Whether you’re a professional gardener or trial and error enthusiast like me, we all have our plant disaster stories.

Right plant, wrong place?

Right place, weedy plant?

Trees mislabeled as shrubs?

And yet (for me at least) part of the joy and pleasure is the experiment.

We passed our old house recently and I found myself both laughing, smiling and feeling a little guilty.

I wondered what the new owners think of their white Bougainvillea hedge? Do they curse me for planting it?

Part of me knows the answer… They have the same love/hate relationship with it I did.

The lawn may have been neglected and yet the hedge is pruned hard as always. It is a pain in the bum and hard work but it was always a joy to see in bloom and worth the effort.

Will I repeat my error? Yeah probably… My in laws have already adopted the idea because they loved it.

This time I’ll plant my ‘bougs’ down the hill so I’m not endlessly sweeping the bracts from around the house. I still like the white though.

Do you have a plant mishap to share? If you could go back and try again what would you change?