From a purple pineapple to dismal dahlias, 2025 had it all

The end of the year is a great time to look back at the last 365 days, so what better time than now to present my own awards for my own garden.

Best addition to the garden: I added seven trees to the garden this year, and two in particular made an almost immediate impact. A large seven sons flower tree (Heptacodium micanoides) assumed the place of honor when an aged serviceberry (Amelanchier) had to be removed. Although it was sad to lose the serviceberry, the beautiful multistem seven sons flower was a huge improvement, with its inverted-triangle shape proving to be a much better fit for the spot.

I picked up an ‘Origami’ Korean maple (Acer pseudosieboldianum) without knowing exactly where I would plant it, but its globe shape fit perfectly in a spot on the edge of the shade garden, bringing presence and interest to the area.

Despite that pair of worthy contenders, the award goes to a new bench. Although sitting is mostly an aspirational activity in my garden, the rounded, backless bench put some much-needed polish on a part of the garden that felt like an afterthought.

Best new-to-me plant: There’s a clear winner in this category and it is ‘Mila’ ornamental pineapple (Ananas). I grew a trio of them for the purple and red strappy foliage, but it sealed the win by producing a very small, but very real purple pineapple that could win a category for “cutest fruit.”

Biggest disappointment: No gardening year is perfect, and 2025 had its share of challenges, but I’ll remember it as my worst dahlia year ever. Few flowers carry such high expectations as dahlias, particularly the way I grow them, as important parts of the garden’s design.

The dahlias were slow to start flowering, not by days, but by weeks, and some seemed to give it a half-hearted attempt when they did start producing. I don’t have a good explanation for what happened, but I know I wasn’t alone; fellow dahlia growers in the area reported a similar experience.

Best project: After years of making minor changes to the shape of one garden bed, I finally bit the bullet and extended it about 10 feet, allowing a curve that had been cut off to dead-end naturally in to the driveway. It was a change I avoided because it required removing more sod, but one look at the result and it was clear I should have done it years ago.

Most unlikely favorite new plant: I tired of nearly ubiquitous petunias some time ago, so I rarely grow them. A trio of Supertunia Cool Jazz petunias arrived as part of trial package of plants that will be available in 2026, and without much thought I plunked them in the garden where I had a few holes. Imagine my surprise when the medium-size orchid pink-lavender flowers wowed me enough to have me rethinking petunias.

That’s not to say that my garden will be filled with petunias next year, but if the dahlias don’t start performing, you never know what the garden might drive me to do.