Debbie's Garden: Failures

Plant: Catananche "White"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/26/10
Notes: Planted in back garden. Within a couple of weeks, rabbits had eaten the flower stems on one of them, but it rebounded. However, all three plants died after heavy rains. Since this was the second time this happened with catananche, I'm declaring them a failure and I won't try a third time.

Plant: Lupine "Minarette"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 1 package
Planted: 4/26/08
Notes: Planted in far back garden. By late July, all seedlings were dead. Lupines hate my garden.

Plant: Carnation "Minn Pink"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/30/08
Notes: Planted in back garden. These were eaten down to the base within days by the rabbits, and rotted in place in spring 2009. This was my second unsuccessful attempt at growing carnations, so I won't be trying carnations again.

Plant: Achillea "The Pearl"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/7/05
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted in front garden. Barely bloomed their first year, but were thriving and spreading rapidly in 2006. They got very tall and floppy once they bloomed. Moved to far back garden on 6/26/06 where they can be floppy without distressing me, but they never thrived back there, despite having room and sun. After two years without blooms, I removed them.

Plant: Tricyrtis "Taipei Silk"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/22/07
Notes: Planted one in back garden 9/22/07. Struggled a bit because the rabbits nibbled on it and didn't survive the winter. Planted another in summer 2008 and it was eaten to the ground within a month.

Plant: Catananche "Caerulea Major"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/30/08
Notes: Also known as Cupid's Dart or Love Plant. Planted in far back garden. One rotted after a month of rain. The second was eaten by rabbits, then it rotted too. The rabbits kept eating the blooms on the third one, and it finally succumbed too. First buds appeared in June but never got a chance to bloom. I wouldn't have considered it a failure if it hadn't rotted so easily.

Plant: Feather Hyacinth
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 12
Planted: 10/9/04
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted in back garden. These are really unusual, but the stems do not stand upright. About half didn't bloom, possibly due to being shaded by the daffodils behind them. Moved to a sunnier part of the garden after blooming in 2006, but that didn't help. I finally removed them because they're not pretty or reliable enough for the space they take up.

Plant: Hardy Chinese Orchid "Lavender"
Source: Park's Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/6/07
Notes: I ordered the white version of this plant and received a substitution of lavender in June. Only two of the three plants came up. The catalog copy states that this is hardy in zone 5 (with protection) but the plant label says that it is only hardy to zone 7. I'm quite displeased about the substitution, lateness of delivery, and hardiness. Needless to say, they didn't survive the winter.

Plant: Spring Starflower "Rolf Fiedler"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 15
Planted: 10/29/05
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in back garden. Very small and short. Only one bloomed in 2007, and only three leaves appeared in 2008. I think starflowers are a little boring.

Plant: Allium Ostrowskianum "Alpine Rosy Bells"
Source: Menard's, Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity:50
Planted: 9/18/04
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted 20 in side garden. Originally, the 10 from Menard's were planted in the kitchen garden, but we moved them to the other group while they were still blooming in June 2005. Added 20 more on 10/9/05. These are cute but a little nondescript. These did not bloom in 2007, perhaps due to lack of sunlight, and had all but disappeared in 2008.

Plant: English Daisy Mix
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/6/07
Notes: Planted in back garden. Did well, but didn't survive the winter.

Plant: Oxalis "Iron Cross"
Source: Menards
Quantity: 25
Planted: 4/15/07
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in far back garden for the rabbits to eat, which they do. Manages to produce leaves a little faster than the rabbits can eat them. My theory was the more I plant back there, the less they'll eat in the closer gardens that I can see. Bloomed a little over a month after the bulbs were planted. Didn't survive the winter.

Plant: Iris tectorum variegata
Source: Wayside Gardens, Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 10
Planted: Spring 2006, 6/14/07
Notes: Sold as "Lace Handkerchief" by Spring Hill. Planted 9 from Wayside and Spring Hill in three groupings in side garden in spring 2006. These spread rapidly via shallow underground runners, so don't waste your money on more than one or two of these because you'll have plenty in no time. Not one of these bloomed or survived the winter of 2006, so I bought a single plant from Spring Hill to try again. It didn't survive the winter of 2007, despite starting to spread before winter hit, so I'm done with this one.

