Verdant with verbascums

Regular readers will know I love a self seeder and one of this ilk that I like to encourage in my garden is Verbascum bombyciferum or Giant Mullein.

I let this plant seed about in the back garden.  In year one there are the furry rosettes that then grow  a tall spike of lovely butter yellow flowers.  Bees love them, mullein moths love them too.  

These plants self seed very easily and I edit out when they get too many.  Some years I worry I have edited too many out and have very few reaching the flowering point.  I then temper myself to allow the few that flower to set seed and grow anew.

All this is good, but imagine my surprise when the gravel area by the side of the house that was cleared last September is suddenly a delight of furry verbascums.  I have never grown verbascums in this part of the garden and they have never appeared previously.  Yet there they are, oodles of them.

When I first saw them I considered weeding them out, but I paused and have let them be.  I may of course regret this at some point but I am enjoying the sight at the moment.  This part of the garden is where the clothes line stretches across, so I have not been careful where I have trodden when hanging out the washing.  I tell myself this will create natural paths through the flowers.

Time will tell.

Another surprise was....

this small sunflower that must be the product of bird seed that has fallen from the nearby birdtable and germinated.  I have carefully walked around this little love.  It deserved to have a good chance and I am really excited that it is on the cusp of flowering.

I will of course report back when there are flowers.

Until then....

Take care and be kind.

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