Interesting! I have a new sun area and am mixing perennials with annuals that I hope will self-seed. I have cleome, cosmos, KMOGG, and verbena bonariensis. The verbena actually came up from the roots this year on plants that had grown from seed-grown plants the year before. I've never had them overwinter!

Might think about adding a few snapdragons!

Larkspur, nicotiana, California poppy, peony poppy, portulaca, calendula, cosmos.

Bachelor buttons, cosmos, larkspur, marigolds, Autumn Joy Sunflowers and a few Mammoth Sunflowers the birds didn't get to! I'm a little jealous. I can't get cleome to germinate for me! Congrats! I love self-seeders. Heidi

Here in coastal SE Virginia Z8 we have talinum (Jewels of Opar), melampodium (butter daisy), a few impatiens and lots and lots of dill!

It'a a really great year for Queen Anne's lace, which normally is rarely seen this far south.

I gathered branches and garden rubble to the driveway last fall and ran the lawn mower to make mulch. Apparently I had a lone lettuce plant in there that had bolted and seeded and was mulched. I have a driveway-side lettuce garden the next spring.

Also Dusty Miller survives the winter here and I now trim 3 year old plants.

Many years ago in the fall, I forgot to dig up gladiolus. They all came up the next year. I don't dig them up anymore.

Carol B., what zone are you in that your glads come back? I'm in 5b, love glads but have never had any hope of them returning.

I am in z5 in central CT. The ones that return year after year were discovered by accident. I forgot to dig them up once about 10 years ago. When they returned the following summer, I stopped digging them up all together.

Half of them are located immediately next to a concrete foundation porch with a south-east exposure and the second half are located about 3' away. They may have an unfair advantage because of location, location, location.

I think they are tiring out though, I do not see as many this year. They could also have been buried deeper than usual. They could have been a special breed. I have no idea.

I set in another batch in the fall in a far distant section of the property and I see a few poking their first leaves. We did have an extra ordinary mild winter this year so that doesn't prove that they will survive the winter and come up next fall.

I take pics of everything. I am surprised I don't see one of these.