Back around the first of the year I was up in North Florida for a few days. On that trip I brought back a Brunfelsea Pauciflora or Yesterday,Today and Tomorrow plant.
It has been sitting out back until I finally got around to moving it up to the new rock bed.
At this time I discovered that several stowaways had come along for the ride along with the original plant.
Growing out the side of the container were two uninvited plants. Best I can figure they figured life might be warmer down in South Florida and decided to come on down.
Whatever the reason , the fact is two free new plants for the garden.
After extracting the first stowaway I stuck it in an old pot so It could be studied some.
I have no clue as to exactly what this first plant is.
Stowaway number two is obviously some type of Tomato plant.
It was extracted and planted in one of the five gallon containers that are used for growing vegetables.
What makes this a roll of the dice is that I have no idea what the parent Tomato was.
There are so many different Tomato types it could be anything. I am going to try to grow it just for fun to see what it turns out to be.
Chances are that it reseeded itself from a hybrid type Tomato . If that is the case there is no telling what this plant will look like or produce.
Seeds taken and grown from hybrid plants most often do not result in the same traits as the original hybrid plant.
A good example of this is a Marigold plant that I grew from seed last year.
The seeds were taken from a spent flower on a Marigold plant that was really exceptional. I planted the saved seed expecting to grow a plant like the one that I took the seed from.
What I ended up with was a mutant Marigold. The plant grew bigger and bigger until it was almost three feet tall.
The whole time it grew there was never had a single bloom or flower bud on it.
It was quite interesting to watch but obvious that the seed I had collected came from a planted hybrid.
With the mutant Marigold in mind I am going to grow the stowaway Tomato hoping that it grew from an open pollinated heirloom plant. Just for the fun of it.
After all they were free and that's how they got the old saying ," never look a gift horse in the mouth".
P.S. If anyone knows what the plant is in the second picture please to let me know.
---Sanddune---
How much fun! I once got a bamboo palm as a stowaway, as well as various succulents.
ReplyDeleteYour second plant is a xanthosoma by the way! I'm so jealous, but it will do a lot better down there... and get big.
Surprise is part of fun of gardening! It is interesting that you mentioned about seedling of hybrid plant will not look like the parent plant. I noticed the same thing for my zinnia plant. The parent has big showy flower, and the free seedling has very small flower. I guess the parent one is some sort of hybrid type. Sorry, I can not contribute what is the second plant.
ReplyDeleteRFG,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the id on the plant! But now I think that I'm going to need a bigger pot :-].
Ami,
The hybrids are pretty much a one shot deal. I'm trying to transition to mostly heirloom seeds for growing vegatables so Their seed can be used again and saved. Your Zinnia plants probably were hybrid to achieve the bigger bloom.
When I first started reading your post and looking at that first picture, I was wondering what kind of YTT plant you had. The leaves didn't look right. I guess NOT. Free plants are great and to get that xanthosoma is awesome.
ReplyDeleteYour info on hybrid seeds explains the mutant cosmos I got last year. Same as your marigolds. Huge thick stems and no blooms. I guess that saves me from saving my zinnia seeds this year!
NanaK,
ReplyDeleteThe majority of flower seeds are hybrid to achieve bigger,brighter or better performance. If you save seeds you have to remember which type you planted. Its easy to forget. I have grown a lot of weird looking plants until I figured this out.
I say you got a bargain. What fun! Let us know how they all turn out.
ReplyDeleteDeborah,
ReplyDeleteA bargin to be sure. The original ytt plant that the others were in was free. I had dropped the hint a while back that I liked the ytt plant. Next time I went by the gardener had potted up the plant and delivered it to my Mom's house up in Jacksonville, Fl for me . Can't beat that!!!
Three passalong plants in one... you got a nice deal, Sanddune. I'm always wishing tomato plants grew tomatoes here as easily as they pop up seedlings all over the garden. I have them show up in the strangest places. Far from the veggie garden. It will surely be interesting to see what your plant turns out to be. I'm trying to stick with heirloom veggies as much as possible here too. In some cases it just isn't practical. But for the most part it is do-able.
ReplyDeleteMeems
Meems,
ReplyDeleteThe heirloom vegetable seeds seem like a good idea to experiment with to find what grows well here. It might come in handy one day to have sustainable vegetable seeds from your own garden.
I just discovered a begonia (one that I don't have in my garden) growing out of the bottom of an orchid pot. Where it came from...I have no idea, but since I like begonias it's a welcome discovery.
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteThat's a neat discovery to be sure. Best I can recall I never heard of a woman didn't like getting flowers :-] .