In article ,
"Cereoid+10" wrote:

rosemarie face wrote in message
...
I'm in z5 and have two Forsythias and a Rose rugosa growing on the north
side of my house. They're growning like crazy.
Rosie z5 Indiana

No surprise there, Face.

Both are weedy trash plants anyway.

I like R. rugosa for the winter fruit & I have lately been considering it
as a low maintenance street plant on the low end of a hillside road.
Never having yet grown any I can't guess why you'd dismiss it so
wholeheartedly, but seems to me even a lot of "weeds" can be garden
treasures, that the difference between a weed & a flower is often
subjective (I let a nightshade vine remain in one yard, a complete & utter
weed, but it has been spectacularly lovely for its arrowed leaves, its
blue flowers, & its red berries, & it even developed a pretty woody
structure -- I'll pull out any others that appear but keeping one as a
happy flowering vine is a happy thing to do).

I'm not much of a rose fan overall, & the fancier the type the less
interesting it is to me; the simpler the type, the more saving graces it
has. Not long ago I was wandering along a sal****er inlet & came upon a
large stand of R. rugosa thick with soft seedy hips, & was really
impressed with how tasty they were right from the branches. I'd cooked
hard rosehips before but somehow hadn't previously realized the rugosa
hips are good fresh off the thorns in winter, if one forgives the
percentage of seeds & lets the pulpy part melt in the mouth. I also liked
the appearance of the old neglected tall & extremely upright winter thorns
-- interesting winter appearance is another thing that attracts me to
things.

I saw a snowy-white blossoming forsythia & it struck me as quite pleasing
& since it's the only one I've ever seen so far, can't regard it as overly
common. I wouldn't want it, on some level it would be too much like my
wild Philadelphius mock orange (another exciting weed). There are so many
interesting new cultivars of yellow forsythias, & it is so reliable in its
early-season heavy bloom, I really don't mind that it is overused. There
was a huge one already on the property when we bought the place, so I
wasn't tested as to whether or not I would personally have planted
anything so common. But having inherited it, it has never disappointed me.
I put up a page for it he
http://www.paghat.com/forsythia.html
plus a colorful autumn leaf page for it:
http://www.paghat.com/autumnleaves3.html
I do too often see in other yards forsythias trimmed back severely to
contain the size, & though these butchered specimens still bloom well,
when not blooming they look ugly as hell. But if it has room to fountain
it can be a deserving center of attention, plus there are true dwarf
cultivars if there isn't room to fountain, so no excuse for those
butchered ones. Like many other over-used things (lilac trees spring to
mind) they are popular because lovely & reliable.

Here though is a buttercup winter hazel:
http://www.paghat.com/winterhazel.html
which is sometimes recommended as a less common & subtler choice instead
of forsythia. It's never showy but it can be awfully pleasant in its
lowkey manner.

You might want to replace them with more deserving plants that are better
behaved and more aesthetically pleasing.

BTW, how do you know when your plants have gone insane?

In my case, when I am listening to the shrubbery having conversations
among themselves & with me, I can tell by their varied obsessions which
ones are crazy.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/