Wait until you find out what the penalty is nancy. ha-ha!

But thanks for posting. ;-)

For some reason, it looks like I didn't take a lot of pictures this year. So there isn't a lot of choose from, but since I'm still allowed one, this is it.

Hebe's Lip back from the dead.

About ten years ago, my neighbor's invisible fence died over the winter. Their dog got out, and did a major excavation project in one of my gardens in search of a vole. The result was a surprisingly large hole, which almost totally dug up two roses. Isphahan was far enough away to avoid the carnage, but Hebe's Lip was almost destroyed. It bloomed for the first time a couple of years ago, and here it is again.

Great hearing and seeing from so many of you.

For reference, here is last year's version of this thread.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6474639/my-yearly-group-post-idea-your-favorite-single-picture-from-this-year

Oddly I feel like there was an even earlier one along these lines...in which I posted Camellia 'Scented Snow' surrounded by fall maples, but I can't find it now. My top wish for GW/Houzz would be a better explorer/dashboard whatever for finding one's older posts. Oh well. In the spirit of holiday thankfulness...glad we have what we do...!

'Those PNW gardens are ruthless...or is it their gardeners!? 😁'

Ya, I noticed the only person that posted a picture 3 times is from the PNW. 🤭

@BillMN-z4a It’s the gardeners for sure that are ruthless! It’s that longer growing season we enjoy that affects us I think. We do have snow & we do have a varied climate from the north to south within our state. But, we do mostly have the ability to be outside doing something in our gardens before early spring because most of us aren’t buried in snow.

Oh, Sorry KW, I was just kidding of course, and my hope is that everyone is happy in the place that they're at.

@BillMN-z4a We all grow where we’re planted! The best way to enjoy life!

I'm so surprised to see so many posting. We seem to get pretty quiet here once the growing season is over. But I forget it's not over for everyone when it is for me...lol.

Zephyrgal - you still have a couple of weeks to try again for a photo with the Christmas lights. [g] What is that vine growing along the front of your house?

Peren.all - Do you grow roses? And yes, heat and drought here, didn’t help the season at all, but your photo of your shady area looks impressive considering that! That area just fits together like a pretty puzzle. I assume you are routinely dividing all these plants for propagation?

Nancy, great solution! We have seen similar changes in our neighborhood, with building codes being adjusted constantly to allow building way to close to the lot lines. Our lot hasn’t been affected yet. Only one neighbor has added on around my lot and they did a great job and they were not close enough to affect our yard. They had three mature Maples between us that they didn’t remove so that helped. I also heard on the news that in Cambridge a town near Boston that is architecturally attractive, is proposing a building code change to allow for buildings to go high rise to address overcrowding. That would make a huge change in those particular neighborhoods. Begonias and ferns are great plants!

MadGallica - Glad for you to see your Hebe’s Lip back! Did the dog at least catch the vole? [g]

'@BillMN-z4a We all grow where we’re planted! The best way to enjoy life!'

My sentiments exactly. :-)

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. haha!

PM2, no the dog didn't get the vole :-( The neighbors came and hauled him home first.

The neighbors were also convinced he was the nicest dog in the world, and wouldn't hurt a fly. Then they found not one, not two, but FIVE dead adolescent rabbits in their yard. That somewhat punctured their belief in his general benevolence to all living creatures, but not entirely.

He was my hero.

Here’s mine from May

MadGallica - That dog is a keeper! lol We have been overrun with rabbits and this year neighbors have seen a Bobcat. Their favorite food...... rabbit. :-)

Heruga, Such a pretty dog! [and patch of Iris]

pm I do grow roses but I am more limited in choice. The Explorer series is well adapted to my location since they were bred about 45 miles away. They have excellent disease resistance and the foliage is always flawless however some are too rambunctious and others are weak. I have the climber Henry Kelsey on my arbor and it does decently. I am sure it would be happier if it didn't have to duke it out with the climbing Hydrangea lol! Grootendorst Supreme performs wonderfully and has been going for over 40 yrs. A few years ago I lost Therese Bugnet and would replace it. My Dad grew Hybrid teas and Floribundas. There were losses nearly every year.

