The things we got wrong
This is a log of mistakes—not a list of virtues. Most sites tell you what they do right. We tell you what we got wrong, so you can decide if it matters.
A site like this should never be perfect. The soil is uneven, the seasons shift, and even the best pruners slip. What you see here are the cuts we had to make again, the lessons we learned too late, and the pages we should have left in the compost heap.
If you spot one we missed, you’ll know where to look.
Three we had to fix
These are the failures that shaped the site. Not the quiet ones—just the ones that made it worse before we fixed it.
The wrong pruning calendar
- 1Published a calendar that killed spring blooms
For two years, we recommended pruning hydrangeas in late winter. It worked in our test garden—but not in readers’ yards. The first complaint came from a reader in upstate New York whose blooms never returned. By then, the guide had been shared a thousand times. Adriana Tremblay fixed it by swapping the dates and adding a regional map, but the damage was done: the old version still lives in cached search results.
- 2Misidentified a 'disease-resistant' rose
We called the 'Knock Out' rose 'low-maintenance' in every post. Turns out its thorns are nearly impossible to remove without gloves, and its roots spread aggressively. A reader sent photos of their lawn torn up by it. Adriana Tremblay rewrote the care guide to call it 'vigorous' instead, but the original copy still appears in old forum threads. The rose stays in the shop, but the warning doesn’t.
- 3A soil test tool that lied to gardeners
Our DIY pH tester kit promised 'lab accuracy' with a dropper and color chart. It didn’t work past the first rain. A reader in Oregon sent a photo of their blueberry bushes wilting after using it. Adriana Tremblay replaced it with a link to certified labs and marked the old guide as 'deprecated,' but the harm was done: some gardeners had already amended their soil wrong.
What those three changed
They taught us that gardening advice is only as good as the worst conditions it survives. The fixes were simple—dates corrected, warnings added, tools replaced—but the cost of each was real: trust lost, time wasted, plants sacrificed.
Rules that came from mistakes
- Never assume a 'universal' pruning time (from the hydrangea calendar mistake).
- Test tools in real conditions before recommending them (from the pH tester failure).
- Update deprecated guides with a clear 'do not use' label (from the rose misidentification).
The people behind this
Adriana Tremblay is the founder and editor of *Care For Trees*. She’s the one who signed the corrections above—not because she’s proud of them, but because she’s the one who has to live with the ones that come next.
This site exists because she once overwatered a cactus until it split open, and because she still remembers the shame of it.
Keeping a log like this is uncomfortable. It means admitting that even the people who write about growing things sometimes get it wrong. But the alternative—pretending mistakes don’t happen—is worse. The best gardeners learn from their failures, and the best sites do too.
Adriana’s smallest mistake wasn’t public. It was the time she replanted a seedling too deep, burying its stem until it rotted before she noticed. She still keeps the empty pot on her desk as a reminder: some failures don’t need a log.
If you find something we got wrong, don’t just point it out. Tell us how it hurt you—or how you fixed it. The contact page is where those stories go.
There will be a next one
This list isn’t finished. The next entry might be a mislabeled seed packet, a pruning tool that snapped under pressure, or a guide that assumed readers had a greenhouse. If you see something that doesn’t belong here, it probably should.
The contact page is where those corrections start.
The guides are grouped by category: Advice, Aphids, Blooming, Container Gardens, Flowers and How To.