What have your garden hits and misses been this year?

[SunnySundie]

I'm getting to the time of year where I like nothing more than to sit in on these cold damp days and plan for what I'd like to plant next year. I was wondering if the wise gardeners of MN could inspire me with some of their gardening hits and misses of this year?
I planted a guilder rose this time last year for its bright berries, but the autumn colour as the leaves turn has been so beautiful, its rapidly becoming one of my favourite things in the garden. My Excelsior foxgloves are somehow just about still flowering in the shady bed where very little else flowers, and after a slow start my gauras are still going and cheer me up so much.

On the other hand I planted a couple of callicarpas- one has died and the other is looking so sorry for itself. My soil runs a bit chalky and with hindsight I think they would have preferred a more acidic soil. What have you enjoyed in your garden this year and what would you give a wide swerve in future?

My foxgloves did brilliantly.

Of the 100s of aliums planted I got a measly three flowers.

Hydrangeas bloomed well, clematis also, fuchsia still in flower plus penstemon and first year ever nerines!! Only took four years to get six heads of blooms.

Failures were dahlias, one of my rose bushes, osteospermum are in flower now better than during the summer so a bit of a failure when I expected them to look their best.

Musa Basjoo all went crazy, as did Ensete Banana and a Melianthus Major and paulownia tomentosa. Lost a wisteria in the heat, some fatsia and a yukka, which surprised me.

Complete glut of chillies.

Turns out there is only so many chillies you can keep, use and give away.

The caterpillars enjoyed the cabbages....

Most of my flowers did terribly except the alliums and my roses which have been in for a couple of years. My chilli plants were a massive success and I have a freezer full, as well as several bottles of chilli sauce in the cupboard.

Try this, it's so good:

The recipe is on his website somewhere too. Ignore the mild chilli suggestion, we did half Fresno and half Thai dragon chillis. We'd actually make it hotter next time.

We moved in January so I had to start from scratch, dig beds etc.
Hits: rose bushes, azaleas (always died in our old garden), french beans, potatoes, carrots, dahlias, patio fruit trees, alpines, jamaican daisy.
Misses: petunias, cyclamen, cauliflower, hydrangea, peony, first batch of lavender plug plants, love in a mist from seed which came up but teeny tiny and is still flowering now bizarrely.

Chillis did very very well. Some new dahlias were very hit and miss. The Love in the Mist and Cosmos from seed were a disappointment. My Salvias, Abutilon and Scented Geraniums were exceptional.

My tomatoes were rubbish. Hydrangeas doubled in size, they were new tiny shrubs from Lidl for £6 each so I bought a load and hoped for the best. Dahlias did really well and are still going now. Anything tropical did great especially the banana tree which has spread like crazy. My African daisies made it through two winters in the garden and I'm hoping will survive this winter also

It was a good year for the roses (to quote Elvis Costello), and best Nerines ever, I still have the last one in bloom (some years I get nothing at all). A bumper crop of goooseberries, some made into jam and others are in the freezer.

Chillies, unlike others, didn’t come up with a single fruit (grafted ones bought from the ‘sick bay’). Still, I still have loads in the freezer from last year. Odd as the peppers growing right next to them in the greenhouse did very well.

I was growing some cottagers kale, it was looking absolutely beautiful - then the cabbage whites completely decimated it. The tops have grown back and it's perennial so will hopefully go on for a few more years but I will be netting it next year! I also grew Jerusalem artichokes for the first time and they were a triumph, no flowers but loads of artichokes.