CHAT: Ugliest plants
Marianne Ahrne
are the ugliest:
Bergenia cordifolia and the shrubby potentilla (I don't know the Latin
name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
S. Plunkett
God I hate potentilla. Always looks like it's extremely dry. My next
two most hated plants are those ugly red geraniums. Horribly
overdone, and they stink too. Finally, I hate marigolds. Little ugly
gold flowers, remind me of gold and olive carpeting from the
seventies.
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Scott J. Plunkett: bp...@freenet.carleton.ca splu...@ccs.carleton.ca
=============================================================================
Donald P Kackman
Marianne Ahrne <mah...@csd.uu.se> wrote:
>There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
>are the ugliest:
>
>Bergenia cordifolia and the shrubby potentilla (I don't know the Latin
>name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
>
overused by landscape designers.
Diane Reynolds
salvia with hot pink petunias and orange marigolds)
John Woodworth
>From: splu...@ccs.carleton.ca (S. Plunkett)
>Subject: Re: CHAT: Ugliest plants
>Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 17:47:57 GMT
>Marianne Ahrne (mah...@csd.uu.se) wrote:
>> There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
>> are the ugliest:
>> Bergenia cordifolia and the shrubby potentilla (I don't know the Latin
>> name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
>God I hate potentilla. Always looks like it's extremely dry. My next
>two most hated plants are those ugly red geraniums. Horribly
>overdone, and they stink too. Finally, I hate marigolds. Little ugly
>gold flowers, remind me of gold and olive carpeting from the
>seventies.
Potentillas look like beach weeds: those scruffy nettles growing in the dunes.
NO landscape value whatsoever.
I'll add silver maple (monster trees with brittle branches and zillions of
propeller seeds) , russian olive ( looks snaggly and half-dead in such
a short time), cottonwoods, mulberries, poplars, willows and boxelders (all
the "features" of silver maples and russian olives *and* the added bonus of
boxelder bugs).
John
"The aristocracy of intellect admits nothing of democracy"
-- Robertson Davies
Meredith Morris-Babb
<mah...@csd.uu.se> wrote:
>There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
>are the ugliest:
>
>Bergenia cordifolia and the shrubby potentilla (I don't know the Latin
>name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
>
>
I have come to despise the sight of Photina - red tip - the plant of choice
by every landscaper designer in the South for most of the eighties - its
everywhere - always as hedging - and horribly pruned. Yuck.
As an aside to this thread - why do certain plants seem to emerge each
decade as the "Plant of Choice" for landscapers? The nineties seem to be
the year of the Bradford pear. I feel certain itis because it is fast
growing, and holds a perfect shape - something that would appeal to a
designer's mind - not unruly like the forsythia! Anyone else notice this, too?
meredith, zone 7, east TN
>
Gary W. Ashley
mob...@utkvx.utk.edu (Meredith Morris-Babb) wrote:
> In Article <3qkhnp$u...@columba.udac.uu.se>, Marianne Ahrne
> <mah...@csd.uu.se> wrote:
> >There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
> >are the ugliest:
> >
> >Bergenia cordifolia and the shrubby potentilla (I don't know the Latin
> >name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
> >
> >
>
> I have come to despise the sight of Photina - red tip - the plant of choice
> by every landscaper designer in the South for most of the eighties - its
> everywhere - always as hedging - and horribly pruned. Yuck.
>
I hate those wretched bottlebrush bushes (Callistemon). Also spider
plants - when I moved in here, the previous tenant had set out a spider
plant in the backyard...I ripped out three 30-gal garbage bags of them.
Yes, Photina is a plague here in the SF Bay Area, too.
Gary <zone 17>
Karen Marsh-Lovvorn
>
>In Article <3qkhnp$u...@columba.udac.uu.se>, Marianne Ahrne
><mah...@csd.uu.se> wrote:
>>There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
>>are the ugliest:
>>
>>Bergenia cordifolia and the shrubby potentilla (I don't know the Latin
>>name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
>>
>>
>
>I have come to despise the sight of Photina - red tip - the plant of choice
>by every landscaper designer in the South for most of the eighties - its
>everywhere - always as hedging - and horribly pruned. Yuck.
