7 High-Maintenance Plants To Banish In 2025: Say Goodbye To These Demanding Divas

There is a wise saying in the gardening community: “Right plant, right place”, which refers to the philosophy of only selecting plants that are compatible with a site's particular growing conditions. Yet, there should be another saying: “Wrong plant, never ever”. It might not sound as catchy, but it surely is true.

I have had a few landscapes and my fair share of problem plants. There are varieties I have sworn never to use in the garden ever again. I don’t care how pretty, edible, or "easy to grow" it is – sometimes a plant is just a pain in the neck.

The kinds of plants I’m talking about make a mess, taste horrid, or grow wildly out of control. They may be invasive plants you should never buy at the garden center. They might need special nutrients and soil, to be fed constantly and babied to a degree that most gardeners cannot achieve unless that is their sole job on this earth. These are the plants to avoid.

There are many high-maintenance plants but they have so many other attributes, we usually don’t mind having to fuss with them. But, in my humble opinion, these 7 are truly some of the worst, most demanding, messiest, and generally annoying plants around.

1. Sunchokes

I know. They are supposed to be healthy – and I’m all for healthy foods. Sunchokes – or Jerusalem artichokes – are easy to grow and produce a flower similar to my favorites, the sunflowers. They grow from bumpy little tubers that have a soft pink cast in spots.

Plant them and you will be harvesting chokes by next year. Lots of chokes. And the following year they will have spread far beyond the bounds of their garden bed. Neighbors will complain. And to keep them culled to a normal level, you must get out with a garden fork weekly during the growing season.

Now let’s talk about taste. They have zero flavor. I have baked, broiled, stewed, and grilled these things. They can take on other flavors easily but solo they are awful. As an added bonus, some eaters develop gastric distress. I’m holding my hand up now.

2. English Ivy

There are few more romantic and picturesque scenes than a brick manor covered in ivy. The sight evokes old world charm and sophistication.

English ivy performs well in many soils and can scramble up many surfaces. It climbs with little root hairs that secrete a plant cement to hold the vines to surfaces. This plant cement is tough and can easily pull away mortar, stucco, and wood. It grows rampantly and spreads even further afield when birds eat the berries. Even small fragments of the plant can root and take hold where dropped.

If you try to remove English ivy, the process will be an epic tug of war, often with the plant winning. It is an excellent ground and vertical screen but be careful where you use it or you may have decades of warfare on your hands managing the vines.

3. Roses

I’m going to get some pushback here, I know. I love roses visually. Of course, they are lovely to look at and carry a soft, delightful scent. But if you have ever grown them you will know what prima donnas they are.

The soil is too dry, too wet, not rich enough, drains too well or too slowly. The sun isn’t right – it’s too hot, there isn’t enough. They need tons of food, water delivered just so or they will mildew, and so many other special requirements.

Roses are like candy to almost every species of insect. Once you knock out one pest another is in line waiting to take its place.

And finally, the pruning. There are specific rules on how to prune roses. If you do it wrong, you may just get leaves and thorns, or worse yet, unsightly dead twigs sticking out of the bush.

My suggestion? Don’t get roses unless you are prepared to devote as much time to them as you do your children. No, more.

4. Bamboo

Most gardeners know that runner bamboo is a no-no in the garden. It will end up in everyone else's yard and will grow unchecked into all your beds. It simply has no manners.

Clumping bamboo has been sold as the right type to get. The plant is supposed to stay in its clump and not bother any other area of the garden. Wrong. Even clumping bamboo will spread. It just does it a bit slower than running bamboo.

When it comes to digging out bamboo, the rhizomes are almost as tough and woody as the stems. You can break a shovel on these. If you try to prune the plant into some sort of lower or smaller form, you can turn your back and it has grown back again only bigger. This is a plant only very special gardeners should ever have.

5. Trumpet Vine

Glorious tubular blooms adorn the trumpet vine almost all growing season. It is fairly stoic in its water and nutrient needs and can grow in almost any soil. The vines can span 40 feet (12m) in length.

As the plant matures, the stems twine around each other, eventually making a twisted trunk of dense, hard wood. These stems can break apart fences, take down houses, and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Trumpet vine is nothing to mess with and the gardener who thinks they can keep it in check needs to think again.

6. Azalea

Azalea bushes look a little bit like miniature rhododendrons. They are finicky about their soil and often require an acidifier added to keep them flowering. They need consistent moisture but they have shallow roots so they are prone to drying out. They are also heavy feeders.

The flowers are beautiful but if you don’t sit and deadhead the plant, it will have brown dead blooms over the entire bush. Worst of all, azaleas are toxic to dogs, and if you wish to have them in their wild woodland setting, deer eat the plants like candy.

7. Privet

Privet is one of those plants that comes up first when you search for “fast-growing hedges”. It is true the plant matures rapidly. In fact, Japanese privet can grow 25 inches (63.5cm) per year. It looks quite nice left in its natural state, but many gardeners want a formal, trimmed hedge.

With its rapid growth rate, the plant needs to be trimmed 3-4 times per year to keep it tidy. That's a lot of maintenance.

If the plant is in the right conditions it can spread via suckers, and through birds and animals eating the fruit. Speaking of the fruit, it generally litters the ground around the plant in a smelly, wine-like mess.

If you ever need to remove privet, forget it. The plant will come back from any little bit of plant material left behind in the soil.

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