Seedling? You mean like off the side of the road or something like that?
I got some butterfly weed in the parking lot of a movie theater. That has provided MUCH pleasure for the monarchs in the area.
I picked up some Tansy in a motel parking lot in Boston. It is a beautiful little plant as well.
Both are quite invasive, but I just pick out the starts, and most of the time I give them to someone else. People are glad to get them.

rudbeckia goldsturm-tulip praestans fusilier-kniphofia little maid and all the creamy ones descended from it-some of the very best plants-beth chatto, graham stuart thomas, christopher lloyd were all experts at spotting chance crosses- after all ma nature naturally does thousands of crosses for everyone a plant breeder does.

delosperma firespinner

delosperma desert jewels- the denver botanic discovered firespinner growing in the mtns of s africa brought it home where it almost immediately crossed with nubigena to produce the fully hardy delospermas desert jewels and mesa verde. jeez ken this info is on the internet-oh thats right we are on the internet.

Geranium maderense and Meconopsis cambrica. I use self sown plants all the time. I garden in awkward conditions (shade, lack of space, slugs and snails) and if a plant shows itself suited and looks good I leave it rather than struggle to grow what doesn't want to be there. I basically carve the garden out rather than imposing it. And I hate to see empty space round plants.

Oreganum vulgare 'Aureum'.

Cyclamen hederifolium - progeny of one corm of white and one corm of pink bought many years ago. You can see the seed pods forming in the picture ready to give me more.

Campanula portenschlagiana (not in my garden). As for trees - I have two red horse chestnuts (Aesculus carnea) in pots waiting for a home. They grew on the allotment from the leaves used a mulch. The leaves came from the Parks Department and originated in the Botanical Gardens. All sorts of interesting stuff pops up.

Geranium robertianum,(aka. herb Robert) which came in another plant handed down. It reseeds nicely, and if it gets in the way too much is easily pulled. I saw this at Gravetye Manor years ago spilling out of a stone wall. I figure if it is okay for William Robinson, it is okay for me.

Are you referring to re-seeding perennials? If so...so many!

Lavender
Catmint
Feverfew 'Flore Pleno'
Ratibida
Maltese Cross
Golden Marguerite
Blue Flax
Columbine
Hollyhock

Just to name a few :)

crikey ...

i am talking about rogue .. not collected...

something that fell out of a birds butt ... wind borne .... etc ...

i have.. thank you birds.. PIvy.. pokeweed... useless grape ... Virginia creeper .. juniper viginiana .. [what is it with virginia.. lol].. queen annes lace by the millions ... cottonwood.. siberian elm ... bird seed weeds ..... to name a few...

frankly.. nothing of value ... aka reseeding nightmares ...

BTW .. thx for the pix... but i have never had a rogue seedling fly into the yard with that level of flower production ....

any clearer.. or is the premise so skewed that i am not making sense????

the idea struck me in the name that plant forum... peeps want to know.. weed or plant .. well .. my first thought is that it is always a plant ...

but they get a latin name.. and think it has value ... and then someone else says its native ... so they think they are in like flynn ... and all i do is sit here and type.. over and over again... ITS A WEED IN MY GARDEN.... one mans native is a weed in another... lol ..

so let me rephrase ... what mysteriously popped up in your garden.. and had true value ... i would suggest.. they are far and few between ... unless of course you live next door to some master of the universe gardener ... and she tends to whip things over the fence when you arent looking.. lol ... [probably flora.. lol]

ken

A native Quercus agrifolia, a Rhus integrifolia, and several Heteromeles arbutifolia.

Actually the proper term is "botanical nomenclature", not "latin name", because while there are latin words in botanical nomenclature, there are also plenty of greek, german, and english as well.