Plant: Blueberry "Top Hat"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/18/05
Notes: Planted in back garden. Foliage turns red in fall. Didn't flower or grow its first year. Planted a second one on 5/12/06. Our entire blueberry crop was wiped out when the chipmunks ate the one blueberry that grew on the second plant in 2006. Either the chipmunks or the rabbits like nibbling the stems on these, so they remained very small (less than a foot tall). The two plants didn't look at all alike; they were different colors and one always looked healthier than the other. After three seasons, they weren't thriving and I wanted to use the space for something that would do well, so I removed them. I tried a few new varieties of blueberries in 2008 instead.

Plant: Rhododendron "Hinode-giri"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/7/05
Notes: Planted behind kitchen garden, then moved to front garden on 5/28/06 hoping it would actually grow. Finally removed it in 2008 because it was no larger than it was when it first arrived in 2005. Very disappointing.

Plant: Passionflower "Maypop" (I think)
Source: My mother-in-law's garden in Ohio
Quantity: 2
Planted: 10/8/06
Blooms: Early July
Notes: Planted in far back garden. These took a long time to come up in the spring, but once they did, they came up everywhere, including up to three feet away from where they were planted last fall. I've tried digging down to find the underground runner, and I gave up at 8". They're highly resistant to Round-Up, so my guess is that I'll be fighting these forever. The blooms are incredible, but they bloom in the morning and the Japanese beetles have completely devoured them by evening, even though we've sprayed the vines. I removed them in late July 2007 and dug up additional sprouts for months. Don't plant the hardy version of this plant unless you're sure you want it until the end of time.

Plant: Daylily "Strawberry Candy"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 12
Planted: 10/19/04
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted four in kitchen garden, and planted eight to alternate between "Happy Returns" daylilies along front wall. Warning, warning, warning! There is not a hint of pink in these blooms, despite the photos and descriptions in the catalogs. These are bright orange and red flowers. I am hugely disappointed, because I'm not a fan of orange flowers. I yanked the eight in the front right away and I finally did the same with the ones in the kitchen garden because I got annoyed every time I looked at their non-pink blooms.

Plant: Thyme "Alba"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/1/06
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in back garden. All three were very healthy when they arrived, but some sort of fungus attacked two of them -- the same stuff that attacked half of my asters in 2006. One of the victims died, but the other didn't. In 2007, one of them succumbed to the same fungus again just when it started to bloom, and that's the kiss of death in my garden. If you're prone to disease, and you're not a stunningly gorgeous plant I'm willing to nurse back to health repeatedly, out you go. So, out they went in late June 2007.

Plant: Juncus effusus "Unicorn"
Source: Wayside Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/9/06
Notes: Great corkscrew foliage. I've wanted one of these for several years. It doesn't really do much but sit there looking interesting, and in the case of 2007, nearly dead. It needs a moist, sunny area, and there's no such thing in my garden.

Plant: Oriental Lily "Arena"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 4
Planted: 10/9/04
Blooms: Mid-July
Notes: Planted with Oriental Lily mixture in kitchen garden. These are quite short and they face down, which makes them difficult to see and a little disappointing. They were taller their second year and slightly more orange, but only a couple returned. They didn't come back at all their third year, which was fine with me.

Plant: Japanese Wisteria "Macrobotrys" (AKA "Longissima")
Quantity: 1
Source: Lowe's
Planted: 3/13/04
Notes: Purchased dormant 7' vine in spring 2004. We staked the trunk in spring 2005 to train it into tree form. It did well, but never bloomed during the four springs that we owned it. The Japanese beetles love this so we would spray it as soon as they show up, and we'd end up with a shiny mulch of dead beetles in July. It simply wasn't worth the endless trimming and beetles for no blooms, so we removed. it. Note that the trunk wasn't anywhere close to being able to support the weight of the tree, so I estimate it would have required another 5 - 7 years before we could have removed the stakes supporting it.

Plant: Polemonium "Brise D'Anjou"
Source: Spring Hill Nurseries
Quantity: 2
Planted: 11/8/06
Notes: This is a variegated Jacob's Ladder. The miniature plants arrived in great condition. They survived the winter but died in the spring. We ordered more but Spring Hill sent a replacement variety instead.