I never divide my Hostas. I always space them for their ultimate size. My largest not shown in the pic above is over 8 1/2 ft. across.

"MadGallica - That dog is a keeper!"

Didn't the dog get posted by Heruga? Is there another dog I'm missing?

Since I'm having to post again, I'm expanding the rules to say if you also support a public garden, you can have one pic from your own garden and one from that garden. I'm a member of the NCSU arboretum, so I'm posting an uncropped version of a pic I already used in my travel post. This is just part of their wonderful succulent collection. Sure they will never have the 10 foot tall winter blooming aloes of the California Bay Area, but I think these little ones are still impressive. And it's a lot easier for me to get to North Carolina than California!

I was telling dog stories. I don't have any actual photos of the dog, just the rose the dog almost killed.

If you are deliberately changing the rules, here is a photo from my 'other garden'.

The pink rose is Zaide. The apricot is Floral Fairy Tale, and isn't really supposed to be there.

UBG,

zephyrgal pacific nw Posted a dog in a picture but it's almost invisible, blending into the flora (above).

So the one picture rule is now defunct?

Bows head in shame. On these kind of threads, I get to the point where I mostly just look at the pictures, and no longer read every post! I just got confused by the mention of a dog, immediately after Heruga posted a picture of one. I actually had read just the first post about the dog attacking a plant, which made it more mystifying as to why the dog would be a keeper.

But in all seriousness, yes, let's say if you contribute in kind or financially to a public garden, you can post a picture from there, too. This was actually always true that one could, but I'm not aware that we have participants who don't garden on their own property as well. I'll make an exception to naming the garden, only for mad_gallica!

All is good UBG, no need to explain. 🤣

And it's technically still your thread, so you're the Sheriff, your call.

Peren.all - I’m familiar with the Explorer series. I’ve seen ‘John Davis’ a pink climber on an arbor…very densely flowered, beautiful! Henry Hudson is a nice one, with the Rugosa parentage and hardy to zone 3? Wow. And some of them have fragrance and disease resistant too. I should consider getting something from this series.

Grootendorst Supreme is pretty! That’s some longevity, still going for 40 years!

Have you ever tried any of the Buck roses? I have Prairie Sunrise and love it. Very healthy and hardy to zone 4. A number of his are hardy to zone 4.

Curious…do you have a reason you don’t divide your Hostas? 8 and a half ft across?! Which one is that?

Mad Gallica - Very pretty combo, the pink and apricot. The Fairy Tale series has a good reputation for disease resistance too.

@peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada I’m familiar with the Explorer series. I’ve seen ‘John Davis’ a pink climber on an arbor…very densely flowered, beautiful!

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA and here is another "John" from the same Canadian Explorer series ie "John Cabot". Here it is from this past June 2025:

Not my best photo of the year in a technical sense, but probably my favorite since it contains three things of personal significance: a favorite place (my church, in the background), a favorite plant (Heptacodium, one I planted on the church grounds this spring), and a favorite "animal" (a migrating monarch, 9/18/25)

I'm glad you don't think the Asian Heptacodium tree is a mortal thread to the native monarch butterfly. 🤣 Isn't that what we are supposed to think about 'exotic' trees, according to high priest Doug Tallamy?

An annual, but it‘s still my favorite photo this year.

eta: It’s Nigella damascena, aka Love-in-a-mist.

UBG - I don't think DT would object too loudly since Heptacodium isn't invasive here, and I do have a good variety of native plants in the yard (and on the church grounds). Heptacodium flowers are certainly beneficial for native bees and hummingbirds as well as butterflies.

Enjoying everyone's photos, and hoping that there are many more to come!

