Volunteers - image intensive!

[Reinbeau]

How many of you have volunteers in your garden? By that I mean annual plants that reseed themselves every year. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following:

Calendulas (mine)

Poppies (both photos are mine)- both Papaver nudical

and somniferum

Moldavian Dragonshead (Dracocephalum moldavica) (my photo )

Larkspur

Snapdragons (not exactly annuals, but half-hardy perennials around here, sometimes they actually make it through the winter, but usually I get seedlings that bloom fairly late)

All manner of Salvias - I'll dig into my archives and post my own photos of them.

Sunflowers (mine)

Nicotiana sylvestris (mine) - this one was a very nice find and comes back in my garden anywhere it wants to every year

Can't forget the Johnny-jump-ups! (from my garden)

And this wonderful verbascum that stood guard by the front of my walk this past summer

Please note some of these images aren't from my garden, they're gathered from various sites on the internet via Google. I've noted which ones were from my garden.

I could go on and on, enough about my garden - what volunteers in your garden?

 

[Rosalind]

Oh my goodness. My house is very old and the basic layout of the landscaping hasn't changed much in 50 years, but various owners had different attitudes and enthusiasm for gardening. So the house came with lots of surprises.

This year we got sunflowers in the lawn spread by the bird feeder. Many decades ago, someone planted a reasonable lilac-and-forsythia hedge that has since become unreasonable through excess volunteers. Apparently there were originally only a few lily-of-the-valleys around the place, too, but now some parts are carpeted. We've got bleeding hearts growing up through the patio bricks; I actually can't seem to find the original plant and I refuse to believe that some fool would have planted one smack in the middle of a walkway. The perennial beds around the pool, your guess is as good as mine where they originally ended and where I should start mowing, but how are you supposed to mow down black-eyed susans, irises, tiny lilac bushes with two proud flowers, lamb's ears, lily-of-the-valleys, ferns? There's always something blooming that I can't bear to mow. I found a volunteer butterfly bush in the pool patio bricks over the summer, again, can't find a grown-up butterfly bush it might have sprung from. The side and front yards have volunteer holly and yew bushes, too, all straggly looking and miserable.

What else? Burning bush, mulberry, about a million maple seedlings and even saplings, beech, ash, chestnut, white pine. Creeping myrtle, pachysandra, we've got lots of escaped ground cover.

 

[digitS']

(Is that a scented geranium beside your steps?)

I've got just a few CA poppies around the rosebushes but I disturb things by pulling weeds amongst the wood chips. On the other had, I've got some gorgeous Papaver somniferum much like yours! With some good luck and amongst quite a few rather plain types, there will be lovely raspberry pink blooms each year. (And, just what are we doing with Papaver somniferum? I told the wife to tell people that we got the seed originally from the little old German lady down the street - which is true.)

Really pretty purple cornflower amongst the larkspur in the photo! I've got the larkspur but it isn't wonderful.

And, I've got sunflowers as volunteers here and there - usually in the wrong place. I always want a few in the veggie garden. Now that mullein is a weed in my neck of the woods. But, I understand that they aren't so common in other locations so, yes, they are dramatic!

And speaking of a weed, I'm afraid the Jewels of Opar may be turning into one. A few more show up each year in the veggie gardens and I don't even remember planting 'em . . . ever. Another like this is the perilla. I think I remember planting that once and I've been known to move 'em around where I want 'em. (Their purple foliage is absolutely stunning with tall, bright yellow marigolds!) Am I going to get in trouble with these 2??

The gaillardia may as well be considered a volunteer. They are such short-lived perennials, reseed, and wander around so much, I can't keep them in their bed. I've got Rosalind's problems with them showing up in the paths.

To say a little something about Nicotiana: I planted some mix or other about 5 or more years ago. They were nice, I enjoyed them but there's been something different in the way of an annual in that bed ever since. This year, 1 Nicotiana plant showed up on its own under the China asters! There may have been more pulled as weeds - just don't know. It was certainly unexpected!

Steve

 

[Reinbeau]

Yes, it was a scented geranium, lemon scented, I believe. The rose scented one was in another pot on the farmer's porch. As for the Jewels of Opar yes, they are vigorous reseeders, (I forgot about them, I've got them, too!) but they come up a little later and are easily removed if I don't like where they've popped up.

You've also hit on another volunteer, a perennial, this time, that would be Echinacea, or purple cone flowers. I let them set seeds all the time because the goldfinches love them, but they can get a bit thick!

Rosalind hit on another one, bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis), they seed themselves in behind the house, all over the place. I've got the red ones and white ones (I've also got the smaller fringe-leafed bleeding heart, Dicentra exima, but that doesn't seed so much as creep via rhizomes). Oh, and the other 'weed' around here are foxgloves. When I moved into this house I was thrilled to find foxgloves had naturalized themselves in the backyard along the wooded edge. They appear where they choose, sometimes they're in a really great spot in the garden, sometimes they're in the bricks, like your bleeding hearts!

 

[Nifty]

Beautiful pics!

I think I need to move out to MA, hire you as my gardner, or both!

 

[digitS']

What, no one with hollyhocks? (Since we are counting other than annuals . . .)

S

 

[Reinbeau]

See, I can't even remember what I've got out there. Of course I've got hollyhocks!

 

[patandchickens]

We haven't lived here long and I have planted relatively few flowers yet, but I do get a yearly plague of self-seeded perennial blue flax. Fortunately I really like the stuff so mostly I just let it be. I suppose eventually I will have to crack down on it but I do like the sky-blue running all thru the beds in the morning... and by afternoon all that's left is the foliage which is somewhere between attractive and unnoticeable.

As volunteers go, I recommend it


Pat, where a thorough application of Thiram yesterday failed to keep that expletive-deleted rabbit from levelling the rest of my Aronia, so I am off to the store to get a live trap (which with my luck probably won't work anyway grrrr)

 

[Reinbeau]

Oh, I'd love perennial flax as a weed! Unfortunately they don't seem to like me, I've tried....

And Rob, I had to give up gardening professionally. Hurt my back too much, so much that I couldn't do my own garden - can't have that! I only do my own now. Oh, and help with my mother's.

 

[digitS']

You have a charming yard and gardens, Ann. When were these photo's taken?

The flax comment, Pat, makes me remember that I've got forget-me-nots everywhere. And, their lovely skyblue color running thru everything is very welcome, come Spring. And, how would I forget forget-me-nots?

Steve

Deep in December it's nice to remember
Although you know the snow will follow
. . .
Deep in December our hearts should remember
Then follow - follow

Follow
O - O
~ Roy Orbison