Every once in a while, a new plant shows up in my garden. Probably more often than I realize. Many of the plants I have come from other friend’s gardens, and I love these plants the most. I love walking through the gardens, noticing blooms and remembering the friends who gave them to me. Kind of like opening the boxes of Christmas ornaments and thinking of all the friends from the past who were kind enough to make and give homemade ornaments.
The latest bonus plant sprung up in a small area where I had planted a few daylilies that came from online orders.
This orange canna popped up, and I originally thought it came from the batch that Patty had given me a few years back. I never dug the bulbs out, and thought that perhaps this one had survived. But the ones Patty gave me were red, this one bloomed a gorgeous orange. The most I can figure is it happened to be dug out with the daylily roots that were sent from somewhere in Georgia.
This pink Angel Winged Begonia sprouted a few years ago.
I have no idea where this one came from either. Alice doesn’t recognize it, as most of the plants in the area it sprung up in were from her garden.
Then there’s this horse nettle, that I’m not so sure about. It keeps popping up in the middle of my spiderwort, and it has some very spiny stickers which makes it hard to control.
But the flowers it produces are very interesting. How can such a pretty flower ever be considered a weed?
Perhaps the most unusual bonus surprise was the appearance of this Blackberry Lily. It resembled the leaves of an iris when it first sprung up. But the bloom was totally unexpected, and once it went to seed, it revealed the reason for its name. Turns out, it’s neither a lily nor a blackberry!
Surprises in the garden make the gardening experience very whimsical. What surprises have you discovered?