>
>decade as the "Plant of Choice" for landscapers? The nineties seem to be
>the year of the Bradford pear. I feel certain itis because it is fast
>growing, and holds a perfect shape - something that would appeal to a
>designer's mind - not unruly like the forsythia! Anyone else notice this, too?
>
>meredith, zone 7, east TN
>>
have redtip - arggghhhhh!) And azaleas are REALLY starting to get on my
nerves!!! (They're beautiful in spring, but they're EVERYWHERE!!!).
Karen - Durham, NC (zone 7/8)
Christine Boulby
mah...@csd.uu.se "Marianne Ahrne" writes:
> There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
> are the ugliest:
`privacy' quickly. I yanked them all out of my garden, and good riddence!
--
Chris Boulby
Ch...@coniston.demon.co.uk...living in a gardener's world.
David01568
Dahlia
Rose of Sharon
Gladiola
Trumpet vine
and anything orange
LnThomson
had to eradicate 5 planted by the pool - I guess so the plumes would keep
it clogged and the blades would cut up anyone foolish to wear a bathing
suit instead of armor).
For bedding plants, I think I'll scream if I see any more Mexican Heather!
Lynn, San Antonio, Zone 9 - (battling weeds, fungus, and the neighbor's
dogs)
karen Jackson (East MS 96)
In a previous article, cr...@netcom.com (Kethlynn Erika Witt-Endo) says:
>Though, from sweet gum to tulip tree, to davidii vibirnum and euonymous
>(burning bush), all suburb plantings are pretty uniformly awful here in
>Seattle. Cheap and ugly, that's the evident emphasis. The fast-growing,
>just-add-water, instant subdivison.
>Yech.
>I also have to throw in a vote for the ever-pervasive Scotch Broom
>that's just finally quit blooming here. Nasty stuff.
>
**I guess it is all relative. Here in New England Tulip Trees and Scotch
Broom are not that common, and are considered to be beautiful. I think that
we tire of whatever we see growing in most yards. I grow alot of different
flowers. It is always the unknown that get the most compliments (or the
known, but rarely seen).
Pam
>
--
'~'
{ `@` } kjac...@k12.ucs.umass.edu
/., .,\
\\ ! // Garden Designs, Chiles & Babys
Kethlynn Erika Witt-Endo
>In Article <3qkhnp$u...@columba.udac.uu.se>, Marianne Ahrne
><mah...@csd.uu.se> wrote:
>>There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
>>are the ugliest:
>>
>I have come to despise the sight of Photina - red tip - the plant of choice
>by every landscaper designer in the South for most of the eighties - its
>everywhere - always as hedging - and horribly pruned. Yuck.
Yeah! Add my vote for this thing. Ugly as sin, and painfully overused.
The dang things are planted all over here in Washington State by the
highway depertment or whoever, and also popular with those landscapers
specializing in McDonald's drive-throughs and strip- and indoor- mall
parking lots. I developed a hate affair with the thing in my high school
horticulture class, when I started calling it "Satan Shrubbery", a name
which I'm told lives on, along with my other pet name for the plant--
"Mall Bush".
Though, from sweet gum to tulip tree, to davidii vibirnum and euonymous
(burning bush), all suburb plantings are pretty uniformly awful here in
Seattle. Cheap and ugly, that's the evident emphasis. The fast-growing,
just-add-water, instant subdivison.
Yech.
I also have to throw in a vote for the ever-pervasive Scotch Broom
that's just finally quit blooming here. Nasty stuff.
Kethlynn E.