Plant: Blue Fringed Daisy (Erigeron)
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/7/05
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in back garden. The rabbits loved these plants. It turns out that blue daisies are actually light purple. What, exactly, is the point of calling them blue then? These got floppy after a rain. Trimmed back hard 6/24/06 to see if they would produce a bushier plant and more blooms, but they didn't. Only one plant survived the winter of 2006, then it fell prey to some sort of fungus. It probably would have survived, but I just didn't like these enough to give it a chance.

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Plant: Japanese Iris "Fortune"
Source: Dutch Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/13/06
Notes: Planted in back garden. This one lasted the longest of the three Japanese irises I've tried, but never did much of anything and certainly never bloomed. You're looking at the healthiest it ever was.

Plant: Japanese Iris "Frilled Enchantment"
Source: Dutch Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/13/06
Notes: Planted in back garden. Never thrived and slowly just disappeared.

Plant: Japanese Iris "Pink Lady"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 9/29/05
Notes: Planted in back garden. Only one of six came up in 2006 and it didn't bloom. It finally died in early 2007. I really haven't had any luck with Japanese irises. Now, they're all just very expensive compost.

Plant: Agapanthus "Blue Globe"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/18/06
Blooms: Late July
Notes: Planted in back garden amidst Allium Globemaster, which looks quite similar but blooms much earlier. The Globemaster foliage was completely gone by the time this blooms. Didn't come back in 2007 -- could have been rodents, rot from our heavy clay soil, or lack of sun amidst the Globemaster foliage.

Plant: Double Snowdrops "Flore Pleno"
Source: Breck's
Quantity: 20
Planted: 10/29/05
Blooms: Late March
Notes: Planted in back garden among Asiatic lily "Ceres." These had extremely tiny blooms (about 1 inch across), even though they look huge in the catalogs. They were pretty, but they faced down. Didn't come back in 2007.

Plant: Hardy Gladiolus "Nanus Mix"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 72
Planted: 4/7/04
Blooms: Mid-July
Notes: Planted 24 in spring 2004. Many bright colors (orange, yellow, pink, red, white) and multiple color designs. I love these! Planted 24 more on 9/18/04 in side garden. In 2005, only one bulb in 48 bloomed and the plants looked quite anemic. Moved bulbs from side garden to back garden and planted 24 more. Only one bloomed in 2006 and only small grasslike-foliage came back in 2007. They may have been victims of our chipmunks, but I doubt it.

Plant: Arum Italicum (Candle Flower)
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 4
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: Only one of four came up, but the one that lived was doing well. We transplanted it and it lived most of the winter of 2006, but it didn't come back in 2007.

Plant: Summer Daffodil "Erlicheer"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 20
Planted: 4/3/04
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted 20 in front garden, and fewer than half of them came up and bloomed in 2004. However, during the warm winters of 2004 and 2005, all of the bulbs sprouted, so they didn't bloom in 2005 and 2006 as a result, and didn't return in 2007.

Plant: Lilac "Sensation"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/7/05
Notes: Planted in front garden, then moved to far back garden on 5/28/06. Didn't bloom or grow in 2 1/2 years, so out it came.

Plant: Rose "Knock Out"
Source: Park's Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/28/06
Notes: As long as we are trying roses, we decided to jump on the Knock Out Rose bandwagon, which was suggested to us by a visitor to our website. The plant arrived with blooms already on it, which won me over immediately. Sadly, this was eaten to the ground by rabbits within two weeks and wasn't able to come up.

Plant: Delphinium "Delft Blue"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Shipped: 6/1/06
Notes: This was completely dried out and dead when shipped to me a month and a half late, so there was nothing to plant. I am hugely disappointed with Van Bourgondien, and will not purchase from them again. You'll see their name quite a bit on this page.

Plant: Verbascum "White Domino"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: Shipped a month and a half late, and I planted it even though I was pretty sure it was dead. Nothing came up.

Plant: Geranium "Ballerina"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: Shipped a month and a half late. Two appeared to be dead, but planted all three in the back garden anyway. Nothing came up.

Plant: Veronica "Pallida"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: Shipped a month and a half late, but appeared to be barely alive. Nothing came up.

Plant: Dahlia "Emory Paul"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: Shipped a month and a half late. Planted in far back garden. A small sprout appeared and was eaten by rabbits and that was that.

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Plant: Lupine "My Castle"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 5/17/06
Notes: Spring Hill shipped these in place of "The Chatelaine." Planted in back garden, but the tiny foliage withered and died immediately.

