Thursday, May 17, 2012

Volunteer Plants


These cute little Violas growing at the base of my front porch are what my mother-in-law calls "volunteer" plants. They "volunteer" to come up from seeds left behind by the parent plant a year before. I call them "babies" and love them for the shear fact that they are free. In fact I have had great success with Pansies and Violas coming up from seed the following Spring. Of course you never know where they will pop up, or how many there will be, but it sure is fun to see them peaking out each year. Last summer, I had a bunch of Pansies show up in my lawn.

Other plants gladly give me volunteers, the most common being Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susan. This year my "Crater Lake Blue" Veronicas gave me six additional plants to transplant to other parts of the garden. I just love free.