Patrick McNally
I 'VE BLOCKED OUT ON THE NAME OF MY LEAST FAVORITE PLANT. PROBABLY
BECAUSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SCARS I CARRY IN REGARDS TO IT. HOWEVER, I
CAN EXPLAIN IT...IT IS USUALLY 5 TO 7 FEET TALL FLOWER STALKS WITH
GARISH YELLOW OR BLOOD RED BLOOMS. IT REMINDS ME VAGUELY OF A DAFFODIL>
AND MORE SPECIFICALLY OF THE MOVIE 'DAY OF THE TRIPIDS'
'''''''SHUTTER''''''
NOLA
Madeline Morrow
I hate yards full of evergreens clipped into rigid geometric shapes.
I also dislike rose of Sharon - the foliage is ugly and the form
lacks all grace. I dislike most flowers that are relentlessy double
like powder-puffs - I actually like signet marigolds - little
star-like flowers on fern-like foliage - unlike overdone
artificial-looking double hybrids. I dislike double holly-hocks,
double zinnias, double daffodils - almost all of them take a flower
with grace and make it look like a kleenex rose for a high-school
float.
With trees - I hate Norway maples because they're funereal-looking
and blocky in form. My husband however thinks they're interesting.
No accounting for tastes....
--
Madeline Morrow
La Reine de la Cite' des Phoques (Liz Day)
always looks like a weed. It's so BORING!
But silver maples are nice. I love their seeds, I used to carry
huge buckets of them to the roof and throw them all off at once!
L.Day
Peter Trask
> And azaleas are REALLY starting to get on my
>nerves!!! (They're beautiful in spring, but they're EVERYWHERE!!!).
>
>Karen - Durham, NC (zone 7/8)
>
but if I see another yard full of purple flowers, it makes me want to barf.
-Peter-
Ellen
> In article <mobabbb.1...@newsserver.utcc.utk.edu>,
>
>> In Article <3qkhnp$u...@columba.udac.uu.se>, Marianne Ahrne
>> <mah...@csd.uu.se> wrote:
>> >There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
>> >are the ugliest:
>> >
>> >name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
>> >
>> >
>>
>> by every landscaper designer in the South for most of the eighties - its
>> everywhere - always as hedging - and horribly pruned. Yuck.
>>
>
> plants - when I moved in here, the previous tenant had set out a spider
> plant in the backyard...I ripped out three 30-gal garbage bags of them.
>
> Yes, Photina is a plague here in the SF Bay Area, too.
>
> Gary <zone 17>
I don't usually discuss what plants are or are not ugly.
To trot out an old cliche, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and
I really don't like plant snobs. I plant what I like, and if someone
thinks that it's ugly, they don't have to plant it.
Ellen
Ellen
> In Article <3qkhnp$u...@columba.udac.uu.se>, Marianne Ahrne
> <mah...@csd.uu.se> wrote:
>>There was a discussion in the coffee room today on what garden plants
>>are the ugliest:
>>
>>Bergenia cordifolia and the shrubby potentilla (I don't know the Latin
>>name) scored equal with tagetes as the runner-up.
>>
>>
>
> I have come to despise the sight of Photina - red tip - the plant of choice
> by every landscaper designer in the South for most of the eighties - its
> everywhere - always as hedging - and horribly pruned. Yuck.
>
> decade as the "Plant of Choice" for landscapers? The nineties seem to be
> the year of the Bradford pear. I feel certain itis because it is fast
> growing, and holds a perfect shape - something that would appeal to a
> designer's mind - not unruly like the forsythia! Anyone else notice this, too?
>
> meredith, zone 7, east TN
>>
Bradford pear has beautiful flowers, a perfect shape and is fast
growing, but it is weak. It is prone to shatter in high winds and I
don't even want to think about the mess the ice storm made of the
Braford pears here in Kentucky about two years ago.
Ellen
La Reine de la Cite' des Phoques (Liz Day)
>>nerves!!! (They're beautiful in spring, but they're EVERYWHERE!!!).
>>
>>
>but if I see another yard full of purple flowers, it makes me want to barf.
>
You guys must be from the east. Here in the midwest, it is quite a
trick to grow decent ericaceous plants, the soil's toop alkaline.
Count your blessings!
L.Day
ld...@indy.net
David M. Stapleton
I hate GRASS!