My front yard in April (Atlanta, GA). These azaleas must be 50 years old. They’re huge… over 15 feet tall. I didn’t know they could grow so large.

" UBG - I don't think DT would object too loudly since Heptacodium isn't invasive here "

Oh but he would LOL. Sorry if I seemed like I was singling you out for the extra acerbic side of my persona. I'd recently had a tussle elsewhere on the internet with one of these 'only native species can benefit native wildlife' idiots. So it just struck me as amusing to see the monarch butterfly feeding on an exotic tree species. I guess it didn't get the memo to avoid it!

I normally don't read about insects but I was very surprised recently to discover that monarch butterflies had naturalizing in Australia, of all places. And for quite a long time, too.

Rouge - ooooh, very pretty, lots of blooms! Does John Cabot have fragrance?

Dave, you are a very very lucky person. :-)

UBGardener - Many people here remember Woody, a long time member who passed away a few years ago. One of her favorites in her garden was the Heptacodium and she often posted photos with monarchs all over it. I decided the tree had a lot of benefit to offer and I just added one to the garden last spring. It has the added benefit of reminding me of Woody.

I’ve added lots of natives and will continue to do so, but not to the exclusion of other plants that also attract pollinators and solve a problem better than the natives I’ve planted. But I’m happy that someone like Tallamy is drawing attention to natives, it’s just too bad that the way in which he and others go about it, has the opposite affect they were hoping for.

Laswift - Amazing azaleas!

Hi @prairiemoon2 z6b MA, every other year or so I consider removing this "John Cabot" as more often than not, the leaves yellow and fall off by September but the "worst" I ever do to it is prune it radically, often in the Fall which I know is a 'no no'. It is about 25 years old and almost always looks so good from mid June to mid July, If there is a fragrance it is very faint.

@party_music50 please tell me more about that gorgeous flower as I don't recognize it. and I am always looking for new annuals to try.

pm I adore the colour of Prairie Sunrise! I have never tried any of the Buck roses but would certainly consider that one.

I never (rarely) divide Hosta since it is unnecessary and especially with very large and giants you need time to get the beautiful layering of leaves. The exception is if a medio variegated (lighter colour in the leaf centre) starts to revert to plain green or blue when stressed for years. Many streaked are genetically less stable and I have one that I need to remove reverted "eyes" by grabbing at the base then twisting and pulling up to remove. If the reversions are left it will revert fully to it's parentage. I have seen this with variegated shrubs also that need to have the reverted branches cut off.

The 8 1/2 ft. is Blue Angel.

rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) what a glorious couple of months though!! I had to remove Jens Munk from the garden because it was too happy and kept suckering. I keep looking for a spot where it can be all by itself. The same with Lysimachia clethroides.

@rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a), it’s Nigella damascena. Love-in-a-mist.

Doing some searching on line I see that Nigella can be successfully direct sown in the spring. I think I will give it a go. Thanks for the picture @party_music50.

@party_music50, I love the love-in-a-mist picture. I also bought a seed pack

What a great post! I'm enjoying all the pictures. :0)

I chose this photo because I was very proud of my peach harvest this year:

Sorry, I seem to post in spurts this time of year. Lots to do with the holiday season and no gardening to compete with it. :-)

Porkchop….GORGEOUS peaches!! What is your secret?

Rouge, I had a rose like that once. David Austin’s Golden Celebration. It would look good the beginning of the season, give a pretty nice first flush of blooms and then go downhill from there and look worse and worse. That’s all I ever did, was prune it radically. My feeling was, if it doesn’t come back, I’ll replace it. But even though I would just cut it back to maybe a foot off the ground late in the season, it would still come back the next season. And I preferred looking at healthy foliage on a growing shrub, with no flowers, then a yellowing half bare shrub the rest of the season.

Eventually, after about 4 years, this treatment had the expected ill effect on the rose and it was time to replace it. That was about the time I got serious about prioritizing health in a rose over other criteria. And fragrance is my 2nd priority. And that strategy has really been successfull for me and I enjoy my roses without too much fuss.

