To keep or not to keep - that`s the question...

Two years into my present planting plan, and I thought I`d take stock (it was drizzling, and I needed a sit down)
I`ve crammed them in - those plants...gone to town, and now I need to work out the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Top of the list Grasses ! They have given the whole garden some structure, need almost NO attention, look good all winter with a frost on, birds love them after all the flowers have gone.

In danger of ending up on the bonfire Roses ! B****y things - want more attention than the dogs, repay me with punctured fingers, scratched arms ..and anything else they touch AND are covered in black spot that doesn`t go away however much I work on it.

They have to go..........

What do you think ?

 

Haha, what else besides grasses and roses? Which roses.....some of them are kinda nice, IMO.

 

Funny you say that, Miss Darcey Bussell is about to be heading for the green bin. However, she lures me back in with her sudden flushes of deep red flowers, the little madam.

 

Those hot flushes are nothing but trouble...let me tell you

 

Yes, I too am anti roses.......vastly over rated, prickly, disease ridden, high maintenance, ugly in winter and not really compatable with other plants. Grown well they are superb but not often are they grown well. Every garden seems to have a rose or two. A rose and a lawn always essential no matter how poor they are! So any I had were bonfire fodder too.
Grasses? Yes. Love them. They associate so well with other perennials.
I once loved conifers...had several "dwarf" varieties and they served me well whilst the rest of the garden developed......many have now gone. However, Taxus varieties in different forms are desirable here. Small (genuine dwarf) cryptomerias too add evergreen shape.
Fewer shrubs and a whole lot more perennials now......when a shrub dies or starts to wane I eagerly attack and remove it thereby creating a new large planting area
Time is too short to hang on to plants we don't like or that don't earn their keep, struggle to look good (thereby making us not feel good) so, yes, "they have to go" Tetters

 

Maybe I will banish them to somewhere in here...... along with the everlasting pea thing which looks rather untidy in a small space..

 

I hope Woo doesn't read this thread
I also find roses a lot of work.
@Tetters ,just started growing ornamental grasses this year from seed . We are very impressed with the ones we tried ,especially squirrel tail . As the variety and choices are mindboggling , l may pick your brain on another post

 

I grow imperata red baron, pennisetum rubrum, Elymus magellanicus, stipas gogantea, arundinacea and tennuissima, hordeum jubatum, various miscanthus, calamagrostis overdam and karl foerster, bowles golden grass, different hackonechloas, festucas as well as carex varieties......you could say I like them

 

Thanks verdun , I'll have a Google at that list

 

The last of my roses will be gone at the end of the season, only had 6 but for me didn't give continuous cut flowers throughout the summer. I replaced some with dahlias and have loads of cut flowers.
I have to admit though some of the roses were beautiful.

 

Feel so guilty now .....wouldnt want to upset Woo
WO, could you just tell him/her we were only joking. We all loooove roses really

 

I'm afraid Woo I am with the antis re most Roses. Maybe if I lived in the South of England I'd like the majority better but up here we seldom get enough constant heat for Roses to perform really well/ flower for a long period IMO. I grow various big species and shrub Roses which either have gorgeous scent of great shape/hips/leaf colour but the huge number (around 200) Hybrid Teas that were here when we moved in are now no longer. None of them looked very well and who has the time to annually prune that lot?! I like plants which give foliage interest when not flowering and most Roses seldom do this.

 

@wiseowl your friend Sandy Ground is also at a loss for words. A properly maintained lawn takes far more work over the course of a year than roses. Few would even consider removing it though. A garden is simply not a garden without roses...

 

Hey, maybe bring something else in, but keep working on the roses for a while. Ultimately, if they don't work out, then you've still got the replacement you already introduced - I'm paraphrasing here but as the saying goes - some curse the roses for their thorns, while others marvel that it is a rose. Good luck ;-)