There. Happy? ;^)

{{gwi:241892}}

kenny boy you are just an old fraud-people give you an answer and you immediately change the question-shame shame intellectual tramp

ken, I bought a 10 cent packet of wildflower seeds, & sowed them before they started requiring listing of contents.... About six months later, I noticed what appeared to be a chocolate cosmos in bloom. decided to weed & up it came! tuberous roots & all. it was in the 90 degree range & was about to faint from the heat against the west facing brick wall ( in the afternoon) so when I checked the scent, it was certainly chocolate scented too
,But UNFORTUNATELY tossed it out in the garbage bin along with the handful of weeds & promptly went indoors to escape the heat before fainting.
I'd had not really given it not much thought, as I'd seen it for sale in bags at the garden center. Then, I noticed a catalog from Thompson & Morgan offering 1,000. British Pounds for anyone with seeds!
Too late, the trash pick up had just gone by & dumped it, & away it went off to the landfill..
There went my Cosmos atrosanguineus in full bloom, worth equivalent of about $1,600.00 Trashed.
Lesson learned- you don't always really know what you've got, until it's gone.

Typical purple coneflower, a rose that has yet to bloom, but it does not look like multiflora, pines ...although not sure if they came from seed or broken pieces that took root? Two very different yews, lots and lots of phlox, and dianthus were all surprises welcomed with open arms....

As for rogue plants that are not wanted, I can't even name them all...so I will just list the most annoying of the bunch...wild grape , or the unassuming kudzu of the north. Silver maple (or so I think they are?), wild mulberry, morning glory, thistle, poison ivy, sumac, sweet autumn clematis, and about 20 other things I'm at constant war with.

I admit that the Nighshade dumped in the side of the yard by birds has its charms: Pretty blooms, bright red berries... always nice to see when I'm by the back window goofing off on the computer, like now. Since the birds love to eat berries (which is how it got here in the first place), the cats get lots of "free TV" out of the deal, too.

That being said, I have to be rough with it or it would be everywhere. Tore it all out by the roots late last summer, but its already coming back. By next year it will be big and shrub-like again, I bet.

Considering that the woman who had this house before had all red flowers, I was surprised to have a PINK breadseed poppy sprout up that I never planted. It's kind of pretty.

and I have plenty of losers in front of my compost pile. Lettuce and Rose Orach are okay, but hyssop, anise hyssop, feverfew, tomatillos, catnip, mustards. Yikes!

Garden phlox and columbines were delightful surprises (the garden phlox seeded itself into less than ideal conditions, so it has done much but hang on, I finally moved it this year and it is really taking off). I also once had a lemon cucumber grow from some free mulch. Kind of a surprise in my flower garden, but it tasted delicious.

I looked across my garden last summer to see a monarch flying around along the edge in an area that's "wild." I realized there was a tall pink flower there. Went over and checked it out, and it was asclepias incarnata. Yes, it's plentiful in some places, but I'd been on the hunt for some and was thrilled to have it pop up unplanted.

I had a rudbeckia pop up in the back of my yard last year. It looked a little strange: maybe wild, maybe a seed from some hybrid that didn't come true, maybe growing conditions lead to its strange appearance. I collected seeds but haven't got around to sowing any and haven't seen anything else like it pop up but it was a strange and welcome sight.
I also found a perennial geranium of some sort out of no where. Broad leave and little tiny pale purple flowers. I moved it so it'd be safe. It may have been planted by the previous owner and in my first year here either trampled by dogs or mowed down by weed whippers but managed to survive but I don't know. I like to think it just.... appeared.

I have cyclamen all over my yard, and I do mean everywhere. Previous owner said she got them in a mulch delivery and the squirrels moved them everywhere. I battled them for a long time, throwing away foot long corms that would probably give nursery owners the shakes, considering they sell tiny shriveled up corms for like $8 a piece. I finally gave up and now gave accepted it in my life, and realize that it goes away in may anyway, and is actually pretty cute. It's also gotten me some pretty cool garden web swaps.

I truly have gotten two things I like up on my hillside that planted themselves somehow.