That's all...
Dave
Kate Wrightson
>But none of that changes the fact that the truly ugliest plant is
>barberry. Especially red barberry. Others have been talking about the
>weird forms yews get carved up into? Doesn't hold a candle to what they
>do to barberry, which even in its natural form is a very ugly plant.
I've got to add liriope to this list. It's everywhere here, and I hate
it. Looks terrible cut back in the winter, and is a big boring mess in
the summer, with berries that stain. If I wasn't renting, I'd rip the
whole front planting out.
--
ka...@rigel.econ.uga.edu kwrig...@cbacc.cc.uga.edu
Administrative Coordinator, Dept. of Economics, University of Georgia
*** Not speaking for the University, the department, or anyone else. ***
******* "Free market economics uber alles!" -- G. Gordon Liddy *******
Harry Boswell
resembles a small boy with cowlicks all over his head. At Christmas I
string white lights all over it - it looks like a squashed spider levitating!
But the d%$&^d thing has nice flowers in the spring, and my otherwise
charming and beautiful wife loves it. Oh! for one slightly-out-of-control
car (it sits very near the street)!
(And she called my Boltonia a *weed*!)
--
Harry Boswell
hbos...@freud.inst.com
Susan Sanders
Morrow, 72440...@CompuServe.COM writes:
>lacks all grace. I dislike most flowers that are relentlessy double
>like powder-puffs - I actually like signet marigolds - little
>star-like flowers on fern-like foliage - unlike overdone
>artificial-looking double hybrids. I dislike double holly-hocks,
>double zinnias, double daffodils - almost all of them take a flower
>with grace and make it look like a kleenex rose for a high-school
>float.
I most certainly agree with this but want to add double marsh marigold,
double blood root, and, the very worst, double columbine (i.e., 'Nora
Barlow'). I even dislike the Biedermyer hybrids which lose all the grace
you normally grow columbine for simply because there are too many flowers
and they're all crowded in cheek-by-jowl so that you can't see the
individual flowers.
But none of that changes the fact that the truly ugliest plant is
barberry. Especially red barberry. Others have been talking about the
weird forms yews get carved up into? Doesn't hold a candle to what they
do to barberry, which even in its natural form is a very ugly plant.
-Sue Sanders
Bethgj
used in corsages are the ugliest! They look like monster faces. Some of
the smaller orchids are elegant in their growth habit, but some of those
look like little monsters!
Beth, Taunton MA
Bethgj
Rosemary Thorpe
plant list. The plant is ugly, the flowers are ugly, even the lanterns are
nothing to look at. And it spreads like wildfire.
I have at least 100 azelea plants and I love them ! How do you hate something
that only blooms for a few weeks ? Yeah the colors are a little shrill at
times but then there are the late blooming ones that look like Orchids (nice
orchids) and that last red one that just stopped blooming yesterday (no joke).
Now my yard is just plain old green again.
Rosemary Thorpe
Zone 6B - Maryland
Rosemary Thorpe
BChargin
on for this, but I hate agapanthas and hydrangeas. I equate agapanthas
with ugly tract houses and hydrangeas with those swimming caps with
flowers that elderly ladies wear in public swimming pools.
Yippikiyo
type of succulent/cactus a neighbor had. It looked just like a human brain in
a pot. Kinda grey and squiggly, bleah!
Yippikiyo
I'll get a life as soon as I find the ftp site
Marianne Ahrne
I was the one who first raised the question of the ugliest plant and I
have read all comments with great amusement. I quoted a coffee table talk
at my job but I never said what I think myself.
I grow many of the most hated plants listed so far, except marigolds,
but I may plant some next year, the petite variety "Paprika". I think
most plants can be made to look nice in the right company and the right
setting. (And I can't afford to throw away any plants yet, I have to make
do with what I have for the next few years.)
I think bergenias are ugly in the mass, as in my inherited garden and I
can't think why Gertrude Jekyll liked them so much. I always attributed
her liking them to her failing eyesight, probably in the last stages
before total blindness. But then I transplanted some to my woodland
garden and put them as a contrast to pale green ferns and that changed
their looks totally.
