Red tip Photinia! They are or were the standard shrub planted by many developers around Austin. I don't think the landscape designers realized how tall and unruly they get when not cared for or planted in an appropriate location.

I like photinia in the right location, not a very common shrub here.

Love Taxus baccata and some of its cool cultivars. Euonymus very useful in the right application. Most ligustrum a bother.

Photinia is also a bother in areas where it contracts Entomosporium leaf spot, which is darn near everywhere the plant grows (except very dry climates). It is pretty much being phased out of the retail nursery industry here because of that problem.

Shrubs that I detest are: 1) Potentilla fruticosa (now Dasiphora fruticosa) - a collection of dead looking sticks for much of the year, late to leaf out and insipid blooms. Typically planted where no creativity is demonstrated by the gardener. 2) Sabin or "tam" junipers - monstrous, real estate-grabbing beasts that reek of cat pee in sun and are awful to to remove. 3) English holly, Ilex aquifolium - a borderline invasive in my area that pops up throughout native plantings, grows very rapidly with a deep root system and very sharp leaves that it sheds constantly.

I'm getting really tired of seeing crepe myrtles...everywhere. I understand why they are chosen, but I'm sick of them! Central Tx

There are some nice Photinia cultivars such as 'Cassini' which is sold as Pink Marble. I have one as a multi-trunked tree and the other as a shrub. 'Parbri' aka Fireball Red seems interesting but doesn't age well. I suspect that they are susceptible to the same ills as the dreaded species, though.

Anything with thorns.

The incredibly boring, previously overused Pittosporum tobira 'Wheeler's Dwarf', and any shrubs pruned with into individual squares or any shrubs pruned with into individual spheres--it does not matter the species.

>Typically planted where no creativity is demonstrated by the gardener<

Is the key statement here - many popular shrubs are tiresome to interested or informed observers merely because of how they have been used - including planting sites or regions where they develop health problems - rather than what they are like otherwise. Tamarix juniper for instance is wonderful cascading over and softening the corner of a terrace wall. Mass planted on the level, or anywhere it exceeds the space and has to be over-pruned or grubbed out, or where the site is too moist and it develops blight problems, not so much.

"many popular shrubs are tiresome to interested or informed observers
merely because of how they have been used - including planting sites or
regions where they develop health problems"

This is the issue, I think. A forsythia planted as a specimen, allowed to grow in all directions, and properly cared for is a lovely thing. A forsythia pruned into a globe, planted in the shade, or squished against a shed is an eyesore.

Privets are just a pain in the neck, wherever they are.

Photinia.

Nandina though some new cultivars are very attractive,

Indian Hawthorn b/c so darned disease prone in my area.

Like Fraser photinia much used heavenly bamboo has become disease susceptible in my area, often developing a foliage mildew. It can also freeze down in a hard winter, actually does best in warm, sheltered position.

But people plant it all over the place, including highway medians.

Note that in this case it's spelled hawthorn and not hawthorne. Hawthorn tree, Indian hawthorn, Nathanial Hawthorne.

I like nandina. I saw some purple ones (I forget the cultivar name) which would be great paired with nandina 'lemon lime'. The only way I grow forsythia is formally pruned because everyone doesn't have 1 acre for a single plant.

Hmmmmm........I've seen a lot of very mature forsythias in my day but never one that took up an acre of garden space. A 'slight' exaggeration going here :-))

My grandma had a forsythia that took up her whole front yard. One summer a few years ago, we decided that it had to go. We hired some of the chainsaw guys, they were already there taking out some dying tulip poplars and a hickory. They cut the forsythia to the ground, and it resprouted from the stump. Next spring, it pitifully tried to bloom. Now it is about 1/4 of it's former size and I keep it rounded. In fact, it is due for some trimming today.

I hate Dwarf Alberta Spruce..lumpy..thin..dead in the middle..look adorable when tiny in a pot at a garden center but I hate how they look eventually..my elderly neighbor had one near the property line that was hideous..she was out one day and we were chatting..I said "that needs to go"..she says "yes but I can't do it"..I said "I'll do it..let me grab a shovel"..made me happy...

floral you're so NICE!!..true that poor care makes for ugly plants but I do have favorites..and some that bug me..

The worst thing about those Alberta spruce is that every single one of them eventually reverts with abandon. Was just at Washington Park Arboretum where the docent was unaware of reversions and rattled on happily about how unusual the growths were coming out all over the plant...and it was a huge one.

I see this cultivar reverting now and then, not "every single one of them". (Unless your assertion is that they all do, even if it sometimes takes, say, 75-100 years to happen). And usually there is one reversion that pops out at some point on the specimen and goes on to form a normal Alberta spruce top, if not removed.

I found this thread by Google searching “i hate euonymus” to see if I was the only one, or if it is a common plant to loathe.. so I agree with your list! I think I dislike euonymus because after you attempt to shape it's awkward growth habit, it suckers like a mofo. Also the yellow just makes it look like a sick plant. I moved into my house, and immediately listed some of the most overgrown euonymus free to anyone who would rip them out. Replaced them with proper evergreens more size appropriate to the spaces. I still have about 8-10, but they're green, and that would be a ton ($$$) of foundation plants to replace! I'll keep them for now...

Unpopular opinion: I kinda hate nandina! I think the branch structure is lame, they're hard to keep full, and they're the most butchered in commercial parking lot berms... I would love to be wrong about this!