I love Volunteers in my Georgia Garden! Not Volunteers such as a person helping me pull weeds, as I don't have any of those Volunteers. I have Volunteers in the form of Flowers which pop up without me planting them. From my office window, you can see such Volunteers in my Butterfly Bush Island.
Every one of these Periwinkle, Vinca flowers popped up on their own from reseeding themselves in another planter within my yard.
I simply plucked a few of the slips from that planter and transplanted them here and look at the show! I will allow these to reseed in this spot next year and provide me with an abundance of color all summer long until the first frost! The perfect continuous blooming flower for me and nothing beats a VOLUNTEER, In the Garden...
Skeeter, what a fantastic display of the Vinca...I have them reseeding as well....love 'most' volunteers...the volunteers to help with the weeding don't seem to pop up around here either.
ReplyDeleteOh, are you so lucky!
ReplyDeleteHey Skeeter girl !
ReplyDeleteI have volunteers from Labrador violets and I love all the little cuties too : )
When they are something we really enjoy, they are a present from our gardens !
Joy
Hi Skeeter, having volunteers is a great gift to us gardeners! Love your vinca color mix. :-)
ReplyDeleteFrances
Free and easy are two great characteristics of my favorite plants! Go VOLS! ;)
ReplyDeleteThese are the perfect volunteer and easily removed too. I find they will do well in shade or sun and bloom for a long time. :)
ReplyDeleteI too love flower volunteers; Verbena bonariensis is a favorite volunteer. Most of my volunteers are invasive shrubs from the neighboring nature area, though!! I also wouldn't mind people volunteers helping clear out nature's invasive volunteers. And that's all I have to volunteer to this post. :)
ReplyDeleteI used to have lots of Periwinkle and then we flooded. They all disappeared. Years later I harvested some seeds from a neighbor.....each year only ONE plant grows!! How funny. I have a sea of impatiens.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right on volunteers. I think I'd actually prefer the flower type than people type too (at least for in the garden). My volunteers are some impatiens, verbena bonarienis, cleome, salvia and nicotiana. Vinca does not grow here. Probably something about not enough sun. They are wonderful little flowers though and I wish I could grow them-volunteer like!
ReplyDeleteDarla, My mother told me about this flower a few years ago and now it is a favorite in my garden. I would so enjoy some of the weed pulling Volunteers but so far none have shown up in my yard...
ReplyDeleteDawn, I bet they would grow in Maine. They like sun and give such a show from early summer until winter frost..
Joy, I looked up the Labrador Violets and am impressed with them. I may have to hunt them down for my garden! Self seeders are the way to go for less planting each spring…
Frances, I was so lucky with the color mix as I just pulled seedlings and had no idea what color they were! I have one lone purple in the mix and hopefully, it will seed itself next year adding more purple to the fold…
Dave, Being the cheapskate I can be, self-seeders are the way to go for me! Them Vols got those Georgia Bulldawgs a few weeks ago. Hee hee…
Raquel, I moved a few to a shady area in late summer and they are blooming but not so large as these got in the sun. I put a few in the mailbox planter which is shade also but it was too hot for them when I moved them and they mostly died from lack of watering on my part. Sigh…
Monica, I looked up your Verbena bonariensis and love the stuff. I am on the edge of Zone 7 and may give it a try some time! I am a fan of purple and it would look great along side my other purple pretties! That makes two new plants for me to seek with Joys, Violets!
Janet, Sorry for your loss of the periwinkle. I cannot believe that the one lone plant does not produce more seeds for you each year. Hum, maybe it needs a second plant to reproduce…?.... I had Impatiens one year but had to constantly water it during the hot summer months. My mom suggested the Periwinkle and I have been hooked ever since! I have it all over the place and love it with it long lasting colorful blooms! Still blooming as I type!
Tina, when I first was reading your comment, I thought you were saying that Periwinkle does not grow in your area, then realized you were talking about the shade at Tiger Gardens. lol... I knew it grew up there as my parents have it return each year in their yard. My mom was the one to pass along the tip to grow it and we love it in our gardens. I must add more self seeders to my land… Do you think you could get some to grow on the hillside outside your fence in the front yard? Does that area near the street get sun?
Only a bit of east sun-but only when the sun is above the road due to my neighbor's oak trees. I've tried vinca in the front foundation gardens and it dies a slow death:( Some plants can deal with partial sun and some not. One day I need to post on shade tolerant sun lovers. A weird term but some actually do well with some shade here in the south.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the perfect volunteer to me, great color.
ReplyDeleteThat butterfly bush is awesome! I can't wait for mine to get that big!
ReplyDeleteSkeeter,
ReplyDeleteHooray for the volunteers! I get violas and feverfew, some consider them weeds. I appreciate a plant that a deer won't nibble.
You have some wonderful V's!
Rosey
I may be wrong, but it looks like your vinca is Catharanthus roseus, not the Vinca minor. Vinca minor is a viney evergreen groundcover. It's confusing since they both have the same common name.
