Volunteers You Can Count On

[Shades-of-Oregon]

digitS’ Chinese lanterns grew so rapidly as they are a herbaceous perennial as you discovered the hard way.
Just think you could have grown a garden full of Chinese lanterns and sold them as dried stems to the craft market.

 

[digitS']

I’m proud of my success in digging out the potatoes around this volunteer. Here Pete the Petunia is with the new bed party, the bok choy plants. Some mustard greens are nearby.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

digitS’ nice combo planting. I like the cutie pie patootie.

 

[Branching Out]

View attachment 68233
I’m proud of my success in digging out the potatoes around this volunteer. Here Pete the Petunia is with the new bed party, the bok choy plants. Some mustard greens are nearby.

What a pretty combination of flowers and edibles digitS'-- love it!

 

[heirloomgal]

A reliable volunteer, planted one over a decade ago and has returned every single year since.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@heirloomgal That is a gorgeous pretty flower.

It is such a delight when plants we nurtured years ago are still popping up in our gardens.
It always makes the garden feel complete to see the old standbys appearing on que.

 

[flowerbug]

A reliable volunteer, planted one over a decade ago and has returned every single year since.
View attachment 68254

once established and dropping seeds they are almost impossible to remove from a more formal bed or vegetable garden. this is as a warning for those who can't tolerate a more random look (Mom ). i've been trying to remove them completely from several vegetable gardens and many years later the seeds are still sprouting (even now with most of the morning glory seeds also finally not sprouting in there - the above plants are still sprouting many seedlings each week - any time i disturb the soil new seeds are moved into the germination zone and then get going...). but, yes, we do love the colors and plant itself. it's just that they are in the wrong place.

there is a darker more purple version we have grown here which also shows up from time to time.

 

[digitS']

Malva

there is a darker more purple version

Not?
mauve (n.)
reddish-purple aniline dye, 1859, from French mauve, from Old French mauve "mallow" (13c.), from Latin malva "mallow" (see mallow). The dye was so called from its resemblance to the purple markings of the petals of the mallow plant. Related: Mauvish.

 

[flowerbug]

Malva

Not?
mauve (n.)
reddish-purple aniline dye, 1859, from French mauve, from Old French mauve "mallow" (13c.), from Latin malva "mallow" (see mallow). The dye was so called from its resemblance to the purple markings of the petals of the mallow plant. Related: Mauvish.

this is the color of most of ours (more white with purple stripes):

but then we also get some darker ones which are more purple (there's no white in them):

 

[ruralmamma]

In the garden it's edible weeds like bittercress and lamb's quarters and I let a few grow every year because I harvest and eat them. Curly and Red Russian kale produce enough volunteer seedlings that I haven't had to plant either variety for three years and of course there's the occasional volunteer tomato.

But the one thing that has really awes me is a morning glory that sprouted in an old planter my first husband's grandmother had made out of an old metal lunch can. She passed in 2012 and had been in a nursing home for 4-5 years prior so I have no idea how long that planter had been in her shed. I helped clean her house out the following year to be sold and was told to help myself to anything in the shed, so I grabbed everything garden related as that's one thing she and I both loved and often talked about. So the next year I set the planter out intending to dump out the soil and plant something in it but life got in the way and it wasn't long until a morning glory seedling sprouted and grew. Fast forward to two years ago and the same morning glory pops up next to the house, doesn't appear the next year, and this year it is back again. I believe it's Heavenly Blue, and a volunteer of that original morning glory as I haven't planted them in over twenty years.