STOWAWAYS - a Story of Survival

This past spring digging about in the front lasagna garden I came across live plants buried within on three separate occasions.  According to plan they should have composted over the winter but I have since realized that most articles written about lasagna gardens have not been written by zone 3 gardeners and not much composting happened for 5 frozen months. 
The lone plant in the bottom right corner (above) was quite substantial and  healthy in a bed where I had not planted anything. Eventually I found a second one as well.
Then some lovely variegated Vinca started popping up as well.
Curious.

 What I had put into the bed however were the discarded plants I collected from the generous folks at Jensens' Nursery, where they allowed me to cart off loads of plant material they had pulled from their display gardens to use in the construction of my lasagna gardens.
 
I transplanted to the Moon Garden what turned out to be white Dianthus, where they fit in perfectly with the all-white theme (don't worry, those "Broadway Lights" Shasta Daisies above faded from yellow to white).
These stowaways had clearly not only survived the winter but had somehow 'hibernated', and with some warmth from the composting lasagna garden spent the winter without dying back.
Stowaways - who would have thought?
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