Peren.all - Sorry again, I didn’t see this post and my email box has been full of advertisements and sale notifications all month…lol. I must have missed the notification for GW.

I think I have posted photos of Prairie Sunrise a few times. It was growing in less than full sun and it performed but not so much for repeat blooming. Two falls ago a friend helped me move it to full sun and so this was it’s second year. The first season after moving it it didn’t do much, it was pruned low. Last season it started to show a lot of promise. Pushed out a steady supply of very pretty blooms and still fragrant and the foliage was healthy all season. I’m really looking forward to next season to see what it will do. I gave it a nice helping of compost last season, so we’ll see.

I’ve had that issue with variegated Hostas, reverting to a plain color. I have ignored my Hostas in the past 5 years because the rabbits have been brutal. They wait for the new leaves to come up and they will just eat some of them, down to the ground. I grow mostly variegated and some of them should have had the reverted parts removed already. But I think, what difference does it make, when the rabbits are just going to eat the whole thing…lol. I think I have Blue Angel. I don’t remember noticing getting a hosta that got that big. Wow.

Next spring I’ll have to talk to you more about the reversions. I also have that going on with a variegated holly, Honey Maid. I pruned it hard two years ago, because the shape of the shrub was just awful. 90% of the new foliage came in solid green. I think I cut it back too low? Another plant I’m waiting to see what it does next season.

"Porkchop….GORGEOUS peaches!! What is your secret?"

This particular tree was pruned aggressively the year prior = lots of fruiting new growth. I also sprayed the cr*p out of it with copper fungicide in the late fall because of the dreaded peach leaf curl, so the foliage was lush this year to support all the fruit. I thinned so many it was unbelievable, and many were culled for the animals because of damage and I still had plenty. But yea, it was great peach year. I told her she could take a rest next year LOL! I have to get out there and spray the copper this year, but the weather window has to be right and it's too cold. If we get a bit of warm-up, even a couple days, I'll head out there with the sprayer. It really helps keep the curl down.

Porkchop, is copper considered a pesticide or fungicide? Organic care at all? Happy for you, I know fruit trees can be a little bit of work, nice if it is worth it for you.

"Porkchop, is copper considered a pesticide or fungicide?"

Fungicide. I don't know if it is also used as a pesticide.

"I know fruit trees can be a little bit of work, nice if it is worth it for you."

No. They're a LOT of work.

Porkchop - LOL Well, that is what it has sounded like from others and since I am an organic grower, I've decided to pass on the fruit trees. [g] Last year I bought two small crabapples, and they're on their own. Sink or swim. [g]

@forever_a_newbie_VA8, I posted that photo on FB earlier this year. A friend saw it and wanted it in the bouquets she’ll be making for her son’s wedding next summer, so I saved her a ton of seeds and told her how easy it is to sow. Such an easy annual to grow, and it will self-sow like crazy if you let it set seeds. The seedpods are really cool too. I’d post a photo here but that would be breaking the rules. lol!

So @party_music50, with your wonderful photo and doing some on line searching (I like that it can be direct sown and it may self seed), I was easily able to pick up some packages of Nigella:

Wow, @rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a), that’s a fun package! I’m especially curious about the N. sativa — edible seeds.

August 5/2025:

Zephyrgal I love that golden duke !

Not a plant, but my favorite photo was from the partial solar eclipse on March 29 and the shadows it cast.

Nice pics! Rouge, that is a beautiful garden shot.

Thank you @maackia. The variety of plants and colours is the appeal to me in this picture.

rouge it really is a stunning capture!

As always @peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada you are way generous. (Remember, please let me know if you are ever planning to come to the "big city" as we would love for you to stop by...but just not in the winter 😉 ).

Likewise rouge if you can make it out to the country! I would love to have you & yours come for a visit!!