Plant: Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Source: Henry Field's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/6/06
Notes: Ordered three, but one bag didn't have a bulb and one bulb was rotton. I planted the remaining one in the kitchen garden in full shade, but nothing came up.

Plant: Balloon Flower "Fairy Snow"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: Planted in back garden. Nice healthy plants, but rabbits ate them to the ground, and an attack of bright yellow fungus in the surrounding mulch (unrelated to this plant) sealed their fate.

Plant: Lupine "Popsicle Mix"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 6
Planted: 6/1/06
Notes: As usual, these were healthy plants with excellent foliage in place when they arrived. Although the rabbits ate the foliage, one produced a small stalk of coral pink blooms in 2006. These slowly died in the Indiana heat despite my best efforts. Why do I love lupines so much when they clearly do not love me?

Plant: Delphinium "Mirror Blue"
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/20/06
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in back garden. These have intense blue blossoms that provide a great shot of color. One by one, all three plants died, most likely due to the incredible heat wave we had in summer 2006.

Plant: Crocus Sativus "Saffron"
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 36
Planted: 10/6/04
Blooms: Mid-October
Notes: Only foliage came up in Fall 2004. Lots of foliage that lasts well into the spring, but only two blooms appeared in Fall 2005. I do not recommend these at all. This is the third time I've tried to plant fall crocus, and I've had little success. Removed these in September 2006 to make room for a patio extension.

Plant: Pink Dogwood Tree
Source: Sundown Gardens
Planted: 8/1/03
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: This tree was disappointing. Blooms were very sparse the spring after we bought it, even though other pink dogwoods in the area were in full bloom. Only two blooms appeared the next spring. When we inspected it, we found that the remaining buds were very small and rotten. We sprayed it in fall 2005 which helped somewhat, but half the tree was dead, so we removed it and replaced it with the River Clump Birch tree in the back yar.

Plant: Physostegia virginiana (Dragonflower or Obedient Plant) Pink
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/18/04
Blooms: Late July
Notes: Planted in back garden. They were nearly four feet tall and required staking. The catalog pictured these as having dark pink flowers, but they are very pale pink. The hummingbirds love these plants, but DO NOT PLANT THESE. These are unquestionably the most invasive plants I have ever planted. They spread by very deep underground runners that have to be dug up individually and produce new plants if you don't get every single bit of root. They refuse to die because they are immune to Round-Up. After digging them up repeatedly in 2005, I eventually had to dig up all of the plants in a four foot square area in summer 2006 in order to remove all of the underground runners, but I still found more sprouts in 2007. If you plant these, don't come crying to me.

Plant: Physostegia virginiana (Dragonflower or Obedient Plant) White
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/8/05
Blooms: Late July
Notes: Planted in back garden. They did very well and bloomed before their larger, and more established, pink counterparts. We removed them when we saw how invasive the pink ones were. DO NOT PLANT THESE.

Plant: Paris polyphylla
Source: Wayside Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/12/05
Notes: Planted in small garden behind spa. This plant wilted quickly when it is too hot or too dry. Moved to a better location on 6/1/05, but it died on 6/14/05. I ordered another one to try in 2006, but finally had to write and request a refund when it wasn't delivered by late June because Wayside charges for the entire order upfront (including shipping costs, which they didn't refund, even for a plant they never shipped).

Plant: Lupine "The Chatelaine"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: Fall 2004, spring 2005, etc.
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted 6 in kitchen garden in fall 2004. They came up in the fall, but did not return in the spring, so we ordered and planted 6 more in spring 2005. They bloomed but the bloom stalks and several of the leaf stems curled oddly, then died, most likely due to the fact that they thrive in cold, moist places like Iceland and not extremely hot and dry conditions. I love lupines and planted 6 more in fall 2005. They did not come back so I ordered 6 more in spring 2006, but Spring Hill shipped a replacement of Lupine "My Castle" instead which promptly died. Ordered 6 more in fall 2006, but they ended up sending me six in two separate packages (and charging me for both). None of those survived either. Total failed Chatelaine plants: 30. At the rate I'm going, I could just take a handful of $20 bills and bury them in the garden each year and get the same effect with less heartbreak, but I still dream of having lupines thrive in my garden some day, so now I just plant seeds.

