Surprises:

how beautiful the roses were this past spring, especially since I do nothing to the roses except thrown an ash pan of wood ashes on each bush once during the winter.

the Verbena b. and Salvia greggii overwintered! I cut the verbena back last week and it is again growing - I should have a nice fall flowering.

how much the cupplant self-seeded - to the point where I have now designated it a garden thug and it will be moved to a place where it hopefully will create less havoc.

A neighbor gave me some of her pink zinnia, and when everything else was wilting and turning brown, it stood tall with lots of lovely blooms, stayed green, and required little water. A bonus was the numerous varieties of butterflies that it attracted, and I'm just talkin'one plant!

Also, I placed about 6 giant pumpkin seeds that I've been saving for a couple of years into a pile of homemade compost. I really didn't expect much. Now I have a bonified lovely little pumkin patch! Interestingly, the large leaves flop in the extreme heat, but perk up again when it cools down in the evening. The first time I noticed this, I thought it was dying, but soon learned that it's a survival mechanism. It wilts wheter I water or not. I can't wait to see how many pumpkins I'll have this Halloween!

For me, all the crepe myrtles in town are blooming more beautiful than I can ever remember, as well as the pee wee hydrangeas.

Four dahlias overwintered at my SIL. They were in full sun close to the foundation.
More butterflies are hanging around the yard instead of flying through one at a time.
Found a self sown kiwi vine growing in the yard and it overwintered.
Sister Theresa hydrangea finally bloomed after five years.
The longstalk hollies finally put on some height and caught up to a neighboring magnolia. Still making a lousy screen though.

Our dwarf peach tree, purchased two years ago at Dearborn Farms, gave us probably 200 delicious peaches.

My one and only great surprise is that it's my first year having monarch caterpillars on my milkweeds (which I've had for years)! I started rearing them, and have released 2 butterflies (one male, one female), and currently have 3 chrysalids, 2 in the J position, and 2 caterpillars.

I love verbena bonariensis. Unfortunately, mine got slammed during Ernesto and haven't bounced back. The good thing is that they'll reseed like mad, I'm sure of that!!

Good Surprises:

A pink rambling I planted did better than any other rose I've ever had.
Didn't think to see how big fennel got when I planted it in the front of a garden. It grew about 6-7 feet tall - definitely not a front of garden plant. Late sprouters really made me happy. I thought I lost all kinds of fern and my little crepe myrtle. The all popped up late and made me very happy.

Unpleasant surprises - how much damage the voles did over the winter and how much damage deer did this fall to my pumpkin patch.

Ellen