The Exotic Volunteer (40)

I bought four native wildflower plants at the Living Desert and planted them together in a big pot in my courtyard. One, a cantaloupe-colored flower, is for the butterflies. They always come exploring but never find any blooms in my garden they seem to like, so this one is for them in hopes they'll find pleasure or sustenance, be enticed to alight, to linger. The other three are blooming sages, fare for the hummingbirds. One is squat with yellow blossoms and looks like sages I have known. The other two are taller, more wistful. One has tiny red flowers, and the other, who is going great guns, is filled with tiny violet blooms.

But soon after they were planted it became apparent there was a fifth plant growing, a volunteer. (I have never lived anywhere before where there were so many volunteers! And such a variety, too.) It grew straight up from the almost-center of the collection and formed these three exotic balls. I wondered if this was it or if they would bloom, and then specks of red became the hint of blossoms, and here you see it beginning to bloom. I wonder if it is a medicinal herb, if I would be harvesting the leaves if I knew. I hate not knowing, but I have not tried to hunt for the answer. I just check each day, curious to see what progress it has made in its unfurling and thankful it has come to visit us.