Last spring, I had dug up an itty bity dogwood that had seeded itself next to my driveway. I know they are notoriously hard to transplant but it was certain death in its previous location so I potted it up and crossed my fingers. IT dropped all of its leaves last summer(my big dogwoods did the some of that) so I figured it was a goner. But, I returned from vacation on Saturday to find four lovely new leaves.

I tried moving some volunteer ferns out to the edge of my "woodland" garden. They had come up in the back yard and were thriving in full sun. But in the dappled shade next to the woods they promptly turned brown and disappeared. I thought that was that but this spring...they are coming up and looking GREAT! There are more than ever out in the back, too.

Wish I knew what kind of ferns they are.

I had a philodendron come back!!! This was a little leaf vine type (not Pothos). You commonly see it used in combo planters that you buy ready made at Home Depot and the like. Nothing fancy, which is why I abandoned it to the flowerbed where it was living after crawling out of the decorative planter. It ended up covered in fallen leaves along with other sorta hardy plants. I have another one from another gift planter which will suffer the same fate I believe. If I ever find an ID on this guy I will share it.

Gerber Daisy came out. Was by the mail box getting the full assault from out desert sun last summer. Very dry and hot. They are coming back! Yahoo. Also our Astilbes are coming back as well.

Most of my water lovers are coming back- astilbe, spiderwort, ligularia, clethra . Best sighting so far is two small hazlenuts that I started last spring. By late summer, they dropped all three pitiful leaves and I was sure would need to be replaced. I did a drastic pruning in late winter and now they are leafing out and even starting new branch growth. I'm always amazed by the forgiveness of nature.