What plants, weeds and/or trees do you hate and why?

Mossback · Nov 16, 2022

Lawn...
Hate it.
Good for nothing but work.

I have an extensive list of plants I dislike, after 40 some years in the hort industry.

Lychnis coronaria (Rose campion) is close to the top of the list though. Vinca minor is another, along with English Ivy...most of the Laurels too.

Wanative · Nov 16, 2022

Canary grass and buttercups

Brian in OR. · Nov 16, 2022

Puncture vine, yellow star-thistle and russian olive

Ernie · Nov 16, 2022

Buzzy said:
Here in the Columbia Basin phragmites come to mind. Anyone besides me who used enjoy walking into Nunnally and wading the SW shoreline? Phramites. Beda Lake? Phragmites. Ancient Cataract Lake? Phragmites. Phragmites suck.

At home, the lovely and beautiful Wisteria whose roots travel yards to seek out your 1951 concrete sewer drain. Impossible to kill the traveling roots.

Phramites along the shoreline for sure!

Ernie · Nov 16, 2022

English ivy, left unbridkes it spreads everywhere

albula · Nov 16, 2022

When all the rest of the world is dead there will still be horsetails. The world and my yards most stubborn resident. Nothing kills them.

BriGuy · Nov 17, 2022

Mossback said:
Lawn...
Hate it.
Good for nothing but work.

I have an extensive list of plants I dislike, after 40 some years in the hort industry.

Lychnis coronaria (Rose campion) is close to the top of the list though. Vinca minor is another, along with English Ivy...most of the Laurels too.

Wait a minute. Lawn is good for collecting and displaying dog poop.

RCF · Nov 17, 2022

Mossback said:
Lawn...
Hate it.
Good for nothing but work.

I have an extensive list of plants I dislike, after 40 some years in the hort industry.

Lychnis coronaria (Rose campion) is close to the top of the list though. Vinca minor is another, along with English Ivy...most of the Laurels too.

IMHO - Actually maintaining a lawn is a lot less work than maintaining gardens e.g. weeding, mulching, fertilizing, transplanting, pruning, watering, etc. Do it again next week/month...

Wadin' Boot · Nov 17, 2022

Barberry red, Barberry yellow, lawn, english ivy, laurel, holly, crocosmia, vinca, leyland cypress, magnolias, Pampas grass, blackberry, Chinese hawthorn

and this guy, thuja arborvitae, the dullest of landscaping:

PhilR · Nov 17, 2022

mark wlker said:
Arizona ...Goat heads!

Was wondering if they'd appear on this list. While poison ivy may support the prednisone cartel, goat heads support the mountain bike inner tube cartel.

I also have hate in my heart for the alders along the Deschutes. Line-grabby bastards.

Ernie · Nov 17, 2022

PhilR said:
Was wondering if they'd appear on this list. While poison ivy may support the prednisone cartel, goat heads support the mountain bike inner tube cartel.

I also have hate in my heart for the alders along the Deschutes. Line-grabby bastards.

I looked up the goat head plant and I believe this is the exact plant that poked a bunch of super tiny holes in my float tube about 40 years ago in the Lake Lenice parking lot. I could never figure out why my float tube had a tiny leak until I returned to my car and looked where I flopped my float tube down. I just happen to back up in the exact area this weed was growing. These weeds do grow in Central and Eastern Washington.

jaredoconnor · Nov 17, 2022

Ernie said:
I looked up the goat head plant and I believe this is the exact plant that poked a bunch of super tiny holes in my float tube about 40 years ago in the Lake Lenice parking lot. I could never figure out why my float tube had a tiny leak until I returned to my car and looked where I flopped my float tube down. I just happen to back up in the exact area this weed was growing. These weeds do grow in Central and Eastern Washington.

In Australia, we call these "three corner jacks". We all wear flip flops, all day, every day, so they are an absolute nightmare. If you haven't stepped on at least a hundred of them, you're not really Australian.

klq@stl · Nov 18, 2022

Cheat Grass. Back in the day was riding a kawasaki 650 from Reno to Grandview, Wa in one day. After 500 miles around 3am was cold, tired, and done. Just above Biggs Junction I pulled the bike behind three grain silos, unrolled my sleeping bag on some "soft" yellow grass behind the silos and crashed. About sunrise began feeling the bite. Had to throw the sleeping bag away. I hate Cheat Grass.
(also expensive for vet bills, Springer Spaniel ears, and feet)

Long_Rod_Silvers · Nov 18, 2022

Wadin' Boot said:
Barberry red, Barberry yellow, lawn, english ivy, laurel, holly, crocosmia, vinca, leyland cypress, magnolias, Pampas grass, blackberry, Chinese hawthorn

and this guy, thuja arborvitae, the dullest of landscaping:
View attachment 41562

I'm with ya except for crocosmia. Love the ensuing hummingbird activity that occurs every year when crocosmia blooms.

CRO · Nov 18, 2022

Bamboo. Two of my neighbors have it. The plant sends out roots that can travel for yards.

Matt B · Nov 18, 2022

klq@stl said:
Cheat Grass. Back in the day was riding a kawasaki 650 from Reno to Grandview, Wa in one day. After 500 miles around 3am was cold, tired, and done. Just above Biggs Junction I pulled the bike behind three grain silos, unrolled my sleeping bag on some "soft" yellow grass behind the silos and crashed. About sunrise began feeling the bite. Had to throw the sleeping bag away. I hate Cheat Grass.
(also expensive for vet bills, Springer Spaniel ears, and feet)

From the little seeds? That never occurred to me, dang! And I thought it was mostly annoying for a whole bunch of other ecological reasons.

albula said:
When all the rest of the world is dead there will still be horsetails. The world and my yards most stubborn resident. Nothing kills them.

I had a job long ago where my boss had me spray a field-horsetail-infested rockery with some pretty nasty herbicide (edit: Finale) for a client. It knocked it WAAAY back and another application or two would probably have wiped it out but I wasn't responsible for follow up.

A couple trees I could do without are river birch (so messy, all year long) and Lombardy poplar (overly ubiquitous with no bird-friendly perches).

Dr. Magill · Nov 18, 2022

Purslane

DimeBrite · Nov 18, 2022

Cherry laurel, holly, English ivy, Himalayan blackberry.

RCF · Nov 18, 2022

St. John's-wort - too invasive and incontrollable. It is great for soil retention on slopes --> just wished it stayed there...

I like vinca minor. Great ground cover, slower growing as long as it is away gardens e.g. edge of the woods.

I enjoy our native black berries. So tasty and great pulp. But I like to mix in Himalayan black berries with them. Himalayan black berries are very juicy, lighter in flavor and not as much pulp. So combined makes for great combination. With that being said I hate Himalayan black berries due to their invasiveness. Birds spread their berries and it does not take long for them to crowd out everything.

Otter · Nov 18, 2022

Tom Butler said:
Yes, almost like Brian and the Hazels', this stuff is my nemesis. Instant shower right after if in the yard. The yellow pollen that falls from the tall grass along the stream can do me in big time, lots of time lost rinsing in the river. Any antihistamine that works either puts me to sleep or wires me out, and I dislike both sensations immensely.

Tom, have you tried any of the newer antihistamines? Those first gen ones, like diphenhydramine (Benadryl©), are bad news, in terms of side effects. I think they are still popular because of familiarity, and not needing a prescription. The European Union restricts them, and they are banned from use by commercial and military pilots. Here's a paper on this: https://aacijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13223-019-0375-9
And a wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphenhydramine#Adverse_effects