Planted last year, my Buck rose Aunt Honey is blooming profusely but I wasn't thinking about Aunt Honey when I let every foxglove plant do its thing. Poor Aunt Honey is surrounded! No one can see her big pink roses unless they wade through the foxglove.

Thinman, I can ditto you on the sunflowers. Now if they can just hang on till they get past deer-candy size......

Ditto, too, on Highland White Dream daisies. They bloomed for me last year after planting, and they were gorgeous! But this year they got attacked by the dreaded Four-Lined Leaf Bug, and I waited longer than I should have to spray. So while they're covered with buds, the foliage looks rather pitiful.

And in a little reversal, I've been lazy about planting out the mock orange, which is still sitting in its temporary pot on the porch. But this is perhaps a good thing, because I wasn't out digging at its new spot this morning when a tree came down directly on it. I guess procrastination isn't always bad.

Susan

Good news first --- My David phlox has never been so beautiful with abundant blooms and their sweet aroma.

Bad news second --- My black-eyed susans have never looked so healthy and the plants themselves are probably twice the size that they've been before, but the blooms are tiny. I don't understand it, the blooms are so small - probably half the size of what they were last year. It's not like something is eating the blooms, they are fully formed, just tiny. Hmmmm, I don't get it.

The puzzler here is I lost so many of my Michaelmas Daisies which until now thought would live through fire, flood, drought and anything else that was thrown at them and the iffy new Echinaceas came back gangbusters even though we went through the worst winter we've ever had.

Annette

Everything grew huge in the spring. Everything huge is dying from lack of rain.

well, my hopes for any verbena bonariensis have been dashed. None germinated.

Having said that, I do have a very lush garden. These rains have prolonged the blooms of some plants (like my bleeding heart) and made everything so fat and large.

I have seen more bugs this year than before. Many I'm not able to identify. My tree has been attacked by aphids and blight. The blight will eventually kill it (and what a huge lesson for me - never buy an ornamental pear again).

I have these tiny black bugs all over my flowering lambs ears. Earwigs in my roses. black flea beetles on my tomatoes. Slugs all over the area. Something continues to chew my dahlia's leavles. There's also an odd spotted look to my russian sage - like it's been chewed up in tiny spots. weird.

Good News - after 4 years, my butterfly weed has taken off and is incredibly lush. The Penstemon Dark Towers I planted last year doubled in size and is covered in blooms.

Bad News - Something ate the Delphinium Blue Mirror I just planted. The gaillardia I planted last year didn't overwinter.

Good News and Bad News - Because I was working 60 hours a week (and sometimes more) all last spring and summer nothing got mulched. As a result, many things seeded that never have before including snapdragons, cleome, salvia, agastache and rose campion. Unfortunately, so did every weed and since I spent this spring sick, I now have wanted plants and weeds right next to each other. So, I am now in the midst of a huge weeding project.

Yeah, what Token said ...... best spring in memory, everything was soooo lush. Now another dry spell (last rain was 'bout 3 wks ago - and 3" all at once, too much too fast). I assess daily and hose water the neediest, but hose water is a very poor substitute for the real thing. Hope our hot spell spawns some real rain real soon.

Good news: The front bed looks awesome--etoille violette clematis, spirea "neon flash," lady's mantle, Johnson's blue geranium, and various coral bells (Southern Comfort, Obsidian, a lime green one) added pretty foliage.

Bad news: There seem to be at least two juvenile bunnies living in the backyard, fearless and hungry. The asters and liatris have been munched. I'm going to spray everything with liquid fence tomorrow.

I love the title/theme/idea of this thread. That is exactly what I think as I walk through the garden.

One of my new roses bloomed for the first time this year, beautiful bush shape and lovely fragrant blooms . . . BUT it is not the rose I ordered. I wanted a dark colour for my dark garden and this is light pink.

The verbascum nigra that I wintersowed and I thought died last year is absolutely huge, healthy and just starting to open it's flowers . . . BUT it looks like it is going to bloom white which means it is not nigra but another variety.

The white Liatris that I thought died last year right after I planted it seems to have made a comeback . . . BUT the beautiful pink lupines that I posted photos of have been attacked by the worst aphid infestation I've ever seen in the space of several days and look like they might not make it through the rest of summer.

The sunflowers that reseeded and that I planted look straight and healthy . . . BUT most of the ones that were supposed to be dwarf or mini clearly aren't and are almost as tall as I am right near the front of the border!

