Mother Nature's Surprise

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If I've learned one thing since I've been gardening it's that Mother Nature has many surprises. What you see in the photo are all surprises. Anyone who's ever grown lamb's ears outside of a pot knows that it spreads. The shortest plants you see toward the back of the photo are the lamb's ears. I never planted any there. Mother Nature did. That iris? I didn't exactly plant it. I didn't see anywhere I wanted to plant a few tubers I had left over when I did my planting in 2013, so I threw them in a shallow box and covered them with just enough dirt to almost cover them so they wouldn't dry out. I had planned to share them or find a place to plant them and I never got around to it. Occasionally when it was hot, I'd water them to keep the dirt moist. When I walked outside yesterday, this iris was blooming. But that wasn't the only surprise. See the two tall plants with the large leaves at the front? I didn't plant those, either. They are both clary sage plants. The only clary sage plant I actually planted here lives in a pot about four yards away on the other side of a brick pillar and some tall shrubs and a bed of lamb's ears. I also have a few tiny clary sage seedlings growing my lawn near the mother plant and a couple of more mature children of the mother plant several yards on the other side of my lawn that bloomed this year. Lamb's ears spreading and reseeding doesn't much surprise me. Having irises grow and bloom in also no soil also seems within the realm of possibility. It's only now that I've learned by experience and in my herb book that clary sage reseeds easily. Many herbs don't. I thought this was one of them. I was wrong. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong. I am surprised, though, that the seeds sprouted and matured so far from the mother plant.