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

Capt Insano Emeritis

Legend
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Our neighbor just planted a row of them across the alley from us. šŸ˜«

I guess if you donā€™t know, you donā€™t know. I am already cursing the dang things
Ironically the new owner of prperty next door inherited a huge old laurel hedge that needs trimming 8ā€™ deep 12ā€™ plus tall and about 30ā€™ long on topof that has a a hated volunteer growing in the middle of itā€¦ 5 or 6 sumac suckers now almost touching overhead electric servicesā€¦ yipee!
 

brownheron

corvus ossifragus
Rhododendrons
I rue the day I planted so many when I bought my place 35 years ago.
They need to be trimmed and deadheaded every year. If I didnā€™t trim them, my place would look like a complete jungle after all those years.
If I only had a few, no problem but with about 30, itā€™s a lot of work each year.
They look nice when in bloom, but that doesnā€™t last long and they donā€™t look really special when not in bloom.
Hate may be too strong, but dislike certainly fits the billā€¦.. šŸ˜‰
SF

LOL, I have 240+ of them spread across 5 acres on the OP with only a few of the same, almost all different species but a few showy hybrids.

Some of the exotics from temperate rainforests in Asia, Himalya usually, look very cool year round and a few have amazing fall color. It's only the flashy hybrids with giant flowers that need deadheading and I usually skip it. My avatar is a cool one of my favorite exotics.
 

longputt

Steelhead
Hops and grapes; consuming water needed for salmon and steelhead to make human poison all while destroying upland habitat......:)

Actually...Russian olives are my least favorite.

BTW I thought it was ironic to be invited to an anti-Snake River dam fund raiser at a winery!!!
 

brownheron

corvus ossifragus
Agree with all the invasives noted above and another for good measure. Lemon Balm - smell like citronella which is cool but it spreads like crazy and every little fragment of root will sprout a new plant making very hard to get rid of.

From my youth in the south, Kudzu of course. Think English Ivy times 1,000, blankets and kills everything across whole tracts of land. It's even bad for the air...
 

RCF

Life of the Party
Rhododendrons
I rue the day I planted so many when I bought my place 35 years ago.
They need to be trimmed and deadheaded every year. If I didnā€™t trim them, my place would look like a complete jungle after all those years.
If I only had a few, no problem but with about 30, itā€™s a lot of work each year.
They look nice when in bloom, but that doesnā€™t last long and they donā€™t look really special when not in bloom.
Hate may be too strong, but dislike certainly fits the billā€¦.. šŸ˜‰
SF

We probably have over 100 rhodies. Some are over 20 feet tall. If I trimmed them I would need a chainsaw. If I deadheaded any of them a chainsaw would be used first. I have used my Jeep to pull some of them out of the ground.

If I had to do it all over it would be azaleas and not rhodies...
 
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brownheron

corvus ossifragus
Is that R. orbiculare ?
Good eye. No, it's not R. obiculari but they are very similar and seem to be related based on what I've read. We do have an R. orbiculari but I don't have a good photo handy.

The one in the avatar is R. yuefengense. I think it's a relatively new introduction to the west. Here's the Weyerhauser RSBG (where this was sourced) description:

Rhododendron yuefengense A new and very exciting species in cultivation. This is, in general appearance, a dwarf and compact version of the well-known species orbiculare and has similar rounded leaves. The leaves are much thicker and more firm in texture than that familiar species and the petiole is quite short and wide. Bright glaucous blue-green new growth ā€“ a really amazing foliage plant. Funnel-bell-shaped pink flowers in early summer ā€“ quite a late-blooming species and flowering from a very young age. Seems to be hardy (surviving in sheltered areas on the east coast!) and best in very light shade or morning sun. You will love this plant. (0?\R1\3) RSBG

R.yuefengense.jpg
 

Mossback

Fear My Powerful Emojis šŸ˜†
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I like R. orbiculare and find it an easy grower in average/good garden conditions. One of them I see regularly is 2' + tall and the same or more wide, morning sun and no afternoon sun seems to be the trick.
 

brownheron

corvus ossifragus
I like R. orbiculare and find it an easy grower in average/good garden conditions. One of them I see regularly is 2' + tall and the same or more wide, morning sun and no afternoon sun seems to be the trick.
That's about the size of our orbiculare too. The yuefengense above is more like 3'x3' but leggy. Here's a photo of it next to R. quinquefolium in the Fall when it has really cool color. Sol Duc is right behind the drop off in the background which makes for a nice view.

R.yuefengense2.jpg

It's a bit our of date but here's our list. The previous owners who built the collection stopped adding in 2019 and we started adding plants in 2021. There are probably 10 deaths that need to be accounted for and more than that in new ones we've added from the RSBG. We're looking forward to an early spring buying spree at Chimicum Woods in 2023. Planning on adding some hardy Camellia species for a little winter color soon.

