Some of our annuals from last year volunteered seedlings this spring. Last summer’s annual candytuft bloomed in blah colors, but the volunteers are blooming in pretty shades of purple and pink.
I didn’t need to plant the cosmos seeds we bought because my garden is full of seedlings. Our small annual bed is full of plants and I moved several from the gravel walkways to places where perennials got eaten (a post for another time) or otherwise are missing in action.
The best thing about volunteers is the flowers bloom earlier. First cosmos was last week.
Some volunteers don’t carry forward the desirable traits of their parent plant. My allysum reseeded itself everywhere in the front and it’s not quite as pretty as some of the best varieties.
The nursery didn’t have allysum plants this spring when I made up the planters on the front porch so I picked out the little seedlings that came up in the planter’s old soil. Some of the plants look OK with lots of flowers much like the parents last summer but the allysum in two of my front porch planters are weedy with straggly blossoms.
The most egregious volunteer is the enormous weed patch taking over a few spots in my garden. Ugh!
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