In Praise of Garden Volunteers

If you love flower gardening and have been at it for a while, you’ve probably come across some garden volunteers that you didn’t plant but that magically decided to take up residence at your place. These plants might have seeded in via a breeze, from bird droppings, spores, or even hitchhiking in the pot of a purchased plant. However they manage to do it, they are usually welcomed guests and some even turn out to be garden gems.

One of my all-time favorites is the native Black-eyed Susan, or Rudbeckia Hirta, a cottage garden classic that has been with me now for many years. Technically a short-lived biennial, this charming plant reseeds itself so prolifically that you are pretty much assured of enjoying it yearly as a perennial! At about 24″ tall and 18″ wide, native Black-eyed Susan is a well-behaved plant that takes up modest space and combines beautifully with other summer bloomers. In my Northeast Massachusetts Zone 6a garden, this beauty starts blooming in late June and continues into October, making it invaluable for season-long color.

Another volunteer is a more recent arrival in my garden – perennial white yarrow or Achillea Millefolium. I have a lovely ‘Pink Grapefruit’ yarrow that blooms with fervor in early July and then in lighter flushes throughout the summer, but this unknown white volunteer has turned out to be a garden workhorse, blooming pretty much non-stop from early summer to fall. Yarrow can be a vigorous spreader in rich garden soils, so I like to give it some room to spread out into a two-foot-wide clump.

Ferns are notorious for spreading themselves around, but one unusual volunteer turned out to be a Ghost Fern, a stunning Athyrium whose silvery fronds light up the darkest shade. It has an elegant, upright habit, and with adequate moisture, the foliage remains fresh-looking throughout the entire season. Vigorous and very hardy, the Ghost Fern grows to about 30″ tall and 18″ wide and combines well with other shade perennials.

As the gardening season comes to a close, I like to reflect on those plants that have proven themselves to be both reliable and beautiful. The three plants I mentioned in today’s blog are certainly that and the fact that they are essentially a ‘gift’ from Mother Nature makes them even more special!