Last weekend, I ventured into a neglected area of my garden, the part I haven't planted or even cleaned up yet. I was shocked at what I saw there. Dusty miller plants, more than a dozen of them, spreading their silvery leaves among the debris of last season's garden.
WHAT??? Dusty millers are annuals here on the frozen tundra. I've planted 'em for years, usually as part of a border to set off my perennials. But they've never, ever returned for an encore.
I wasn't sure what zone they were hardy to, so I looked online. Zone 9. My yard is Zone 4. There's no way those plants should have made it through the winter.
Is this a freak result of the early, heavy snow cover -- protecting my annuals from the deep freeze? Is this some other plant that only looks like dusty miller, that I somehow got my hands on last spring? Has anybody else ever had dusty miller act like a perennial here? And what surprise survivors are coming up in YOUR garden?