An Ornamental Plum tree that's grown quite big. It flowers pretty in spring and then gives me some privacy from the house on top of the hill.

The other is an ornamental honeysuckle shrub that's right next to that tree. The hummingbirds love it, and more privacy for me in that higher spot on the hillside.

But yeah, hundreds, maybe thousands of others that are unwelcome PITA plants.

1. An English oak and a horse chrstnut. Both were planted by squirrels a few years ago and both are now growing nicely in my new garden (when I moved to a new home, I took them with me).

2. An American mountain-ash popped out of nowhere - probably, had been planted by a bird. It is already 10 ft tall.

3. Dozens of black locust seedlings started to sprout in my garden last summer even though I have no black locusts growing nearby. I suspect, the seeds were in the wood chip mulch which I ordered from the tree removal company. I kept several most robust seedlings and will plant them around my property later. I also found 2 seedlings with golden foliage - kept those too, maybe they will grow and will look like 'Frisia' black locust?.

I forgot to include...this rose campion that just appeared one day, perhaps out of a bird butt haha. Its a big clump. I may regret it once it reseeds everywhere, but for now I really like it, and this spot only gets filtered sun and the dirty is iffy, so its hard to grow things here, its a win for me.

This post was edited by princessgrace79 on Tue, Jun 3, 14 at 17:06

At my parent's summer place, Lady's Slippers have cropped up spontaneously.

While they are horribly invasive, the honeysuckle that cropped up on my parent's cliff scents the air with perfume, and may have actually stooped erosion and prevented them from losing several yards of land. (Erosion rates went way down when they quit mowing the cliffs). I'm also rather fond of the Rugosa Rose and the Bayberry on those cliffs, but I'm not quite sure if someone intentionally planted those. There's also a rather nice volunteer crab apple.

After the Treepocalypse the bird planted Eastern Red Cedar are all that's left to provide a wind break and a woodsy feel.

There are several patches of (probably invasive) pretty purple flowers I've seen.

Do "volunteer" offspring of something someone planted count? Recently a locust created a volunteer in a pretty good spot...I've been trying to save it from lawn mowers. And I find the volunteers produced by the Trumpet Vine more often a benefit then a nuisance.

One of my problems with conventional gardening is I find the distinction between "weed" and "plant" a bit arbitrary...why exactly is a dandelion, which is edible and produces flowers, considered a weed, while turf grass..which you can't eat and has no flowers...is what you are trying to grow? I just don't get it.

Take a walk through old growth forest. Everything you see was planted by birds, squirrels, or the wind.

Well I sure would not mind ladys slippers popping up Where does your mother live?

A "cute" tiny rogue seedling appeared in a perennial bed that I decided to nurture, more out of curiosity than any logical reason. Huge mistake! That tiny seedling is now taller than my house and has to come out soon due to ... well, it just has to come out! It is too near the water\sewer lines, rubbing against the eaves and siding, etc. I really hate to see it go because the birds use it year round. :-(

A few years later, I had a different mystery seedling that I almost dug out because it was ID'd as the dreaded Ailanthus altissima. However, one member guided me to investigate Sapindus drummundii, the 'Soapberry Tree' and I'm so glad I followed saltcedars advice. It has become a gorgeous welcome tree and the birds love it!

Rogue seedlings are a crap shoot, at best! :-)

This post was edited by tulsarose on Thu, Jun 5, 14 at 9:41

I try to avoid running and seeding perennials and any seedlings tend to get shaded out by the taller perennials of July and August.

One of the few exceptions are the Japanese primulas that gently seed around our garden. I'm very fond of all of our primulas.

Below self-seeded 'Miller's Crimson' (June 5, 2014).

shadeyplace 7, the lady slippers are at a summer place in New Hampshire. I haven't seen them lately, but I have noticed a lot of lady's slippers elsewhere this year.

