The ornamental grass I bought to give me some height and winter interest. The problem is, it's now twice as wide as it was last year and is crowding out all the other plants near it. The only thing I hate more than that grass is the thought of trying to dig it up and more it to a better location next spring.

Totally Confused

Tom,

Yes, daisies flop, they fall over and they sprawl when they get too much moisture, but I could never hate them. They are so cheerful.

They like to grow where it is drier. Don't water them. It's not their fault that we grow them where they get more moisture than they need. For shame!
:)

Sent you an email about the Coreopsis.

~Annie

I have several Becki's which do not flop for me, they grow in amazingly well amended but very lean soil with loads of competition. Straight as arrows.

I have a dwarf shasta. I don't know it's name, it very well could be broadway lights. I love it.

Is it fair to hate japanese beetles? It wasn't hard to learn to hate them...Sigh, I thought I was doing ok and then tonight found them absolutely demolishing the buds on two (formerly) gorgeous roses.

I used to like plumbago - it is such a hardy groundcover with the lovliest bright blue flowers in July, but it is impossible to contain and it emerges so late in the spring that it is hard to kill off - everything else is up first and by the time it comes up it is winding around everything else. I will have to redig that entire bed and do better. Someday...

And the trandescantia, spiderwort that I planted so happily years ago is just soooo hard to get rid of! This is a low growing magenta pink one, lovely in bloom but I wish I had never planted it.

I used to have zillions of shasta daisies and cut way back on them - I am going to add back Becky which I've heard great things about or this other one you are mentioning Broadway Lights sounds promising...

Oh, it's not too much moisture causing them to flop. That can't be the case this year. We're finally getting some rain today after another week of 95 degrees temps and no rain. We've had less than 1" in the past month. And I've not watered at all.

My orange Cosmos. But it's my fault because the plants weren't labeled, it just said "Cosmos."

I loathe orange plants and my garden is full of them! lol

I've already ordered my Cosmos seeds for next year, in every color BUT orange and yellow. :)

token, I had those shasta daisies but last year I removed them because they seemed susceptible to sudden wilt problems (only recently, I discovered the culprit -- a walnut or maybe a butternut seedling growing nearby). Anyway, what I'd like to say to address that flopping situation is to use a peony ring if you can or to plant other equally tall plants close around it. My daisy didn't flop as a result. The plants I had beside it are butterfly bush, russian sage and a hedge, yew..

Token - I ordered Snow Lady seeds from Parks Seed Company a couple years ago - I absolutely love the growth habit of this Shasta Daisy - 12-15" in my garden. It is very similar to Broadway Lights which I also have - is very neat and tidy and will bloom and bloom if kept deadheaded - the taller ones Becky I keep caged and they perform very well in my Johnston County NC garden.

We managed to squeeze about 1/2" from some rain today - first significant rain in close to a month .....

Lynne

token, I had the same problem with the first shastas I planted. After several years of their flopping about, I tried one pot of shasta 'Becky' which I highly recommend.

I took note of how well it stood up to heavy downpours, how heavily it flowered, and did it provide a steady flush of new flowers after deadheading.

Becky was great in all of the above specified areas and I promptly ripped out all of the others.

Becky also is a prolific spreader and must be divided every 2 years so as not to crowd her neighbors too much. I usually do this in the early fall (though some suggest doing this in the spring). I now have them everywhere.

Liz

Spiderwort grows wild here, so I grow mine in the garden in a large pot. The pot sits out year round in the same place. I add some compost every year.

I live in a warmer zone than you do Cindy and your Plumbago comes back??? Mine doesn't. I have to buy new plants every spring, darn it!

Yes, it is probably okay to hate Japanese Beetles. They have their place in this world, I am sure, but not in the New World.

I have several varieties of daisies. Love them all, floppy or not. My Peonies flop, but I wouldn't think of getting rid of them, let alone hate them. I have phlox that flop and roses...
Sometimes my Coneflowers flop. And Black-eyed Susans always flop when they get heavy with flowers, but neither do in the wild.

Shasta Daisies don't flop on Mt. Shasta. Maybe it's all that gravelly granite soil they grow in that keeps them upright. There is more rock than soil there. I know they don't get nearly as tall either.

I guess I need to start a Shasta Daisie Rescue farm, for all the Shasta Daisies in N. America that are not wanted anymore. Poor things.