Turning it into something even cooler than it already is will be my retirement project in a few years. Right now they are mostly just spread out through the woods so I want to add some nice trails with viewing lines similar to Weyerhauser RBSG.

Happy to post some pics of the weird ones in spring. Apologies to the OP for the thread drift...
 

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Mossback

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Chimacum Woods recently had a sale on some of their larger stock/specimen type plants...I was sure tempted to drop some coin on a few big dogs to flesh out some beds but remembered I can barely keep up with what I have.
 
I do not know what kind of tree it is. I like it, but in the past two years itā€™s shed these horrible little elongated pods that i call ā€œtree poopsā€. This year i have raked up dozens of yard bags of them. Here is one of the after photo, having raked them up the first time. View attachment 43376

And here it is a week later, when i had to do it again. We went through this one more time, but i didnā€™t take photos after Nov. 7.

I have lived here for 30 years and i donā€™t remember this ever happening like this until the last few years. I have video of myself that our Arlo security camera caught of me opening the front door and after seeing this, this the cussing up a storm. Luckily we have new gutters than have a guard on them.
View attachment 43377
Jojo, those look like male cones of a deodar cedar. Perhaps it has just grown big enough in recent years to be producing abundant cones.
 

Xoxo

ā€¦
Jojo, those look like male cones of a deodar cedar. Perhaps it has just grown big enough in recent years to be producing abundant cones.
Thank you @Richard Olmstead ā€¦ I was hoping someone might know this tree. I keep asking around but no one knows. Here is a photo of the tree from last week in our snow. Not sure you can see it well enough but i have to say itā€™s gotten very big since Iā€™ve moved here in 1992. Itā€™s the one on the right by the chimney. 890CD648-04AF-4227-8002-E1121E8B9C57.jpeg.
 
Thank you @Richard Olmstead ā€¦ I was hoping someone might know this tree. I keep asking around but no one knows. Here is a photo of the tree from last week in our snow. Not sure you can see it well enough but i have to say itā€™s gotten very big since Iā€™ve moved here in 1992. Itā€™s the one on the right by the chimney. View attachment 44015.
Hard to tell from that photo, but there are few other conifers that produce so many huge male cones.
 

Capt Insano Emeritis

Legend
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My experience with a deodar cedar
This was 30 years ago when married with kids and this time of year. We decided to buy a live 7ā€™ tree. It was a beautiful deodar cedar. After Christmas i found what i thought was a perfect spot for it. I carefully planted it behind the house about 10ā€™ away. They do grow fast. I bought a 28ā€™ extension ladder to cut it down after worrying about the house foundation. I am a bit afraid of heights. Got up there whittling and tipping limbs. I got up to the top with my small chainsaw. I had a surprise that came out of the mass at the crown. A pissed off demonic mama squirrel upside down screaming in my grille about 25ā€™ up . I did not do more than wobble or fall to become impaled on garden spikes below. Its interesting how qickly ones life passes in your noggin.
 

Wanative

Spawned out Chum
Forum Supporter
Cottonwood trees.
Those sticky things that fall off them stick to everything. Vehicles, shoes, dogs fur, boats etc. etc.
The area surrounding my yard and home is loaded with them. The roots are a pain in the ass. They encroach on every thing, septic line, drain field, lawn. šŸ˜”šŸ˜”
 

SteelHeadDave

Broskioner
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Cottonwood trees.
Those sticky things that fall off them stick to everything. Vehicles, shoes, dogs fur, boats etc. etc.
The area surrounding my yard and home is loaded with them. The roots are a pain in the ass. They encroach on every thing, septic line, drain field, lawn. šŸ˜”šŸ˜”
I know there is a dislike for cottonwoods for various reasons but Iā€™d have to say I absolutely love the smell of them in the spring. That sticky resin has been used in many popular perfumes and colognes. I collect the buds from fallen branches and make salve with them. Morels associate with them too and they are generally indicators of good riparian habitat unless inundated with Himilayan blackberry understory. The root encroachment definitely seems like a pain though. I might feel differently if I had them on or close to my property.
 

Capt Insano Emeritis

Legend
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Got my first overdose of cottowoods in July 1991 in khaborovsk USSR while moving history exhibits around for a month. Seeds from the trees collected into 6-8ā€™ long x 10ā€ cylinder of sticky fluffy seeds local kids would flick lighters to ignite them - a local pasttime i suppose. Within a couple days i reacted and was in Russia suffering from concrete snot head and endless sneezing and no meds did i bringā€¦ got some relief from homeopathic Chinese meds i was able to find
 
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