds, lol.

I suppose I could use things like this as an excuse why my beds aren't weeded until August, lol.

:)
Dee

Thanks for all the comforting tales of similar boo boo's. I also have toad lilies in that bed and have a few that wandered out of their place, so I'm trying to be extra vigilant about not yanking them!

Andrea, if you'd like to feel even better about pulling up your volunteers, the original "stupidest gardening mistakes" thread is always good comfort.

Here is a link that might be useful: From 2002, but still excellent reading

You want to hear about a stupid bonehead move?

My first year as a homeowner was spent sitting back, waiting to see what would come up where. There was a nice stand of peonies, tons of narcissus, and a pretty, shiny, red vine. I dug some of the stuff up and replanted it in more visible spots. Little did I know that that thar' vine was actually POISON IVY.

Of course it takes a couple of days for the rash to emerge, so in the meantime I was unknowingly spreading the poison ivy oil all over my house and, subsequently, all over my arms, stomach, face, neck and legs. It was so bad that I developed a systemic reaction and started breaking out in a rash all over, even places that hadn't been exposed to the oil. I had to take prednisone to stop my skin from reacting. The scars took a year to go away.

Don't worry, we all do stupid stuff.

You can't consider yourself a gardener with any amount of experience under your belt until you've done a least a couple boneheaded things LOL!

Some of these stories are pretty funny! (I'm sure they weren't funny to you at the time, though....)

Last year this was darn weed that keep repopping up in the same spot. And yeap I kept pulling it only to remember that is where I had planted my balloon flowers. Well needless to say last years balloon flower display was pretty drap I guess you could say and not too stems. Well I started to do the same thing this year luckily just as I was about to yank up a stem I remembered wait that is the balloon flower. And I also almost cut back the hardy hibiscus I thoughtI lost last year.

mistakes happen the best of us.

Paula

Last spring I pulled up what I thought was a weed, then realised from the peat-based compost around the rootball that it was a perennial aster I had planted... So I replanted it, then made the same mistake all over again a week later!

Conversely, when my boyfriend and I were new to gardening we were delighted to find a clematis growing in our front garden. We nurtured it, gave it an obelisk to climb, waited in anticipation of beautiful, large flowers... and eventually realised that it was a self-seeded Old Man's Beard (Clematis vitalba).

katefisher, you mentioned choke cherry runners and I am wondering if you have a secret to removing the suckers. I have a huge choke cherry bush and it is running into my hazelnut bushes and my asparagus bed. It is impossible to pull the suckers. Do you cut the suckers off? I hate to get rid of the huge choke cherry, but am upset with sucker growth. I imagine round up on the suckers would affect the bush? Mary

Well, this is a story about a mistake not of "yanking out" but of "inserting in". My dear husband was planting peas and he sprinkled what he thought was soil inoculant for legumes. Unfortunately, this was not soil inoculant but poppy seeds. (They look a lot the same!) As the peas started to grow, so did a million poppy seedlings. We had to use a pair of fingernail scissors to trim out the poppies, so our peas would grow.

growlove, a landscaper friend of mine gave me a hint several years ago that is helpful. He said to use a sharp shooter to cut down through the sucker's roots all the way round it, and THEN hit it with round up. By severing the roots, you won't harm the mother plant. If round up doesn't work, you could try a stump and vine killer. Cut the roots, then cut down the plant and immediately "paint" the stump with the killer. (No drift with this.)

Growlove:

This year I did two things. I pulled them out religiously when they were young. That helped a lot as it left only a few of any size to set their amazing roots in my flower bed.

The other thing was to dig down several inches and cut the plant out from there. I don't use Round-Up or any chemical in my flower beds. I have cats who investigate all I do outside and frankly I just hate Round-Up, However I might try using vinegar selectively on some of the volunteers next year. I use a vinegar/salt/dish soap concoction in the driveway and gutter now and it really helps.

Kate

Kate....vinegar is more destructive to your soil than round up. RU degrades very quickly....vinegar acidifyes the soil for a very long time.
Just because you find something in your kitchen, doesn't mean it's without consequences in your soil. The ultimate in weed removal without soil consequences is a propane torch... but it doesn'[tw orik well around other plants!

You guys have me about terrified to ever weed again!

I sprayed Roundup on both poison ivy and wild blueberries. I used to make pies and jam with those berries. Sob!

I think my latest bonehead move was to plant every tomato plant I purchased (16 in all) along with all the other veggies in my new veggie garden. It's not nearly big enough to handle all this. It's become a battle of survival. Good Lord - I don't even want to think about the tomato harvest. I'll know better next year. We all learn from our mistakes. It's amazing what you forget in a season though. Plant markers are a great invention. I planted a bunch of new perennials last fall and if it weren't for those markers, I would have pulled them out thinking they were more volunteers. Ugh.

Nancy:

I have to laugh at all your tomato plants. Only because I did the same thing a few years ago. I bought either 15 or 20 plants I forget now.

My husband thought I was so nuts (of which I have to admit I did go a little crazy) he told everyone in town just about what I did. I swear that whole summer people were laughing behind my back about the crazy tomato lady! The neighbors however loved me and my endless bounty of fresh tomatoes I shared with them that year.

Kate

Thanks, Kate! I, too, am the subject of ridicule in my household. :o) It is quite funny, but I also plan to share my bounty. My husband (who is the cook) is frantically researching all recipes that include tomatoes! Watch out for us crazy tomato ladies.