Marianne Ahrne
Uppsala, Sweden
Harry Boswell
>
>Gosh, what different tastes we all have here. I'll probably get jumped.
>on for this, but I hate agapanthas and hydrangeas. I equate agapanthas
>with ugly tract houses and hydrangeas with those swimming caps with
>flowers that elderly ladies wear in public swimming pools.
Well, yeah, but those caps wouldn't change colors depending on what they
ate! And on the same subject (little ol' ladies) why did they sometimes
show up at church with blue hair?!!???
Harry Boswell
HNST LWR
a starfish and was about 6 inches across. It smelled like rotten meat and
it attracted flies.
Hnst Lwr
Christopher Green
developers, a developer was denied a zoning change that would have
allowed him to build on a certain hill. Furthermore, the City Council
ordered him to restore the land by planting trees.
The City Council did not bother to specify what kind of tree was to be
planted. The developer procured some twenty Washingtonia palms (these
are the palm trees that are a common street tree in Southern California)
and planted those. The hill is now a major civic eyesore, known locally
as Porcupine Hill.
Chris Green
San Juan Capistrano, CA
ami...@kaiwan.com
Diana Politika
*SOME* of us are attracted to ugly orchids. "Monster faces", indeed!
I have a spider orchid (Brassia) that stretches 17 inches from petal tip
to petal tip. Looks just like giant spiders with all their legs
stretched out. You'd just love it :}.
Leslie Paul Davies
Shame on youse guys!
Where's Korzybski when we need him?
--
Paul W2SYF/4 Ft Lauderdale
"Heisenberg may have slept here... Pauli didn't."
Leslie Paul Davies
lpda...@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us
![[Maura O'Neill]'s profile photo](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/ALV-UjUbZXD0_aGZS17BEfKRYbj8-u3-p85qb2Q0CiUREciysiP1NQ=s40-c)
[Maura O'Neill]
nice along the nile) I inherited a box of them when we moved to our home 4 years
ago, they are still out almost on the street and i can't seem to give them
away...
BUT, hydrangeas? I agree the swimcap shaped ones are a bit fuddy-duddy swimcap
looking, but I have one which is naturalizing in a very "unformal looking"
manner, and is quite elegant looking, also the lacecaps (i have 1) which have
the fertile and sterile flowers is very refreshing and dainty looking... (and it
survived us pruning a large douglas fir limb from 20 feet upon it!)
Maura
(i love my garden)
Boulder Creek, CA (sunset zone 15)
( i apologize, i haven't yet learnt how to snip and cut effectively)
In <3rrudq$v...@columba.udac.uu.se>, Marianne Ahrne <mah...@csd.uu.se> writes:
>bcha...@aol.com (BChargin) wrote:
>>Gosh, what different tastes we all have here. I'll probably get jumped.
>>on for this, but I hate agapanthas and hydrangeas. I equate agapanthas
>>with ugly tract houses and hydrangeas with those swimming caps with
>>flowers that elderly ladies wear in public swimming pools.
>
>I was the one who first raised the question of the ugliest plant and I
>have read all comments with great amusement. I quoted a coffee table talk
>at my job but I never said what I think myself.
>
>I grow many of the most hated plants listed so far, except marigolds,
>but I may plant some next year, the petite variety "Paprika". I think
>most plants can be made to look nice in the right company and the right
>setting. (And I can't afford to throw away any plants yet, I have to make
>do with what I have for the next few years.)
>
>I think bergenias are ugly in the mass, as in my inherited garden and I
>can't think why Gertrude Jekyll liked them so much. I always attributed
>her liking them to her failing eyesight, probably in the last stages
>before total blindness. But then I transplanted some to my woodland
>garden and put them as a contrast to pale green ferns and that changed
>their looks totally.
>
>Marianne Ahrne
>Uppsala, Sweden
>
Maura, Boulder Creek, CA, n. of santa cruz, sunset zone 15