Good thread start, Merryrose! As I have been gardening under pretty adverse conditions this year - most stuff in containers due to moves, extreme heat & recent drought, here's what's worked:

Echinacea, Kim's Knee Hi
Portulaca, Sundial
Gaura lindheimeri - this was the best
Achillea, Moonshine
Dianthus, Raspberry Parfait

all in containers, all wintersown on my deck

In the ground, my zinnias - Purity, and orange & white Profusion, are doing well.

Not so great - I have a lot, but off the top of my head - the herbs in pots are largely struggling - my mints (spearmint & peppermint) have been getting eaten by some little worm, which boggles my mind, as mints have always been on my indestructible list. I've lost some lavender, and the one arnica montana I was hoping would make it. Snapdragons and nicotiana sylvestris croaked. Bummer, as snaps are my favorite - but I have high hopes that as I amend the soil, I can say, as a true member of Red Sox Nation,

"There's always next year!"

Hmm verbeans this year did very poorly these are usually go good. Petunias were great this year I actually have coral nymph lobelia plants this year last year (same seeds) they did not even bother germinating. My hardy hibiscus are putting on a great show there are at least 2-3 different flowers opened everyday. My roses are blooming again. The moss roses are just so full and I have already collected a TON of seeds from them. My torenia is coming along nicely.

I did have to shovel prune a golden galliardia since it was becoming a thug where it was planted and the rest of the flowers were being pushed toward the ground. And I will have Tons of blackberry lily seeds.Snap dragons are looking kinda bad in this heat and the pansey gave up one me.

But everything is blooming except for a few spring early summer flowers that are done for the season. I even have some mums trying to get a start on the fall early and I have already cut them down and am afraid to cut them again. So a few are blooming now.

Paula

Great idea for a thread! This was my first year to WS and I'm blown away by the amazing number of new perennials that grew strong & healthy. Among the successes are

Ladybells
Agastache
Lady's mantle
Astilbe
Balloon flower
False indigo
Blackberry lily
Butterfly bush
Canna
Cleome
Columbine
Coreopsis
Delphinium
Dianthus
Dogwood
Echinacea
Feverfew . . .

. . . and so on right to the end of the alphabet. It's easier (+ a lot faster) to list what didn't do well:

Ageratum
Armeria
Gazania
Himalyan blue poppy
Marigold
Tall phlox
Blue sage
Zinnia

Those were a disappointment along with a few butterfly bush seeds from trades. There were some surprise blooms too:

{{gwi:428750}}

{{gwi:428751}}

{{gwi:428752}}

{{gwi:428753}}

{{gwi:428754}}

{{gwi:428755}}

I expected the nasturtium to bloom but was delightfully surprised when the hollyhocks bloomed along with the peony poppy, Maltese cross & gaura.

There were a lot of "lessons learned" this first time but that's a topic for another thread.