You know how it is when you move into a different house, one with a bit of garden, and things pop up from the earth that surprise you?

 

Sounds like a monster movie!

 

Not like zombies or vampires, 9. I’m talking about flora. You know, the clue in a crossword puzzle “_______ and fauna”? Flora, according to our companion app the online dictionary, is defined as:

 

“the plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period”

 

In this case, the region is our yard, both front and back. Soon after we moved in I was delighted when a hot pink peony sprang up in a garden bed! There were some distressed blueberry bushes that I discovered hadn’t had their roots soaked before they were planted. The roots were very dry and still bound in the shape of the pots they’d been purchased in.

 

Poor abused dears!

 

Exactly, Lily, and even though I did what I could to save them, in the end none of them survived.

 

However, it’s one thing to find surprise flora the first year in a new place, and another to discover something most unusual that has never been there before eight years into occupancy. Starting in the front yard:

 

 

 

Tulips?

 

The orange ones in the front have been coming back every year (though I separate them from time to time). But if we look closer:

 

 

 

It looks like a carnation.

 

The bloom does, yes, but the leaves are definitely a tulip. This is a flower I’ve never seen anywhere in the garden for eight years running, and that got me thinking- –

 

I’m so glad.

 

 

Thank you for the 14-year-old snark, Lily, I’ve missed it. But back to the mystery. I have not purchased a single tulip bulb for this garden. All the flowers that grow from bulbs here are volunteers. So where did the ruffled pink stranger come from?

 

Outer space?

 

Have you been watching Nightmare Theater again, 9? I wonder if a squirrel dug it up from some other garden and then discarded it because it didn’t taste good? Or maybe someone passed by playing Johnny Tulip Bulb and tucked it in the dirt when no one was watching?

 

 

Maybe we have a secret admirer?

 

 

Interesting theory, Lily, but just one bulb? If they truly admired us, you’d think they’d have planted several, possibly in the shape of a heart.

 

 

EW! I hate mushy stuff!

 

 

Moving to the back yard, I will invite those of you reading this blog to help me identify an additional example of mystery flora:

 

 

 

At first I thought it was a Shasta daisy. I’d planted some from seed in this bed last year, though none of them came up. This is the largest of six plants. I’ve only seen Shasta daisies in bloom, so I don’t know what they look like before then. Yesterday I noticed this change:

 

 

 

To me, it looks more like a seed head than a flower coming into bloom? Which made me think of poppies, which have not shown up in this particular yard as long as I’ve been here, either.

 

It’s good to remember that nature laughs, and often! Gardening in anticipation of any particular outcome can go awry- -late freezes, dry summers, insect infestations, unfortunate cross-pollination. You can test and amend the soil, diligently hunt squash bugs, give it your level best from March through October. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. Whatever bears too heavy, you trade with friends and neighbors.

 

Hmmm. . .I wonder if it was one of them who planted the mystery tulip, just to see if I’d notice?