PUSHING THE BORDERS

I was reading a thread regarding Clianthus and wished it was a plant that I could successfully cultivate in my garden - I have tried but slugs and snails always have different ideas.

So what are plants that "should in theory" grow in your garden but you always struggle with?

For me it's the aforementioned Clianthus, it's not the cold or weather that ends this wonderful plants life in my garden but molluscs.

Also, Fatsia japonica 'Spiders web' never grows for me. I have tried three times with plants from different sources in various situations and all have died! No idea why but they just do not survive.

So that leads me to the question of which plants are your nemesis?

Fatsia's of any size shape or description, all die within a day or two of arriving on site. strange as both Ivy and X Fatshedera grow fine, Shefflera also struggle being stripped over night by snails have all but given up with them.

Never mind I can grow a mean honeysuckle!!

Clianthus for me as well, they seem to start to die on the way home :roll:
Arum maculatum I can't get established, nor can I get cuttings from cytisus battandierii to take.
Solanum jasminoides alba is causing me grief as is dracunculus vulgaris, my hedychiums won't bulk up and my original ficus carica is brown and sticky, in fact it's just a brown stick!
Things that have really done well are a bog standard euphorbia that I can't keep under control and bindweed :evil:

Ferraria crispa has frustrated me the last two years.

Hippaestrum cybister used to defy me (five years in a row) until I discovered that given a sharp frost they will bloom reliably.

Growing Anigozanthos from seed is doing my head too. They germinate, grow for five or six months and then die on me!

charlie wrote:Fatsia's of any size shape or description, all die within a day or two of arriving on site. strange as both Ivy and X Fatshedera grow fine

So it's not just me! The normal Fatsia and X Fatshedera both grow in my garden but F. 'Spiders web' and the variegated fatsia both seem to really struggle and then just wither away or more to the point the stems turn black and then they die! I wonder what the reason is for this?

Had to raise my eyebrows on peoples fatsia dilemma. Most years they self seed in my garden!
Other plants I'm at odds with are the whipcord type hebes. The other types, no problem what so ever.
Bedding/basket plants. Never seem to be successful with ameranthus or nasturtium

Almost anything from seed. They germinate but I either kill them through under or over watering.

Chrisg wrote:Almost anything from seed. They germinate but I either kill them through under or over watering.

I killed two seedlings of Lobelia gibberoa by not opening the ziploc bag on a few warm days causing "mildew death". I was livid with myself, and so far they were the only two that germinated.