I wonder if I can get donations to help me defer the cost of caring for them and for going all over the Country to pick them up and all.
Maybe I should start a new movement. I could call it:

Save the Shasta Daisies from Flopping and Dying!

~Annie
Flower Rights Activists of America
(JK)

I was just kidding (JK) and teasing you Tom. I hope this doesn't poop out your topic.

What I have learned to hate:

I have lots of things I have learned to hate in my garden. Not flowers, but other things.

Besides grasshoppers eating everything in sight, and Japanese Beetles, too, I hate Bermuda grass. It is sneaky and invasive. The roots go down more than two feet into the ground and can come up on the other side of barriers or even sidewalks. It will grow right up against plants so that I have to dig the plant out to get all of the Bermuda Grass out. If one tiny root piece is left in the ground it regrows a whole new grass clump. I cannot keep it out of my flowerbeds or the veggie and herb gardens.
Even comes up in pots.
I laid down a big piece or indoor-outdoor carpet in an area in an effort to smother out the Bermuda grass. I even sprayed with Round-Up first. It laid there for two years. When I removed the carpet, it appeared to be devoid of Bermuda, so I double dug the area, found not roots. Great! I covered it with wheat straw mulch and let it lay over the winter. Next spring, I planted tomatoes and broccoli and beans in there. Within a few weeks, Bermuda came up. Aaah! Now I have daylilies and roses, etc in that bed and I am still weeding out Bermuda in that bed.
I HATE Bermuda Grass (aka DEVIL GRASS for good reason).

I also HATE Johnson Grass. It is like Bermuda, only the rhizome roots can go down 4-8 feet deep and can get 3-4 inches in diameter and grow many feet long, branching in many directions. The corn like leaves grow up to 10 ft tall. It blooms and goes to seed and spreads through rhizome roots too. The roots break off extremely easily when try to dig them or you pull on the grassy tops and like Bermuda, one tiny piece can regrow a whole new plant. You need a Backhoe to dig it all out and there will still be small pieces you missed that will regrow. The grass can cut your hands and fingers like paper cuts. It is a very bad grass to come up in gardens. It is very invasive. It is not native but was introduced from India (I think) to help ranchers feed livestock and end the Dust Bowl years. Both grasses. It worked. The leaves are a very nutritious grass. Even my chickens love the leaves. It grows everywhere in Oklahoma, but now is a plague for homeowners and gardeners like me, and perhaps some farmers who are growing grain crops.
I just hate it!

~Annie

Amen Annie!!!Now you have found some things I hate! Grasshoppers. Stomp them. Japanese Beetles, Drown them. Bemuda grass...arrrggh! pull it as you may, it always comes back...and brings friends. Johnson grass. Yes.hate it. Thjere is another grass too. Nutgrass. Very hard to pull up. I hate it.

I, on the other hand, too love shasta daisys. Mine don't flop, maybe because they need dividing very badly, but I love the cheerful bloom.
kay

I hate whatever bug eats round holes in all my perennials. I hate to spray because of the butterflies, but almost everything has holes in the leaves. YUK!

Re: Shastas...ever stuck your nose in a bloom? Pheew! Takes me right back to the smell of the boy's gym, or my hubby's hockey bag. Yuck! I can't imagine picking them and bringing them into the house!
Mine are also almost 6' high this year, and flopping. Think I'll be looking for a dwarf replacement as well.

Annie we have both bermuda (whole yard) and Johnson grass and I learned that for Bermuda in the garden you have to stay on top of it with RoundUp and Mulch. I go outside and spray every few weeks and use a large piece of cardboard to keep the spray from touching plants. It used to be a PITA for me but now I have it under control with constant spraying.

Johnson grass comes up easy too, especially if the ground is wet. Unfortunately we have it in our wildflower garden, right in the middle so we can't get to it. But next year we're going to make paths so we can easily pull it.

GOUTWEED!

Goldenrod. I just hate it. I know there are cultivars that people love, and actually spend money on, but whenever i see it snaking its way up into my beds, I yank it -- and try to get to the blasted runners underneath. I hate what it looks like when the ugly thuggish flowers bloom too. And I'm not big on orange flowers either. I hated that thre were deep yellow cosmos seeds in my cosmos seed last year when I wnated light and dark pink.

