Five Awful Plants For The Front Of Your House

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Joe Riley, Jun 15, 2015.

  1. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2015
    Messages:
    13,934
    Likes Received:
    22,555
    #1
    Von Jones likes this.
  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    14,881
    Likes Received:
    27,873
    Wow, we missed on ALL of these, except maybe we do have some of the privet, but it is little and hasn't had any white blossoms or berries; so it might possibly be something else.
    At any rate, I am trying to grow it along the fenceline between our place and the neighbor's back yard. Part of the back yard is his "used-car lot", and the very back, next to our front yard, (he lives on the street behind us and the property goes all the way to our street) is nothing but a mess of ugly pine trees and weeds and pine needles all over the ground , not to mention pine needles in that part of our yard.
    The little privet (?) hedge won't get as tall as his pine trees; but it will block the view of the weeds on the ground once it thickens up enough. I am determinedly keeping it trimmed to fluff it out better, too.
    Maybe if I added some of that pretty green and gold groundcover stuff in your link, it would spread over into his yard and crowd out some of the weeds ?
     
    #2
  3. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2015
    Messages:
    2,880
    Likes Received:
    2,465
    We have here something like that in the photo, similar but with longer slender leaves. The tree grows taller than 15 feet and it is a hazard when the typhoon comes. From what I know, it is called Indian Willow and its tendency is to grow upward, the branches do not spread much. When there is wind, the tree sways as if it would tilt. The biggest problem of that tree is the roots that can ruin concrete. And it's funny because those Indian trees are usually planted in front of the house, mostly right there on the sidewalk. Here in our village there are contless of those tree in the front yard and sidewalks. And the number will decrease when the typhoon comes.
     
    #3
    Joe Riley likes this.
  4. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2018
    Messages:
    10,670
    Likes Received:
    20,015
    Sorry for bringing up this old thread, but this one struck me as funny, because I am very .familiar with these plants. All 5 were either on or near my property at one time, but NOT in the front. I agree with most of what he says, except the solid green Euonymus and Red Tips make a great privacy hedge in the *back* of the house.

    The Bradford Pears all look exactly alike. Boring. A cattle farmer down the road planted them between the highway and his fence---Google Maps measures a distance of almost 2000 feet. It looked something like this. My mother loved them because she liked anything that looked neat.

    [​IMG]

    After they got full grown the trees started breaking, limbs falling off, and he was always repairing fence. He must have known someone with a tree removal service, because they came and took every one out and even ground the stumps. Not a sign of them now. lol
     
    #4
    Joe Riley and Sheldon Scott like this.
  5. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    24,327
    Likes Received:
    42,631
    Never apologize for resurrecting old threads. I like it when old threads are resurrected.
     
    #5
    Joe Riley likes this.
  6. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2015
    Messages:
    13,934
    Likes Received:
    22,555
    You can't build a tree......
    [​IMG]
    UNNATURAL TALENT: GROWING A TREE

    "Remember, you can’t build a tree, not in one day, or a week, or even a month. You have to help a tree grow. To grow a tree, you need to plant a seed in the right soil, make sure the conditions are right, water it, and give it daily sunlight".

    "Once the roots take hold, you can let go a bit and watch it make progress on its own, but it will always need sunlight and water. Every now and then you might need to prune it to make sure it stays straight and healthy".

    "In time it will give you shade, and eventually bear fruit. Soon you will have a big beautiful tree for everyone to enjoy"".

    "People will ask you how you grew your tree so fast because they tend to focus on the end product. You, however, will know the truth: your tree grew slowly, bit-by-bit, every day, and it all started with a little seed. All the time that it was growing, it was invisible to everyone else, but you remember where it came from. You nurtured it every day".
     
    #6
    Ken Anderson and Nancy Hart like this.
  7. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2018
    Messages:
    10,670
    Likes Received:
    20,015
    Now, about Redtips and Leyland cypress.... ;)

    When I bought my house, it backed up to the rear of a two story boys athletic dormitory. The boys would line up on the balcony in the evenings, talking, and playing music. I planted Redtips along the back property line, because they grow fast, and they did.

    Then the university planted large Leyland Cypress trees on their side, right behind my red tips. The Cypress trees overtook the Redtips quickly, so there was no need for the Redtips.

    Then they tore down the dormitory. Rubble viewed between the Leyland cypress trees.

    mcwhorter1.jpg

    Now I'm stuck with 35 year old 30 foot tall Redtip TREES, and some are finally starting to die. :( Btw, they never got the fungus and they are beautiful in the spring. :p
     
    #7
    Joe Riley likes this.
  8. Pam Sellers

    Pam Sellers Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 24, 2018
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    187
    Our neighbors planted Red Tips on the property line when they first moved in about 30 years ago. They moved and now I have to keep trimming them off my fence and I noticed they lost a lot of leaves this spring (which I had to rake...UGH). But they seem to be getting new growth again. The Leyland Cypress do not do well if we get snow here in the winter....lots of fallen limbs! I have the Box Wood shrubs on the front side of the porch and I hate them. Got to constantly keep them trimmed so they look nice. On the high side of the front porch I planted Rose of Sharon bushes and they are just as bad as Box Woods...constant pruning and they drop alot of seed pods that sprout in the spring. Never ending!
     
    #8
    Nancy Hart and Joe Riley like this.
  9. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2018
    Messages:
    10,670
    Likes Received:
    20,015
    I almost forgot about the 5th plant in this thread---privet hedge.

    When I bought my house privet hedge was planted along one side of the property. It's extremely fast growing, and a full time job to keep it looking like a hedge, if you even can. Just before I took it all out, I let it go a couple of years, and it looked almost this bad.

    [​IMG]

    On a side note:

    Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) is classified as an invasive species here, but you can't live in NE Georgia and bad mouth privet hedge. The University of Georgia planted privet hedges around the football field a few days before it hosted its first football game in 1929, and the hedge has been sacred ever since.

    For the 1996 Olympics they had to remove it. Every individual plant was labelled, divided into 3 groups, and taken to 3 separate undisclosed locations, brought back and replanted. They were afraid of vandals from rival schools.

    "The field and the hedges are guarded by a state-of-the-art camera surveillance system, and intruders, be they intoxicated college kids or would-be vandals, are greeted with a loud, ear-splitting alarm that sends them scrambling for the nearest exit."

    There is disagreement as to the exact type of hedge planted at Sanford Stadium. The UGA Media Guide claims that the hedge is an "English privet hedge". However a county extension agent in Athens claims, under conditions of anonymity, that the hedge is in fact Ligustrum sinense. :D

    [​IMG]
     
    #9
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2018
    Yvonne Smith and Joe Riley like this.

Share This Page