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Bloom Where You’re Planted (or wherever)

June 7th, 2012

Last summer when Mr Chiots and I were at a wedding, I spotted these lovely teeny tiny daisies blooming in the lawn. Some of them had gone to seed, so I picked a few seeds to try to sprout. When I got home, I planted them in a seed flat, but by fall nothing had germinated. I emptied the flat of soil onto the back hillside when I planted all those tulips.

Wouldn’t you know it, a month ago I spotted this one tiny little daisy blooming on the back hillside among the browning tulip foliage. It’s so sweet and so tiny.


Perhaps the seeds need to go through a cold spell before germinating, or maybe they just like dry sandy conditions. Isn’t that how gardening is, sometimes plants have a mind of their own, or we just don’t know what they really need.

Have you tried to start something from seed with no success and then had the plants start themselves when in the right spot?

10 Comments to “Bloom Where You’re Planted (or wherever)”
  1. Mich on June 7, 2012 at 6:26 am

    We have those daisies all over the lawn and no sandy soil here! Probably the seeds needed a spell in the fridge before they would germinate…
    i always fail when trying to get Walnuts to germinate but luckily the pesky squirrels seem to succeed when they bury them, so I have Walnut saplings popping up in the veg plot, in the middle of my raspberry canes, my pots…… lol.

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    • Susy on June 7, 2012 at 7:37 am

      I was hoping to have them in the lawn, hopefully this little one will turn into many.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  2. daisy on June 7, 2012 at 7:31 am

    What sweet little flowers. I do get stuff popping up at times that I don’t remember planting. I think the birds do some of it!

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  3. Justin on June 7, 2012 at 10:04 am

    It is funny how plants work like that. We have some purple pansies that came with the house in the front flower beds. They’re supposed to be annuals in our area or bienniels under perfect conditions. However, these are going on at least 3 seasons in roughly the same spot that I’m aware of–possibly more. No matter what I do to the soil in that area of the garden (turn it over, pile snow from the driveway on it, etc.), they seem to come back. I don’t know if they’re self-seeding and volunteering or if there’s just something about that area that keeps the roots sheltered enough to make it through the harsh New England winters. It’s a pretty crappy bed too…low nutrients, gravelly. Not very hospitible to most plans.

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  4. amy on June 7, 2012 at 11:22 am

    I do not know if this counts but…..:) An older friend of mine gave me a rather large bag of wildflower seeds several years ago. We had just bought our property and were working like fiends to get in here so I did not want to plant them at our old place and had no time to plant them here. So I chucked them into the freezer where they remained for two years. Sometime later I was cleaning the freezer and found them….I thought to myself what a shame to have let them ruin….but thought what the heck and flung them out amidst my now existing flower beds and a new one that was just beginning. I did not expect anything to happen…..in fact I completely forgot all about them until I kept seeing in all of my beds what appeared to be hundreds of tiny new flowers….I did not recall where they had come from for quite some time…lol. But when I did….how surprised and thrilled. It was like receiving an unexpected gift. They have been blooming and propagating for a few years now and they are so lovely. It has been a precious experience and a constant reminder of my dear friend.

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  5. Marcia on June 7, 2012 at 11:28 am

    A few years back I collected some rose hips from my mother`s hedge for a vitamin rich tea. A while back, I poured out a cold cup of this tea into my Aloe Vera plant and lo and behold, I now have a rose growing in there. I also planted a sad looking Amaryllis bulb in there because I thought it would not grow and I didn’t want to waste a pot. It grew and bloomed. I was sorting through my beans before planting and found a broken one so I pushed in into my parsley pot and NOW IT’S GROWING! Seems to me that if I have anything to do with a seed going into the ground however damaged, it shall grow.

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  6. Trish on June 7, 2012 at 12:07 pm

    When I was much younger, and had my first apartment, I started catnip from seed. It was spindly and pathetic and never amounted to much.

    Now older and several dwellings later, I’ve learned that I can just depend on it to show up no matter where I am. It seems to follow me, or maybe my cats. I do have a small ‘sanctioned’ patch in my herb bed so I always know where to find some, but there’s always a couple of wandering patches here and there on at least two other sides of the house. This year we have some cohabitating with the rose bush, and some under the lilacs. But the healthiest looking patch by far is growing in the crack of the sidewalk leading to the patio. Contrary stuff, and beyond me to try and contain/tame it. Instead we just harvest and enjoy it.

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  7. Maybelline on June 7, 2012 at 1:05 pm

    Yes – lavender.

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

  8. tj on June 7, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    …I’ve never had that happen but I do know that the third photo is simply awesome! :o)

    …Such a lovely little flower. I love things like that and when I walk along the wood’s edge I marvel at all that mother nature provides all on her own. Kinda grand, yes?

    …Enjoy your day!

    …Blessings

    Reply to tj's comment

  9. KimH on June 9, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    Bloom Where You’re Planted is a quote I have on my email stationary..

    We just dont ever really know where we are going to truly bloom in life until we open our eyes & see the richness shining around us..

    I have plants like that all over my little sanctuary garden.. Probably the one more than any was Columbine. They didnt like it on the other side of the patio so they moved themselves to the other side. Its a wild little place so I just let them do what they wish, when they wish, for the most part, and they bloom prolifically there.

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About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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