Best surprise was all the volunteer petunias that came up and filled in the empty spaces so nicely so I didn't have to buy annuals!

For me it's been a new rose, Wollerton Old Hall, which I bought from Austin's gardens without seeing (or smelling!) a single bloom. I took Austin's word for it that it was one of his most fragrant roses... and it is really wonderful. The surprise though has been the amount of blooms and how healthy the bush is, it just keeps pumping them out. So far, this looks like it's going to be a big, bushy, super-fragrant bush. What a great surprise!

Lavender - lovely thread.
For me it's been a souvenir...A baby rose that has grown itself. There is nothing that resembles it anywhere. It's only about 6" tall. The bloom was a red bud. Then a coral shaded open blossom about 3" across. No scent could be detected. Well now it is cream colored with pink edges on the petal.
I sure hope it survives the winter. We are so excited. Never had anything like this happen.
The weather on this side of the mountains has been cool. So far it only got to 80 one time. I hesitate to mention that as so many are experiencing huge heat issues. Hope all goes back to normal for all.
Jeannie

My biggest surprise this year has been to see how beautiful Yolnade d'Aragon and Grandmother's Hat really are. Before I bought these two roses I had only seen pictures of them and it is always a gamble if you order a rose that you did not see in person. I had both roses in 2 gallon and 5 gallon pots for a while where they flowered, but after I planted them out in the ground boy they really took off and presented me with many incredible pretty and very fragrant blooms.

My second surprise is how much it can change the overall look of an area, when you just exchange some companion plants. In my front yard I had quite a few pink dianthus inter planted with pink roses. Even though the dianthus were flowering nicely and there was nothing really wrong with the beds, I was never happy with them. It appeared to me just too girly and overly sweet, kind of a pink overkill. This spring I got around to take the dianthus out and replaced them with 'Black & Blue' salvias. It completely changed the overall impression of that garden area and right now I am very satisfied with it. The hummingbirds love the salvias, too, which is an additional bonus. Today I went to the nursery and I stumbled over a bluish flowering penstemon. The label said that it is a new variety with an extended bloom time called 'Pinacolada Violet'. The bees were just all over it at the nursery. I am really looking forward to bringing even more blue color to my front yard to accompany the pink flowering roses and provide food for the bees.

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

how large the blooms on "Mrs. Dudley Cross" have been, nearly 5 inches wide!
and that my Mlle. Cecille Brunner has been in constant bloom all summer long, without even a week of a break in blooming. My other plants of that cultivar produced a reliable 3 bloom cycles a year. It is in my front yard and I've been constantly deadheading it, so that may be the reason for constant bloom.

Lux.

My best surprise was Devoniensis. I thought it had died in last winter's cold, but it came back from the roots and has four or five lovely blooms on it right now.

Another happy surprise is that most of the roses handled the cold okay, although there was a lot of cane loss. And, to my happy surprise, there isn't much black spot out there, despite the humid sunless weather we've had this summer. The ones that do have problems are primarily the modern roses.

Also, I'd planted some northern-recommended tomato plants, Stupice and a couple of other similar varieties. I actually have gotten two ripe 2" tomatoes.

doesn't sound like much, does it? But I was surprised to get any, and there are a number of other green ones, which I hope will ripen. Getting any at all been a very happy surprise. Gean

My best rose surprises were my new Princess Alexandra of Kent (HUGE blooms that last and are sooo fragrant) and Aloha Hawaii (the colors truly glow.

My best overall garden surprise is the height of so many of the plants - that long cool spring and hot July shot up plants like phlox, Hollyhocks, lilies, etc. way way taller than usual, and so healthy and happy.

What a beautiful shot of her, Jeri! That could be a catalog shot. This photo looks like what I remember of her. You did my "little girl" proud! Thank you! Kim

My biggest surprise was to find out that it take four years for a rose to come into their own when grown in glacier slurry ! I have a few theories, but it was glorious to see the roses finally reach a point where they are stong and healthy plants. I am not talking about teas and othe roses that have to build, but also more modern roses.

Glacier slurry brings its own challenges to gardening and I am seeing the results of having been patient. The pay-off has been so very soul satisfying. It just feels good.

Smiles,
Lyn

Nice thread, Lavender lass: thanks!
The best surprise this summer was, after it being really hot and dry all April and May, when June started and I had very nearly given up hope of any spring at all before the summer drought got going, the weather turned mild and cool and it started to rain. Most of June and July were in the same vein, and the roses continued to bloom until the end of July. A beautiful summer, and really unexpected after our dreadful spring.
Not too much, aside from that, but I'm paying more attention to wild plants and related herbaceous perennials that bloom at the height of summer and in early fall: I think I need a lot more of them. Lately I've been keeping a vigilant eye on my Musk Rose (one of three plants all stuck in different places, in the hope that one at least would grow) that's close to the house, which, after sitting motionless for nearly a year, is starting to put out new growth. And my cuttings have done pretty well.
Melissa

