Susan’s 2025 Garden Year in Review

Hi GPODers!

Winter can feel its heaviest as January begins to winds down. The excitement of the new year has settled and spring still feels painfully far away. If you’re not starting seeds or playing with houseplants, it can be hard to stay connected to your gardening practice. This can be especially true if your garden is completely buried in snow, like Susan Warde in St. Paul, Minnesota (Zone 4b – 5a). Susan is a frequent contributor to the blog, and has shared many gorgeous garden highlights over the years (Last Year’s Gardening Season at the 45th Parallel, Color Coordinating in Susan’s Front Garden, Season’s End in Susan’s Garden, The Summer That Was at the 45th Parallel, Gardening Side by Side, and more). Although her glorious designs are interrupted by harsh Minnesota winters, there is still an immense amount of color to enjoy from the first spring blooms to the last fall foliage.

It’s 5°F and we’re buried in snow. It’s not too soon to look ahead but the garden in 2026 seems impossibly far away, so here are some photos of the 2025 season.

April 23: The scilla are starting to fade but tarda tulips (Tulipa tarda, Zones 3–8), small but mighty, brighten the garden.

May 14: These ‘Josee’ lilacs (Syringa ‘Josee’, Zones 5–8) are in their full glory in the spring, but for the first time this year there was significant reblooming in late summer.

May 14: Jack-in-the-pulpits (Arisaema triphyllum, Zones 3–9) don’t make much of an impact, but I love this photo of a pair conversing, the left one whispering in the other’s ear.

June 6: The climbing rose is ‘William Baffin’ (Rosa ‘William Baffin’, Zones 3–9). It flowers heavily in June, but this past year it had a handful of blossoms in bloom all season long. The bright pink peonies are ‘Kansas’ (Paeonia lactiflora ‘Kansas’, Zones 4–8), the white ones are ‘Honey Gold’ (P. lactiflora ‘Honey Gold’, Zones 3–8). A few purple irises are also visible in this photo.

July 1: Side garden, looking towards the back. ‘Vision in Red’ astilbe (Astilbe chinensis ‘Vision in Red’, Zones 3–8), ‘Happy Returns’ daylilies (Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’, Zones 3–9), and ‘Annabelle’ hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, Zones 3–9) in the background.

July 8: ‘Erin Lea’ daylilies (Hemerocallis ‘Erin Lea’, Zones 3–9), with ‘Vision in Red’ astilbes in the background. I have 10 varieties of daylilies, which flower over a long period of time. I deadhead daily, and this year I counted the spent blooms as I picked them off (weird, I know): 1,420!

August 21: Although the August garden is always colorful, it begins to look a bit tired, especially since I don’t grow any annuals. Here are the usual suspects: rudbeckia, echinacea, phlox, ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’, Zones 3–10) is just starting to show a slight blush.

September 14: I’ve tried for years to grow something on the front arbor. A ‘Blue Moon’ wisteria (Wisteria macrostachya ‘Blue Moon’, Zones 4–9) went rampant: it needed a haircut every two weeks, and there wasn’t enough sun for it to produce many flower clusters. Hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta, Zones 3–8) also proved too aggressive, and the various clematis I tried were gangly and feeble. In 2024 I acquired a small pot of ‘Anita’ clematis (Clematis ‘Anita’, Zones 3–9); it grew enough to not look pathetic. This year it was covered with tiny blooms. Unfortunately they only lasted a week and produced no seedbeds, but even so I was delighted that there was finally greenery covering the arbor.

October 10: The “garage garden” with a glimpse of the back yard (where one can just make out yet another ‘Emperor 1’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Wolff’, Zones 5–8) that I’m trying—my very last one, I swear). The pink blooms in the front are Little Quick Fire® hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata ‘SMHPLQF’, Zones 3–9).

November 5: End of the season; the birdbath tops have already been flipped for winter. The small maple on the left is Ice Dragon® Japanese maple (Acer x pseudosieboldianum ‘IsliD’, Zones 4–7). This and the larger one by the house—’North Wind’ (A. x pseudosieboldianum ‘IslNW’, Zones 4–7)—are Korean-Japanese maple hybrids, dependably hardy in my zone. The bright yellow leaves in the upper right is a climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris, Zones 4–8).

Thank you so much for sharing these gorgeous 2025 garden highlights with us, Susan! It’s always a pleasure to see the updates you have make and the plants you have added to your lively landscape.

How was your 2025 growing season? From bright spring bulbs to blazing fall foliage, we would love to see the garden scenes that made your heart scream last year. Follow the NEW directions below to submit your photos to Garden Photo of the Day!

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You can also send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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