Around here, it's the Bougainvillea, commonly known as the paper flower plant. We planted this many years ago. It's been through all kinds of shit (extreme cold, extreme heat, severe drought). I don't even water it. It doesn't die but keeps blooming every year. It's nice when blooming, but I hate it when it's time for trimming/cleaning for winter because of the freaky long thorns. They're much worse than rose thorns.

The crape myrtle is tough, but it got nothing on this plant.




What is the toughest plant is your neck of the woods?

We have one of those in our backyard. Never get watered (except by SoCal rain)

It gets cut back every other, every third year.

Wife, neighbor (it grows over the 6’ fence), and birds love it…. I call it the "thorn bush."

I’m also responsible for cutting it back…

Those are great looking plant but we have the toughest plant in the world, the Saw Palmetto.

You cannot kill these plants without going full on nuclear, they drink round up for breakfast and cooper sulfate for an aperitif.

10 or so years ago we had a huge fire in CFL, took out thousands of acres, trees, homes, cars, all gone, the leaves on these plants, gone the stalks, black as coal from the fire.

A few weeks after, they had green shoots coming out, yes, 2000 degree wild fire and they flipped the bird at it and were the only things coming back.

To get rid of mine took digging them out and covering them with 8 inches of soil topped by nice thick sod, and they still tried to come back... Had to keep cutting the shoots back for a year before they quit, I'm convinced if we tried to put a planter in the area they'd come back 25 years later...

Cock-a-roach's and Saw Palmettos will be left after the dooms day bombs are dropped...

Elephant Ears
Can. Not. Kill.

Bamboo for the win, followed closely by English Ivy.

Brazilian pepper, saw palmetto, bougainvillea in that order.

Crabgrass. If you don't apply pre-emergent to prevent it, it'll totally take over your yard, and nothing will touch it.

Giant Chinese wood bamboo.
About one acre stand.
70 feet high.
Runners like Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
At night, I can hear Charlie.

I am thinking napalm...

I just need to get out of the boat.

So many choices, I'll go with wild honeysuckle or the only tree that needs regular mowing -- the tree of heaven (stink trees).

Mesquite.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Bamboo for the win, followed closely by English Ivy.

Yep, even here in drought central.

In my former necks of the woods, there were:

Central Valley of CA: Tribulus terrestris, aka "puncture vines" (as we called them), goat heads, etc. It proliferates in that area's >100° summer heat with no rain and does a number on bicycle tires, thin-soled footwear and bare feet. The offending thorns are its flowers.

Mojave Desert of CA: Tamarix, aka tamarisk or salt cedar. It can grow in soil so saline or alkaline that nothing else can.

Bamboo. Neighbor(now deceased} planted it on the property line. Constantly invaded my property. Must not have seen enough in Vietnam.

Hard to pick one, but the Tag Alder is a tough customer.

Cholla cactus.

Yuccas in the desert southwest.

I can’t think of one I think is really tough in this part of Wyoming. Going back to my years in the Arizona desert, i’d say creosote. Remarkable. During prolonged drought, not uncommon in the Sonoran, it will sacrifice branches so that the plant lives on. When precip comes, it grows the branches back.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Crabgrass. If you don't apply pre-emergent to prevent it, it'll totally take over your yard, and nothing will touch it.

You obviously don't have the Japanese Stilt Grass in your neck of the woods (yet). Hey crabgrass, hold my beer!

Maybe poison oak around here.

Veldt grass is pretty tough too. Initially imported by the SCS (Soil Conservation Service, a predecessor to the NRCS, National Resource Conservation Service), it is now viewed as an invasive weed…

I have sweet viburnum that my builder planted in front landscaping way too close to the hollies and boxwoods. I've flush cut it with the ground twice with a chainsaw, but if I don't stay on top of trimming it then it'll be back to height of eaves in a year or two.

The first time I cut it was after winter storm Uri. I kept cutting lower and lower looking for it to be alive, and I finally found all 360 degrees of cambium being green when I got flush with the ground.

The second time I cut it, I was hoping it'd die as it's the wrong plant for the location and I don't want to transplant it. Next time, I'll flush cut it and brush apply herbicide to the cambium.