The daylilies look like they're starting to form flower buds which is very exciting, as I love the daylily show . . . BUT I'm disappointed by my lillies which are barely 6 inches tall right now. Everyone else has tall lillies that are either beginning to bloom or putting up flower buds at least. Wondering why mine are so behind the times :)

And we've gotten huge amounts of rain so far, which the roses seem to revel in . . . BUT I think it has drowned about half of my small tomato and pepper plants that I start indoors and planted out at the end of May. They were still fairly small when our "rainy season" began, and at least half have succumbed.

GOOD NEWS - my favorite light blue delphiniums came back this year. BAD NEWS - many have been blown over and had their stems snapped in half.

GOOD NEWS - The Fairy roses have started blooming. BAD NEWS - John Davis is a mass of spent blooms.

GOOD NEWS - My super long mixed border is completely full. BAD NEWS - No more room for any new roses I wanted to try.

I haven't done a close up inspection type walk through for a couple of days; been busy cutting the tree-like poke out of the blackberry patch! Then had to mow.

I did notice while mowing:

Bad: Something is eating all the leaves off the blasted Siberian Elms....haven't had that problem in years. Piles of leaves in sweeps across the drive.

Weeds have taken over two bed.......neglected them terribly

Last winds broke the bloom stalk off one of the new daylilies that was in its first bloom....lovely rosy pink red color. I put it in a vase on the porch and it has bloomed out!

Borers got the last spaghetti squash....wanted to try that one.

Cut off two of the three self-seeded Leilani ageratums with the string trimmer

Having to water now

Good:

Garden is looking good

the Lady in Red salvia all self-seeded in a row as a border in the HB Bed.

Something new every day with gardening.

glenda

What a great idea, TM!

The temps are warming up (high 70s), but that means the cute Blackberry Cream violas will soon get leggy and need haircuts.

The pond is almost dug but choosing filters/skimmers, etc. is giving me a headache.

The roses have no aphids this year, but the earwigs took their place.

BUT the earwigs are almost gone! Good News - the oil in the cat food cans works!

Good News - it's almost the 4th of July! Bad news - there is none! : )

Diana

I knew that I wasn't the only bad news bear here, but it's good to have confirmation. Not that I would wish bad things on any of you just so I could have company in my misery. No sirree! But thanks for sharing your trials and tribulations so I don't feel like a doofus gardener.

ThinMan

Great idea ThinMan.

I have a huge cutting garden (for fun).

My newly planted lily bulbs last year bloomed so huge that everyone asked if they were on steroids but, one week of extreme heat means my one month bloom period went to about one week. And, the blooms were so huge it was very challenging to arrange them in a vase.

My two new roses (a red and dark red) are doing great; however, the japanese beetles are devouring my pink and peach roses.

I had a beautiful front flower bed of annual poppies in luscious shades of pink, peach, red, etc., but now it is about as dead looking as it can be.

I successfully winter sowed perennial poppies; however, it will be a long time before they bloom as the plants are pretty small still.

I tried lots of new plants from seed this year and yet, some are still not blooming, and they are annuals.

Teresa

Good news: My sunflower seedlings are all up
Bad news: The rabbits are eating them

GOOD- lots of sun
BAD- no rain and we are on well water
GOOD - shasta daisies are 5ft plus and starting to bloom
BAD- They are blocking the paths, blocking the view and starting to form governments.
GOOD- the Black Eye Susans are huge and lush
BAD- I have to move two roses out from their shade

BAD- the sunflower bed has been consumed by lady ferns
GOOD- the birds planted a new bed of them for me a few feet over and they are doing great

And the GOOD and BAD together, the plants are doing so well that they have tossed my "plan" to the wind and have come up with their own. So, we go with it. LOL

No rain to speak of for over a month & 100+ degree days the past few weeks. You can imagine what that's doing for the lawn & gardens. But, there are now very few mosquitoes around. I was just out for 15 minutes and didn't get a single bite! Yippee!

Good: all sorts of things that I thought had been killed by our unseasonably cold winter have made miraculous late reappearances: dracena, Mexican bush sage, fatsia, etc. Even more amazing is the fact that my beloved, no-name, many-months-dead lavenders managed to set seed before they passed on. There were no signs of babies for seven months, and suddenly, there are three young-uns. I am so excited!

Bad: blackspot on my carpet rose. I thought carpet roses were indestructible??? Grrrrrr.