well one of the nicest surprises has been using some extremely common plants which I had probably overlooked (in my over-arching horticultural snootiness). Flowering oregano and a toadflax which is practically a weed, have been providing endless sutenance to bees and butterflies. The toadflax is the pink and white forms of the tall purple linaria with glaucous leaves. Of course, they have all hybridised so I have huge clouds of everything between deep purple and white including lovely blush pink. Alongside the umbellifers I am insanely fond of,and a tall althea canabina, the effect has been ultra feminine, frothy and ethereal. Rather lovely and definately unplanned. Mostly, I completely ripped out my old garden and started afresh so this garden is only 4 months yet manages to look lush and well developed - of course, this is not so difficult in a tiny 4mx9m plot but one utterly crammed with stuff. I ripped out an overgrown New Dawn but, being lazy, I left a tuft of rootstock. It has now colonised a wall and is flowering alongside a late viticella clematis, looking more lovely than it has ever managed - I am going to cut this rose savagely every year - I know it will ultimately shorten it's life but better that than total removal.
I also managed to get my hands on some tritonia which looks beautiful in a pot with a small molina with deep ruby flowers. Finally, aha, I have gone over to garden orthodoxy, owning an acer (which have previously been targets of my deepest scorn) although it is a coral bark and not one of the really tiny wimps and.....a hosta (for years I loathed these dull green leaves....but hey, now I have a small woodland border, it looks too cool with kirengoshoma and lady ferns....and I can indulge my anemone obsession. Erm, this could go on for a long time so I will censor my enthusiasm right now (Having been silenced with a horrid trojan horse virus for ages, I have a lot to catch up on).

For me it's only needing to spray for BS 2x and insects haven't been much of an issue either. This is as close to a no-spray garden as I've ever had. Since I've had some serious health issues this last year it's especially welcomed.

The biggest surprise around here is how well September Morn holds up to day after day triple digit temperatures and all the while keeping it's very strong fragrance. This is a 2nd day bloom ...
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It was purchased as a band this spring and since then as been in continuous bloom as well as growing well. The yellow you see is from yellow pots in the background. It's been disease free in this dry year. I grew it several years ago and found only a slight bit of black spot from time to time ... {{gwi:302193}}

Sadly, most of my other roses look like this by noon ...
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September Morn seems to be such a great rose for hot climates I couldn't bear not to pass along my experience with it :-)

Kim, that's one of the LITTLE sprays. Maybe later, I can get some big ones. :-)

Jeri

I moved a couple of clematis I thought were dead, and they came back and look great. I was so happy I did not kill them after all!

Also tried a new plant, Agastache, 'Acapulco Orange' I think it might be--what a nice rose companion it has turned out to be. At least so far.

My marigolds are amazing this year. Most of the time I'm sorta 'meh' about them, but this year they are crazy gorgeous.

In regards to my roses- I'm in love with my Princess Alexandra of Kent. I was also very pleasantly surprised by Milwaukee's Calatrava. I bought it for the name, but it was much more attractive in person than how it was pictured in catalogs and online.

Best surprise was discovering that all roses survived this summer's drought. They are proof that my clay is very water retentive. We could only water vegetables and pots with no water to spare for any but newly planted roses. Well, we have enough water but no sprinkler so we had to water with the hose, long boring sessions.

Kronprinzessin Viktoria has been perfect all summer so after five years I've discovered what a beautiful white rose it is. I dare not hope for another summer like this for her, but more rain will be better for the rest of the garden.

A third surprise was the resurrection of the sky blue clematis Fujimusume. It was invisible for many months but came up and now blooms with three flowers on a small plant. I know that I should have removed them but I didn't have the heart.

My biggest surprise was how really well all the new roses are doing this summer and, for most, the extent of blooming during record-setting heat. That's true for all our roses that are planted in the sunniest bed. I said in some post or other that Duchesse de Brabant had slowed down some, but that only lasted about 10 days between blooms during the early summer when we had a tiny bit of drought and didn't water quite enough. Since then we've had good rain and watered well when we didn't... and the roses really do like all the water (with good drainage).

Another surprise is the extent of blooming for roses that mostly went into the ground this spring and summer. I know theoretically that they'd do better if we didn't let them bloom, but they are doing so well with all the sun, heat, and water this summer that it's hard to see how they could be doing any better. Most are completely blackspot-free, and the other two are at least 90%. And that's with growing in a spot that lacks a noticeable amount of direct morning sunlight (but still is the sunniest spot we have). One spot has slightly less light than the overall location for all those roses (a nearby camellia is quite tall)... and when my husband retrieved a Kordes' Lion's Fairy Tale from the pot ghetto it was accidentally planted there instead of the planned polyantha that I'd expect to have more shade tolerance. So I started making plans to move the rose as soon as I realized the error... but it turns out that Lion's Fairy Tale has some shade tolerance too! It has bloomed and grown well, this little one-gallon rose that went into the ground around the first week of June. It's completely blackspot & mildew-free too.

Besides watering and plentiful rainfall as the main ingredient in success with roses' blooming and growing in the heat of the summer, I think another secret for success in hot summers is in the choice of varieties; the varieties planted in this bed all clearly like the heat of the Southern climate. A little more of what they already like apparently makes them even happier! Note: I might have guessed that Lion's Fairy Tale wouldn't want so much heat but it's doing wonderfully well. So is the bourbon Maggie (wow, what a beautiful bloomer!!!). The rest are mostly teas with a couple of polyanthas, a china and a noisette thrown in.

I was hoping for a good summer season, but the season has been so good it has surpassed what I had been realistically hoping for. Great surprise, great surprise... :)

Best wishes,
Mary