What I'd be more inclined to do is create a mesh when an emitter is created, and as particles are emitted, add vertcies and triangles to it as needed, reusing those which are no longer needed. You'll reach a point of equilibrium for most effects where like a max of 200 particles are seen at once, and no more, at which point they fall off again. When the emitter stops emitting, you delete the mesh.
Thats exactly what the single surface particle systems in my sig and cubemap demo does. It only adds triangles up to what you're using and recycles.
It's still a bit messy and the convenience of fire and forget tempts me a lot more than 15%