Another one of Florida’s many gardening peculiarities is the tendency to find (mostly) desirable plants popping up in the garden. Above is the Brown Bud Allamanda (Allamanda cathartica). These vines tend to creep around and over my neighbors fence, they end up rambling through my shrubs and I hate to cut the flowers off. Rumor has it Pygmy tribes in the Amazon use this very poisonous plant to make deadly blowdarts.
A perfectly placed white Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea). I planted the red one years ago and a white flowered one popped up in this border, accenting the peach and blue flowers.
Another dead on plant placement by bird artists. These are native Firebush (Hamelia patens). The seedlings appeared soon after we moved in, spaced perfectly for a foundation planting. These are on one side of the front porch, I found another seedling and put a matching plant on the other side.
My preferred common name for this is Inch Plant (Transcandentia zebrina). I have no idea where it came from, but it makes a great groundcover.
Another Transcandentia – T. pallida. Purple Queen, or I was taught these are called Setcresea, Purple Queen is a bit more palatable. I have these in pots and in the ground, the original ones came up under a Strangler Fig, so I guess another bird seeded plant. These seemingly will grow anywhere from sun to shade. A great low maintenance groundcover and a real pop of purple.
Wild Grapes or Muscadines (Vitis rotundafolia) This is a love/hate plant. The native Floridians will actually eat the grapes. I find them bitter, but the birds love them. The hate part, they spread ….everywhere.
There, my Six for this Saturday, to see more posts visit http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.
Happy Gardening..
The Shrub Queen 
The firebush is gorgeous, as is the wild grape. I wish that my “volunteers” were as desirable as yours!
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Thank you, Firebush is my favorite…on the flipside. Florida has five kinds of crabgrass and it is year round!
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I have had a few of these and sometimes came up in just the right place. Raccoons plant the grape vines under my trees.
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It is like a reward for gardening! I managed to get rid of the grape vines in Atlanta but I think it is hopeless here. I need to learn basketry.
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Bring back grapevine wreaths.
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I can make those! LOL
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A nice selection of plants that you have not planted. The most surprising is the first (allamanda) because I didn’t know it grew very easily. Sold as a rare exotics here.
Regarding tradescantia, I have 3 varieties that do well here: T. cerinthoides , T. pallida ‘purpurea’ and T. virginiana ( but I lost that one 2 winters ago)
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Allamanda is a weed here almost. It is growing up a telephone pole behind my house. I looked up T, cerinthoides, very pretty I have not seen that one. I get some of the Wild Spiderwort in my garden but not T. virginiana.
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Muscadines supposedly grow at my Pa’s farm near Poulsbo in Washington. That is what the neighbor knows them as. If they are muscadines, they are likely garden cultivars. I only learned about them this last March, and now want to get pieces of them. I have been wanting to grow them for a long time. I may mail order known cultivars though.
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They probably do. I was surprised by the size of their native range. I like scuppernongs better for eating.
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Oh, they are not native to Washington. Someone planted them. That is why I believe that, if they are muscadines, that they are garden cultivars rather than seed grown. Growing them is surprisingly involved, since some require specific pollinators to generate abundant fruit. There was a single grapevine at the farm here that was supposedly a muscadine. It produced nothing without a pollinator.
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The allamanda is pretty, but I don’t like the sound of poison darts! They are all pretty in fact, but I know myself that self setters have to be kept a close eye on or they can become a problem! 😉 I grow the inch plant as a houseplant here, on a high shelf so it can trail.
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Yes, a close eye or too much of a good thing. The inch plant has to be thinned and composted regularly or it grows over everything.
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I do enjoy reading about your feelings about different plants. I find they do evoke emotions depending on the person, the season, and how difficult or easy they are to grow.
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Thanks Noelle.. you are right!
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Volunteers… the good, the bad, and the ugly! 😀
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You got it!
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Nice homesteaders. I used to have T. pallida but it didn’t make it through one particularly cold winter–may still be lurking underground. The friend who gave it to me called it Purple Heart.
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Thank you, I could definitely send you some cuttings! It would last a few years in Atlanta in the ground. I wonder if the clay soils or temperature is the killer? I like the name Purple Heart the best…people call them Purple Queen here.
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