A lot of them this year. Hostas I didn't plant, one mini iris I'm guessing was a gift from a squirrel, wild daisies, wild aster, a couple milkweed. Plenty of weeds I don't want as well as some little starts of a reddish leafed shrub I know came by bird from my neighbor.

only some species sorbus (cashmeriensis, vilmorinii, hupehensis)....which I had stratified then forgot about (as you do).

Oh yeah, a parrotia persica seedling I had also forgotten about, left languishing in a drinks bottle under the greenhouse staging. Chuffed about this one!.

I found a completely unexpected maidenhair fern coming up in a pot of aloe vera the other day!
That's certainly a welcome surprise!

And we had a plum tree seed itself a few years ago which has really nice plums.

Seems every year at least one mystery plant turns up. If I can't identify a seedling as a weed, leave or pot it up till it blooms. A Virginia spiderwort (Tradescantia) that flowers a striking shade of blue appeared a few years back in a sunny bed. Left it to make a nice clump before relocating it to shade at the foot of a maple clump on a slope. Promptly died back to regrow the following Spring. Imagine the maples' fibrous roots & natural leaf mulch keep it from spreading, and the blue is quite refreshing glittering from the shade.

Last year seedlings emerged for the first time near the lone phlox David. Potted up, one bloomed lavender - David's Lavender. Another time, a different looking wispy grass clump showed up with delicate stems that only reach a few inches high & wide, producing a cloud of pale pink flowers at the top like miniature Gypsophilia from Spring till frost. No idea what this is, looks like it may have originated in fairyland. Left to grow & seed, it turns up within a 20' radius of the original each year.

A small bushy plant with deep green leaves appeared one year. Not recognizing it, left it to grow, as it seemed so happy. When it formed a 2' ball, decided it needed to be moved & found a spot in the backyard overlooked by the kitchen windows near a post birdfeeder. An old peach tree blown down in a storm had provided shelter for the birds there & thought the bush might do the same. The bush certainly took to its new spot. The next year, a slender trunk appeared out of nowhere to elevate the ball. Ten years later, it's a 20' high graceful tree, teeming with birds from dawn till dusk. Haven't found another like it in the woods for miles around, nor found its identity. We're in the migratory path for birds & an overnight waystation, so perhaps one gifted it to us on their way through.

Many more surprises through the years. So far this season, a sturdy seedling that looked vaguely familiar left in place quickly reached two feet high by a foot wide. Began to bloom yesterday, pale yellow with lavender pincushion centers - Verbascum. Grew its forebearer many years ago in another garden bed, but that one never returned the following year. The first was pale melon with lavender eyes. Is this one a seedling or a wildling? Regardless, serendipity always welcome!

When I bought my home a poke weed was there. I cutted it down and it regrew. The poke weed grows between the fence and the flower bed. Every spring it pops up and I cutted it down close to the trunk and try to dig it out of the ground. It is back again year bigger. When I saw that weed, lyrics of song came to my mind "Just like a tree planted by the waters, I shall not be moved".

My favorite "rogue" seedling so far has been a white-flowered Geranium robertianum form that came as a seedling growing in the container of another plant purchased via mail order. It has gorgeous ferny foliage and lovely, wildflowery, starry white flowers from midsummer through late fall. It has been a pleasant reseeder so far but never seems to grow or seed itself so thickly that it chokes out other plants. It is extremely east to pull up or transplant since it has a shallow, fibrous root system, and it seems to take full blazing sun, dense shade, infernal heat and drought all in stride. I have been loving it so far!

shadyplace, Herb Robert is a terrible weed particularly in the Pacific Northwest. It is quite invasive and crowds out a lot of native plants in the forests.

Too bad these birds don't have better aim. I had a nice mountain ash tree spout up in my yard, would have kept it if it hadn't been a foot from my front bay window.

Mountain laurel and perilla - both of which just showed up, and taking over their respective areas along a ditch.