WHERE DID THAT PLANT COME FROM?

I love being surprised with a boquet of flowers. But the plant surprises that just show up in my yard are great too. We had a little shrub just sprang up a couple of years ago. It is so beautiful now. I still don't know what it is but it has these nice glossy leaves and a dark green color but no blooms yet. I think we might have brought the seed in with some old manure we added to our soil. I also had some purple heart just spring up after I planted some potted plants I bought at Lowes. I think birds spread seed around too. At any rate, it is always fun to see them.

Sometimes I know what they are and sometimes I have no idea. A pretty little plant is growing in my Lantana bed. It is just hiding up under all that foliage. It has these pretty little yellow flowers that look a lot like violets. I didn't plant it although I did plant some johnny jump ups earlier in the spring. This is much bigger though. Lantana springs up in the most surprising places. Herbs will spring up everywhere too. I have basil and thyme coming up all over the place and lemon balm is growing back where I pulled it out at the beginning of summer. That's good, because I really like it now but at the time I wanted the room for chives.

Another surprise I had this year was finding a vine with gorgeous little white flowers, blooming around my mailbox pole. We have a rural mailbox and I always planned on decorating it with flowers but never did. I hope it comes back next year. I am hoping for a new mailbox too. One the mailman will actually close shut. : )