surprises...

I love the random nature / continuity of gardening.....about 27 years ago, in Washington, I started some mandevilla laxa / Chilean Jasmine from seed. We then moved back to Ca and I planted one on our former property here (next door), let it twine up through the trees and loved it. We sold that house about 11 years ago and I believe that mandevilla has been gone for a long time. Yesterday we had a neighborhood yard sale in our long driveway and while sitting there, looked up to see twining amongst the honeysuckle on the fence along the drive.......yep, the mandevilla after these many years somehow ended up sending up a new baby waaaay over on the other side of the property. You can bet I'm going to watch it and get seed from that, so far, only one flower on the vine. It really brightened my day.

What a nice surprise!

Yes...what I really love is that whatever seeds you may plant can carry on for years and years, being of benefit to all. (unless it's an invasive, and then you may have people tracking you down....) lol.....

Isn't it wonderful when nature surprises you that way? What a lovely surprise.

Now each time that I go out the drive, I've got my eye on it. I can hardly wait for those seeds.

That's lovely, I agree! I had a surprise too this weekend, I have star jasmine climbing one of my palm trees, and it's full of blooms! We moved into our house in November, and now in spring there are all these plants emerging that I had no idea about! What a nice surprise : ) Don't you just love spring!

When we first moved here, I noticed a vine with little flowers on it growing up one of the pine trees. It was getting pretty big, so I asked around to see if it was something to get rid of. Turned out to be a native wild cucumber http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56627/
Invasive in some places, but this is the "back 40" and we don't worry about it.

The nice thing is, it blooms very, very early and pleases me because I know other things will follow soon, and it the flowers look so delicate climbing that big tree. Hope we never have to dig it up, though - they don't call it "man root" for nothing!

Sometimes 'invasive' is just what you want, isn't it? Like in the back 40. :-)

My magnolia Galaxy blooms in February and I know that spring has begun so I know what you mean about the harbinger or spring.

I do 'invasive' really well...I have perennial Mg, Mexican primrose, centranthus ruber, periwinkle, verbena rigida. Most peoples' idea of a nightmare. I just let them all go and play together and have fun. 'Reseeds' is my favorite word.

LOL! I hear you! I have boston ivy, silver lace vine, akebia quinata...not affraid of "invasives"!

My most invasive is viola ordorata but I've got to have something that grows in the dark under walnut trees and birch trees. Oh, dichondra is the other ground cover I have that will take over.

Oh.....my elderly neighbor had about an acre of violets in his grove.It was heavenly. Also a huge area of naturalized sweet peas. then he died, niece inherited the property and it's all gone now.

Oh what a shame! I can imagine how heavenly...I was walking a trail in my neighbourhood last week and came accross a wild patch of sweet peas...I was in HEAVEN!!!

I'll bet that you love sweetpeas. Another 'heady' fragrance. :-) I love them too but I hate how they mildew! They are certainly a springtime wonder.

You got it Doss! I like to "get high" on fragrance, lol

Good thing that you are headed to buy some iris. Some of them smell so sweet that all you have to do is walk by them on sunny day.

You're kidding? I didn't even know that... Can you dmail me some very fragrant recommendations? I can *feel* I'll have to restrain myself when I order, lol

You should start a thread on the iris forum about cultivars that smell lovely. That would be a fun one. I like Dusky Challenger a lot. It's good all the way around. Most of them have fragrance. Or you can pick a vendor and ask them to help you choose the more fragrant ones.