ReplyDeleteUsually there is leaf mulch so deep in my garden, nothing sprouts. It works very well for suppressing weeds but not so well for self seeding garden plants.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
Oh, I like both types of volunteers. Those that come and help and those plants that come up without any help from me :0)
ReplyDeleteI love volunteers like these; your vinca display is beautiful, Skeeter! I wouldn't mind a few of the other kind of volunteers either:)
ReplyDeleteTina, I was going to pass along some seed to you if you had sun by the street but now it seems it would be a waste. If you cannot get it to grow, then no one could in that area. I reckon they do need lots of sun. The few that I planted in the back small planter probably get enough sun through the trees to bloom but not enough sun to thrive. Maybe next year I will get some in there sooner in the spring and see what happens to them. Yes, you should do a post on the shade tolerant sunny plants….
ReplyDeleteJean, now the perfect volunteer would be the unknown person that weeds for me as I sleep. I awake to the perfect weed free garden! hee hee, I can dream right???
Dirt Princess, I love my butterfly bushes and they do well where I have them planted. There are 5 total in that island and they were planted on top of mulched up tree stumps and in full sun so they are happy bushes…
Rosey, I love all plants that a deer will not nibble also! I will have to look up the feverfew, that is a new one to me tonight…
How it grows, I am so confused with the Vinca as well. I looked it up on the internet and really get confused! I find Vinca Minor and Major with images looking the same to me. I have the Vinca vine growing and will post on it Thursday if I can get the post ready. Look for it then to see the two I have. The tag on the Vinca you see here in this posting just reads “Periwinkle-Vinca” I think Vinca has a long list of names following it. I will do a bit more research so stay tuned to Thursday….
Marnie, I don’t mulch in the main Periwinkle planters so it is full to the rim with seedlings. The semi-formal garden does get mulch but the seeds sow anyway! Plus it sits under leaves all winter long as well. The pine breaks down quicker then bark so maybe that is why I get seedlings when you do not. Plus some are slow to sprout on me when others jump up as soon as the sun gets warm. Hum, seeds can be a mystery cant they? I have these come up all over the place when I cannot get seeds I toss to do a thing for me! lol…
Azplantlady, Hello there to you and thanks for stopping by today! I only wish I had the volunteering type with hands! I must hint to get my hubby to help me at times but weed pulling is not for him. He is more a dig a hole for me kind of guy. Hee hee…
Rose, Volunteers are the best whether an unexpected plant or extra set of hands to help out when needed! If I know me, I would not be happy with the hands on help as they would not do it the way I would want it done. That is the touch of OCC in me. hee hee,. I sure would not mind anyone volunteering to clip the hedge though. lol…
Just went thru Georgia. Lot greener than in Ohio right now. Enjoyed your State. Living in the hometown of General Sherman I was interested to see a sign (billboard) on interstate 75 with a picture of Sherman saying "Sherman enjoyed his stay here you might to" or something to that effect. I know 50 years ago you wouldn't see anything like that.
ReplyDeleteThose are some beautiful volunteers!
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be nice though if we really did get some volunteer weeders?
Ah...I love free flowers and any that volunteer make me happy. I didn't know annual periwinkle would reseed! gail
ReplyDeleteGreat display!
ReplyDeleteCameron
Wow, the vinca is beautiful and all of those are volunteers?
ReplyDeleteHow lovely to have volunteers like that! Your Butterfly Bush is gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteHow thrilled u must have been to own these volunteers now!!!! And these volunteers voluntarily are rendering their color to your beautiful butterfly bush....
ReplyDeleteAsh....
(http://asha-oceanichope.blogspot.com/)
Catharanthus roseus
ReplyDeleteJoe Todd, Yep Georgia is still pretty green right now. We have late falls and that is a positive factor with living in the Deep South. We do see some funny Billboards such as your Sherman one. Amazing how far Freedom of Speech has come….
ReplyDeleteCatherine, I can only dream about the weed pulling Volunteers in my garden. Not even my wonderful Saint plucks weeds for me. All up to me in that department…
Gail, Yep, I did a Posting on it last year titled, “Vinca Poop”. At first I thought we had a critter in the garden. lol… Look for the word “Vinca” on the side bar and you will see how I discovered the seeds of the Vinca.
Cameron, Thanks!
Phillip, Yep, every single one was plucked from another planter that had self seeded. I put hundreds into the compost pile due to lack of steam to plant them all in the heat…
Kanak, We do love Volunteers in our garden! I cannot imagine my life without my butterfly bushes. They thrive in that spot and we have butterflies around for many months due to them continuously blooming…
Ashkuku, Yes, I am so enjoying the color in the butterfly bush island. The purple is a bit difficult to see on the bushes and I think the pinks and white help them to show. Plus the vinca perks up the pine straw mulch as well…
Mothernature, I finally had the time to search the name Catharanthus Roseus and I believe you and “How it Grows” are correct with the identification. I will make a correction in my next posting…. Thanks for the info to you both…