Plants you love (and those you hate!)

[Tracie]

What are your favourite plants? Conversely, which are you really not very keen on? What are your reasons for loving (or loathing ) a particular plant?

 

I love fuchsias, especially the ones with double blooms, simply because they look so delicate and beautiful. I'm also a big fan of buddlias - they look fantastic in the summer and are a sure fire way to attract butterflies to your garden. Finally, whilst I don't have any in my own garden (yet!) hydrangeas are lovely and always remind me of my (much adored) late grandmother, who also loved them and would often request cuttings from hydrangea plants that she spotted in other peoples gardens and liked the look of!

 

On the other hand, I'm really not keen on hostas, I think because I've never seen or owned one that didn't look like a slug ridden old dishcloth! (bitter, me? Never )

[Jabberwocky]

I love fucias but i simply cant get them to grow here! Its the same with Heather, I try to get some growing to remind me of the moors of home but it dies in no time.

Its the same with ferns, i try to get them to grow around my pond but no chance.

 

My all time favourite plants (for now anyway) are water lillies. Next year Im hoping to get some nice deep water barrels around the garden and fill them with lillies.

 

What do I hate?

 

Nothing really.., at least I cant think of anything that id refuse to have in my garden.

[stackmonkey]

I love Buddleias(sp?), Roses and Lavender.

 

not keen on conifers..

[Sultana]

I love things that smell nice, like lavender, sweet peas, freesias & yelloe roses. Buddlea (sp) also smells wonderfully spicy when the sun shines on it. I don't like plants that do not flower, I cant see the point of them.

[Debk]

I love growing vegetables. This year I have had a bumper crop of beans, peas, strawberries, tomatoes & potatoes, the pumpkin are looking good along with the leek (I think i will dig some up this week!) The chillies, salad crops, corn & peppers have also been good this year. I grew white cabbage for the first time this year and whilst they look a bit moth eaten (they are) once you have cut off the outer leaves the large heart is delicious -bug free and crisp.

 

Because of work commitments I will not be able to spend as much time in my garden next year so I planted raspberries and asparagus that will grow merrily year after year in the same spot without much attention. ..... can't wait for the asparagus to come through!!

[zweena]

Likewise, i love growing veg. Can't wait to enjoy our own peas next year! I'm not very clued up at all on other gardening, but do know I'm not a fan of roses, at all. Does anyone else not like them?

 

Sweet peas and peony, and hydrangea and lillies, they're all lovely! Personally, anything that is autumnal as well, like the gorgeous warm colours of acer. Oh, and having grown up in South Africa, I love bougainvillea and hibiscus, and especially love the heady scent of frangipani.

[parcher]

I collect hardy geraniums - I love the variety flowers, the shape of their leaves, everything about them (including the fact that the slugs don't eat them). I have 18 varieties at the moment, I did have more but lost several during that really cold snap in the winter.

 

I loathe and abominate those little begonias that turn up in park gardens;I don't quite know what annoys me about them, whether it is the stingy flowers or the fact that they always seem to turn up in neat rows, flanked with salvia and ageratum. Whatever it is, I won't give them houseroom!

[medusa]

I love irises- everything from the standard Dutch bulb varieties, to little Iris reticulata, gorgeous bearded Iris germanica, water flag irises and winter flowering Iris unguicularis. At the moment I've only got about 6 varieties (most aren't very water tolerant so this spring was deadly to most of my tubers), but they will be replaced.

 

I also love my japanese anemone (it has really big green dentate leaves and long stems with open flat pale pink flowers on) and the cheerful all year round flowers on my Kerria japonica, and I could tinker in a herb garden constantly.

 

When I was able to do it, I also found growing vegetables seriously therapeutic, and felt myself to be so grounded and connected with the soil and planet when it produced food for me to eat. I still enjoy being able to walk out to the garden to pick a fresh apple though.

 

On the down side, I've never really seen a point to those splotchy leaved laurels that always seem to be grown in municipal gardens near toilets, and I find most conifers (especially leylandii) rather boring and samey.

 

I also find the stickiness that seems to seep out of petunias really offputting, and finding my hand grasping the yukky texture of bindweed when I'm pottering about actully turns my stomach.

[pattricia]

I collect hardy geraniums - I love the variety flowers, the shape of their leaves, everything about them (including the fact that the slugs don't eat them). I have 18 varieties at the moment, I did have more but lost several during that really cold snap in the winter.

 

I loathe and abominate those little begonias that turn up in park gardens;I don't quite know what annoys me about them, whether it is the stingy flowers or the fact that they always seem to turn up in neat rows, flanked with salvia and ageratum. Whatever it is, I won't give them houseroom!

I too love hardy geraniums, or do I call them Perennial Geraniums.?I think they are worth every penny.Long flowering period,disease free, and good ground cover.

[Noodle]

Oh... got to hate Limnanthes 'Poached Egg Plant'. Looks great, pretty flowers... but oh my god do the bugs love it. Snail and slug heaven.