A charming volunteer

Sometimes plants pop up in your garden and you wonder where they came from. Most often it's a weed, sometimes it's a charming wild flower and every now and then it's a total mystery plant.

When we built a garden around the slope on the back of our pool, we had to bring in several truck loads of soil. Instead of getting top soil from a place that sifts and screens the soil, we were able to get it from a perennial farm right up the street.

The soil was mostly compost, there were still pieces of wood chips in it, lots of sand and a quite a few stones. I had to remove the stones by hand but it was still well worth the effort as the soil was free of cost to us.

One day I noticed a little volunteer plant growing in the bed. It had foliage like a Columbine but much smaller than any I had in my gardens.

The plant grew quickly into a nice little clump and then began to bloom. It's been there 3 years now and has self seeded all along that rock wall. My only complaint is that the seedlings do not like to be disturbed or transplanted. I've only had success with one or two that were moved when they were teeny tiny.

Taking a good photo of the blooms has challenged me as my point and shoot digital camera has too wide a focus and so far I haven't gotten it to focus on one individual bloom. Still, I hope you can see how charming this little volunteer is.

Has anybody seen a Columbine similar to this?