Volunteer Petunias

My pride and joy

I'm a beginner gardener and had no idea what a "volunteer" plant was until a couple of years ago.  Perennials came back each year, annuals didn't, and that was that.  Until the petunias I planted as annuals came back the following year.

Apparently being lazy and leaving the dead (or dormant) petunias around, unkempt and dead-looking all winter, has its advantages.  The seeds sprouted by the old plants can stick around over the winter and become beautiful petunias in the spring.  These are called volunteers, as I understand it, because they aren't guaranteed to come back as new plants but do anyway.

Tell me these aren't the most beautiful flowers you've ever seen.

Flowers around my mailbox

I adore them.  I regularly stand and stare at them; I am totally the weirdo gardening lady. But what's not to love with these plants?  They're beautiful.  They're hardy. I deadhead them sometimes and give them some water in the scorching summers, but mostly I leave them to shine on their own. 

The original petunias I planted were white but the volunteers are pink; I'm told that flowers revert to pink in the wild.  I'd very carefully picked out white flowers for this bed; pink was not part of the plan.  After we got this house, I looked at tons of landscaping books and had grand plans of color-coordinating foliage and flowers.  I'd have a bed with cool colors, maybe another with reds and yellows, but certainly nothing clashy.  After I came to terms with my lazy gardening approach, I realized that getting abundant flowers of any color is a victory, so the potentially clashy petunias will be left alone.

I'll sign off with a few more photos from my garden this spring.  Maybe my color scheme is pink and pinker.  

Azaleas planted by the builder

Camellias.  I planted three of these last year after they'd bloomed and hadn't
known how pretty the flowers would be.  Love them!