Comments on: A small but very satisfying makeover – from English ivy to Carex

By: Marty

Marty — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:51:07 +0000

Coming in late on the discussion, but my absolute most hated plant, beating out ivy, japanese honeysuckle, lonicera maackii, kudzu, asian wisteria and bradford pear is wintercreeper, Euonymus fortunei (v. coloratus is the most commonly offered form around here). This plant would survive with the cockroaches after a nuclear holocaust. The only thing I've found to kill it is repeated heavy applications of 2,4-D, a chemical I am loathe to use. It climbs trees and kills them, and spreads like bad news, showing up scores of yards away from the mother plant. Seriously, it's a worse spreader than an aggressive phyllostachys bamboo.
I expect this plant to be outlawed in the Southeastern US at some point the same way ivy has been in the Northwest. They should have done it long ago.

By: andrea

andrea — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:14:44 +0000

My nemesis as far as weeds go is multiflora rose, it bites during removal, I also hate norway maple, it seeds into everything and poisons the soil, but one of the plants I really detest is the square yew shrub in front of about 80% of the houses in new england where I live. Why, when we have so many good choices, do we choose the most boring and ugliest green blob to plunk down in front of our houses?

By: Curtis

Curtis — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:07:54 +0000

I HATE nadina (“Heavenly” Bamboo). When my wife and I moved into our house a year ago it was covering the east side of our house and had been told by neighbors the previous resident let it grow above the windows. Well, I’m not particularly fond of nadina to begin with, but then when I started to try to dig it up this summer to put in a woodland flowering shrub bed, it was a nightmare. Not only did each nadina bush have an extensive root system, but each seemed to braid into the neighboring bush’s root system. I took a chainsaw, some deep digging, and a LOT of patience. Luckily I did not have the beating sun to contend with. So while everyone in the north seems to think nadina is this pleasant little bush, here in Dallas it’s an invasive devil. Phew, felt good to get that off my chest.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:16:01 +0000

OXALIS. Hands down, it’s my least favorite plant EVER. I’m currently spending about an hour each day pulling it by hand, and I just can’t stand it.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:07:37 +0000

1. Porcelain berry
2. Bindweed – a “gift” from the neighbor that he lets run wild
3. Poison ivy
4. Wild garlic and those wild strawberry things
5. Bradford pear – all over the woods in Maryland, where, unfortunately, it was developed
6. Japanese Honeysuckle
I know there are more . . . .
I know some of these are weeds, but they are driving me crazy. I just realized I have a lot of hate going on . . . .

By: Hagen's woods

Hagen's woods — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:20:38 +0000

Passion vine, the native passiflora incarnata. I planted it for butterflies and was charmed by the flowers. The wretched stuff is now everywhere, swarming up and over trees and shrubs faster than I can dig it up.