Volunteers that Lend a Gardener an Unrequested Helping Hand

Nothing endures but change.

Heraculitus (540 BC-480 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

If your vision for your garden is adaptable and you take delight in little surprises, then you may be interested in inviting self-seeding volunteers into your garden.

Forget-me-nots are probably the most familiar garden self-seeders. They look wonderful as an understory for tulips and early spring bloomers. The only drawback is that Forget-me-nots have a bad habit of turning into a bedragled brown mess covered in powdery mildew in late spring. You either love them or think they are an annoying weed!

While Forget-me-nots may be the most common, there are many other self-seeders that can add color to your garden. Here are some volunteers at work in my garden.

There are large sections of my garden under the cover of mature trees, and so I welcome anything that can take the shade. Under the canopy of a large maple, Violets add early spring color. Resilient little troopers, Violets have now self-seeded into both sunny and shaded crevices throughout the garden.

My neighbors across the street have a whole bed dedicated to Calendula, a happy orange and yellow annual. Before I knew it, I had uninvited Calendula in my own front garden. And now this year, just about everyone at this end of the block has Calendula in their garden! ( Just keep that vigor in mind!)

Growing up, I wasn't fond of Calendulas in my mother's garden, because though I like the flowers, I thought that the seed heads were kind of ugly. I didn't consider planting it in my own garden for this reason.

I must confess that in these last couple of years, I have come to better appreciate Calendula. Undemanding of anything but a sunny spot, it shows up every summer to add a punch of bright color to my July garden and keeps blooming until late fall. These days, I just lop off most of those ugly seed heads as they appear. If the plant gets messy looking, I rip it out.

Like Calendula, Feverfew is a happy-go-lucky flower that shows up in the oddest nooks and crannies. I welcome it wherever it turns up.

Whenever I see poppies, I think of my mother. She loved poppies and collected as many different varieties as she could find. A few years back, Mum sent me seeds in the mail and I have had annual poppies in my garden every year since.

Just be forewarned, annual poppies are such great self-seeders that can easily take over a flower bed if you let them.

Yellow Fumitory is another shade loving self-seeder. I love the fern-like leaves and it blooms non-stop all summer. It can spread readily, but any unwanted seedlings are easy to pull out.

Though, as you can see, I already have a collection of plant volunteers, I still have a wish list of self-seeding biennials that I hope to add to my garden. After seeing hollyhocks in a nearby garden in Norval, I'd love to add these tall beauties to my own garden. 

Even though hollyhocks like the sun (which is at a premium in my garden) and are prone to rust a fungal disease that leaves unsightly orange spots, I want to find a spot at the back of one of my borders for them.

Foxglove is one biennial that I keep trying unsuccessfully to introduce to my garden. I have tired plants in the past without luck, so next summer I think I will give seeds a go. If you have any tips for me on growing foxgloves, I'd love to hear them!