This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Friday, 8 August 2014

Best and Worst Plant Award

Worst Plant - Hosta.
If I was giving a best & worst plant award this year....
There are a minority that have come to be on my 'black list' -plants I wouldn't purchase / plants I want to move out of the garden. One of these is hosta (pictured left). What I don't like about hosta: (a) slugs and snails love to eat them therefore they are almost always nibbled on and unsightly looking, and (b) the flowers are rather bland. One good thing about hosta is that bees feed on them, but there are other plants that bees like better. I plan on digging out hostas this year and giving them away.
Best Plant - roses have been great this year and bloom for such a long season. This is a plant I purchased last year from B&Q. The tag said it was a Rose called 'Birthday Celebration'. However, the picture on the tag is a light yellow so I'm convinced this is some other rose variety. I really like the colour and wish I had more of them. 
What would be your best & worst plant of the year?

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.
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6 comments:

  1. Jo8 August 2014 at 01:59

    I love the leaves of hostas, so many different shades of green, it's such a shame that the slugs take a fancy to them too. It's annoying when plants are mislabelled by garden centres, I've had this happen a few times too.

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  2. Endah Murniyati8 August 2014 at 21:35

    I think, roses always be the queen of the flowers, so beautiful and elegant.

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  3. Mark Willis9 August 2014 at 01:45

    Best (flower) plant for me this year: Rudbeckia, going great guns and producing masses of blooms. Worst: Gaillardia "Burgunder", which is nowhere near as good as last year, despite being supposedly perennial.

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  4. ~TastyTravels~9 August 2014 at 10:53

    I'm with you on the hostas! The slugs love them and I always have holes in the leaves!

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  5. Mal10 August 2014 at 13:16

    But Kelli, what else grows so well in the shade? And the texture of the (unblemished) leaf!

    I do agree about the flowers and always break them off to encourage leaf growth.

    Slugs - the keepers of the national collection use a garlic spray. (which I believe Martyn is trialing this year...)

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  6. RobinL11 August 2014 at 19:09

    I'm with you on the hostas. Boring! I dug mine up and gave them all away except for one that I actually did like, called June. I am also apathetic about daylilies and peonies, even though these plants send other gardeners into fits of glee. But my all time favorite is the simple purple coneflower. I just can't get enough of them.

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