Plant: Carnation "Ballerina"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/7/05
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. One of the three died shortly after planting and the rabbits love nibbling the other two. Didn't bloom in 2005 and pronounced dead when it didn't come back in 2006.

Plant: Chinese Tree Peony
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/26/05
Notes: Planted in back garden. It died after a couple of weeks. It was an expensive little plant to see it turn into organic matter so quickly.

Plant: Louisiana Iris "Black Gamecock"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 6
Planted: 10/29/05
Notes: Planted in back garden. Only one of six came up in 2006, but it didn't survive.

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Plant: Egret Flower (Habenaria Radiata)
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 6
Planted: 5/12/05
Notes: I planted four of these in 2004. They grew very slowly for a month, then my daughter mistook them for weeks and pulled them out of the ground. I tried again in 2005, but the bulbs are smaller than a navy bean, so they are very fragile. One finally appeared on 6/20/05, but it didn't survive. I suspect that these need to be babied indoors until they are substantial plants, and that just doesn't fly in my garden. Please learn from my $30 mistake.

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Plant: Oxalis Versicolor
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 11/3/05
Notes: Planted 3 in spa garden in fall 2004. They grew a little in the fall, but didn't come back in the spring, so I tried again in fall 2005 with no luck. These are fragile as the egret flowers above.

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Plant: Tricyrtis "Blue Wonder"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 2
Planted: 10/29/05
Notes: Planted in back garden. Did not come up in 2006 even though plants and bulbs all around it are thriving.

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Plant: Oriental Lily "Miss Lucy" (IMITATION)
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/4/05
Notes: These were less than half the price at Lowe's than at Van Bourgondien, and now I know why. According to the grower, Van Bourgondien is the only authorized seller of this flower in the US, so Lowe's is probably selling a counterfeit. These bulbs never came up.

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Plant: Lavatera "Twins Cool Pink"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/7/05
Notes: Planted on left side of weeping cherry. Died the minute we planted it.

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Plant: Dahlia "Fuzzy Wuzzy"
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/25/05
Notes: Ordered 3 from Van Dyck's, but they only shipped 2. When they shipped the missing dahlia (and the other five missing plants in my order), they charged me for them. As if those two errors weren't enough, the replacement dahlia turned out to be a bag containing only peat -- no bulb anywhere. I'm not so happy with Van Dyck's this year. The surviving plant didn't bloom, but that part is my fault for not giving it good sun and care.

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Plant: Ice Plant "Starburst"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 12
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Moved to a sunnier location 5/31/04 where it was doing well. Added 6 more plants to the original 6 on 9/18/04, but none of them came back in 2005.

Plant: Anemone Blanda Mix
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 35
Planted: Fall 2003
Blooms: Early April
Notes: Very disappointing plant. Finally saw the first few sprouts on 4/3/04, and they are ugly little things. There were no signs of life from the other 34 bulbs, so I pulled this single plant out on 4/7/04.

Plant: Yellow Crown Imperial Fritillaria
Source: Ace Hardware
Quantity: 1
Planted: Fall 2003
Notes: Planted in sun in the corner of the back garden. These were an end-of-season purchase. The buds dried out before blooming and the plant alone wasn't worth keeping, so I pulled it.

Plant: Honeysuckle "Gold Flame"
Quantity: 1
Source: Wood's Edge Nursery
Planted: 5/23/04
Notes: This was a huge plant that was hit pretty badly by mildew in early June due to endless rain. It lost most of its foliage, but it rebounded and continued blooming. It continued to suffer from mildew all summer, despite our best efforts to control it, so we pulled it on 9/26/04.

Plant: Lavender
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 8
Planted: 5/23/04
Notes: We planted two plants each at the base of each side of our gazebo to camoflauge the clematis stems, after rabbits killed several plants. By early July, about half of the plants looked dead, and only one appeared to still be alive in spring 2005, so we pulled them.

Plant: Fall Crocus - Blue and Pink
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 6
Planted: 8/10/03
Blooms: Late October
Notes: After the giant colchicum bloomed, these were a big disappointment. The flowers were small and only looked good for a few days. Pink fall crocus did not come up at all. In spring 2004, foliage of both sets of fall crocus appeared. It is apparent that they are two different types of crocuses, but the foliage is nearly identical to spring-blooming crocus. I pulled these on 4/3/04 because I didn't like where they were located.