Why on earth would anyone plant.....

My next door neighbour planted a giant hogweed, which is an invasive species with dangerous sap that causes the skin to blister in sunshine. It's illegal to allow it to escape into the countryside.
Fortunately there was an outcry from neighbours and the offending plant soon made a foul smelling bonfire.

Casdon

Montbretia. The bulbs seems to weld together, and trying to dig into them to reduce the size of a clump is like putting your spade into concrete.

Monbretia seems to be fairly unstoppable.

Slightly off topic: is it true that anyone growing Pampas grass is inclined towards Swinger parties?

Really? I've heard that one going around a few times, but the very elderly couple at the end of our Close have a ton of the stuff incorporated into their hedge and somehow I think it's probably just because they like it.

Slightly off topic: is it true that anyone growing Pampas grass is inclined towards Swinger parties?

A bit doubtful. It may have been planted by swingers 20+ years ago but I think many have inherited it. My neighbour has a huge plant in the middle of his lawn from when he bought his bungalow that he really wants to get rid of but over the years has been quoted some hefty charges to get it taken out.

Jaxjacky

Definitely borage NS easy to pull up, but kept appearing.

How annoying - but probably better as a problem than the other! 😬

AmberGran

^Slightly off topic: is it true that anyone growing Pampas grass is inclined towards Swinger parties?^

A bit doubtful. It may have been planted by swingers 20+ years ago but I think many have inherited it. My neighbour has a huge plant in the middle of his lawn from when he bought his bungalow that he really wants to get rid of but over the years has been quoted some hefty charges to get it taken out.

I think the best way is to burn it out? Thats what we did & it seemed to work.

Sycamore trees. The farmer who owns the land next to my house actively encourages them and they exude sap all over my car and garden. At least he dug up the Leylandi he once planted. I had some Californian poppy growing in my front garden and scattered the seeds in my back garden as nothing grows there because of the shade from the trees. Big mistake…

Eryngium Alpinum. Striking plant but you’ll never get rid of it. Comes up all over the place.

We planted a pampas grass in our garden years ago. I do not think I even knew about swinger parties in the 1970s. We certainly wouldn't have wanted to have any involvement, no matter how tangential.

M0nica

We only planted it because we had bought a house on a new estate and chatting to our new neighbour, mentioned that we intended to plant a tree in our front garden. Within 24 hours he had planted the tree he had in mind to plant in his garden in a place that made our planned tree unfeasible. So we planted a pampas grass instead.

M0nica 😯
Most pampas grass in our notorious 1960/70 Swingers estate has gone now.

I planted a Russian vine to climb over a weeping ash. i know, bad idea
It was easy enough to get rid of I cut it at the base. The ash has died now .

Grape hyacinth
Knapweed

Most pampas grass in our notorious 1960/70 Swingers estate has gone now.

...but we all want to know, have the "swingers" gone too??.

NotSpaghetti. I think the swingers and the pampas got old and died. There were so many rumours when we first came to this town 46 years ago. 😅

Ajuga. Just found it spreading like wildfire across my rockery. Also in cracks in the pavement.

I find ivy is the worst. This is my third house where it has spread from neighbours. At my last house I spent more time cutting back the ivy spreading from the garden behind me than any other garden task.
I also planted vinca, not realising it would spread so much and overwhelm plants nearby. I am now struggling to get rid of it.

What an interesting topic. I wish my Japanese Anemones would live a little and become rather more adventurous & promiscuous!
I had 3 but now I have just the one! Its still lovely though & the white petals are the purest of whites, beautiful. One day it might spread it's wings a little or I could move it to a shadier spot, if I dare!

I have transplanted my mother-in-law's pretty Japanese Anemones three times and they have vanished

I have tried to grow Japanese Anemone, Bamboo, Russian vine, all have died.
Grape hyacinths have survived, but don't flower well. The most successful 'plant' in our garden is bramble which gets into tjw roots of our rambling and climbing roses and is never fully eradicated. Ivy is the next invasive problem

Last year I actually bought two - a pink and a white Japanese anemone.

No sign of either.

The other thing that people say "takes over" - Californian poppies- don't seem to like my garden either!

Alchemilla mollis - I think it's boring but it sneaks in everywhere.

We had Japanese anemones in the garden when I was a child, but they didn't seem to spread.

I love alchemical mollis. It’s great for flower arrangements. It doesn’t self seed in my garden which is a shame. I wish it did.

So do I merlotgran, the rain also makes the leaves sparkle. Each to their own, though alchemilla mollis is easily controlled if you shear the flowers off before it goes to seed.

I agree about ivy, I spend hours pulling it off the walls in my garden, it causes real damage if you don’t.

Bamboo is very pretty and makes a good screen, you just plant it in a large pot and preferably choose a non spreading type.

Grape hyacinths and next door's bl***y leylandii hedge.

Tradescantia and ginger lilies are the scourge of our garden. I dug up the corms of the lilies but missed a small one- they’re back. Plus arum lilies, just spring up everywhere.