Annie, you are so funny. How do you come up with some of the things you say? I love to read your messages. Tom, the shasta daisies I have do not flop and they only get about 18 inches tall. Maybe mine are the Alaska variety. Somewhere around here hidden among paper clutter is the plant tag that came with them. Will try to locate it, as I save them all. I know exactly what you mean about the flopping daisies, I had that variety at my previous home and one Spring I dug most of them up because hubby threaten to kill them with roundup because they did exactly as you described. I dug up about 5 bags of them and called people that I thought might want them and only one person showed up and she took 3 bags off my hands. I had forgot all about that until you posted your gripe.

I have 'Broadway Lights' that I moved from a site that they hated, so I hated them, but they didn't flop. They just looked awful! Last fall, I divided and tucked them into every open space along my outer garden path. This year, they've quickly become a favorite!

Another shasta that I have it 'Paladin' from Terra Nova. They sent four tiny plugs to me last September to trial in my zone. These also have a sturdy structure, standing upright. The snow white petals are ruffled in a double row. Love them! The centers are a pretty yellow, so this fall I will move a yellow flower, maybe coreopsis or gaillardia, closer to the plants. These are in one of the hottest spots in my garden and have been totally unfazed by the 21 dates of 90-105 degree weather.

I sowed 'Alaska' seeds last fall and have lots of seedlings, but not large enough to bloom. Can't judge these yet.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: dotted with daisies

Annie - here is the plant I have that I call Plumbago - it is a perennial version also called Leadwort. It really looks exactly like it does in the picture below and it does look great with rudbeckea or the tall garden phlox - they all bloom in July here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hardy Plumbago

I HATE MOSQUITOES!!!! I really like to work in the flower beds and vegetable garden early in the day and early in the evening. I am covered with bites and am itching like crazy. I really can't spray myself with a repellent because I have asthma, and its been to darned hot to wear long sleeves and long pants. I guess I'll just have to get used to polka dots.

Carol

Bindweed.... 4 lined plant bug (eats my lavender).

Polka dot Carol,

Oh my yes! The mosquitoes are so bad this year with all the rain and high temps, aren't they! I am very allergic to their bites. I swell up so bad that it cuts my circulation off. And we have those new ones here now that moved up from the Gulf region. Little black and white ones that look for all the world like spiders. They are voracious. Much worse than the others ever thought of being. I have to take Benadryl to ease the itching and swelling of mosquito bites.

We have Buffalo Gnats here, as well. They are huge gnats that go for your eyes. My eye lids swell closed and it is very painful. It also cuts off my circulation. Their bites cause pain and swelling on just about everybody, not just me.

Vanilla extract helps keep both of those away from me. Doesn't last too long, but better than having itchy polka dots. You might try it.

You can put those on my hate list too, along with ticks, fleas and chiggers.

kay,
We also have that awful Nutgrass and other weed grasses. They are worst in my paths and at the edges of the lawn.
They thrive in hard, compacted soil. Shepherd's Purse is also an awful weed. I hate Chickweed too. It is a juicy mess to mow or cut with a Weedeater. (my chickens love it, so I feed them all they want every spring. It tastes like lettuce.)

wendy,
you may think I am daft, but I actually like the way daisies smell. Reminds me of the way little boys and puppies smell, and I like little boys and puppies!

Cindy,
Thanks for the link to the Hardy Plumbago. That is different from the Plumbago they sell here. That looks like it would be very invasive. Eee gads!

squirejohn,
Goutweed???? That sounds painful!
I wouldn't want any of that growing in my yard either! (JK)

Kidding aside, what is Goutweed?
OK - I just looked it up on the web. I've never seen that here to my knowledge. Is it something folks used to give to people to cure the Gout? It looks like it would be very invasive. Zooks!

~Annie

Right now I hate green bushes. Just decided to rip out our holly, a lone ranger which means we never got berries, and some other totally boring unnamed green shrub. Can't stand them. Last year I bought a Little Princess Spriea. All I was doing in my garden was preparing beds and I just had to buy something to work out the "itch." Little Princess was on sale, so I bought it...for $21. It just bloomed, little blush blossoms all over. So totally boring. It could rebloom but for the rest of the year it's a green shrub. So, I paid way too much money for a green shrub with boring blossoms.

squirejohn, I am with you on the goutweed/bishops weed. It initially covered most of the garden areas when we got here, and is the bane of my gardening existance. Trying to remove it is one of the most frustrating experiences of my life :) And it laughs at RoundUp and keeps going.

I'm getting close to eliminating it completely.
And I see it grown and sold in nurseries for $10/pot and the label says "spreads slowly". HA. Yeah right. Very misleading.