Of All The Flowers I Did Not Plant

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?  ~ Douglas Adams

I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now.  ~ John Lennon

Of all the flowers I did not plant, there is one that is my favourite.  I don't know that it is polite to pick favourites when it comes to the flowers in your garden.  But I have one anyway.

It sits in the corner of the faerie garden.  That strange strip of land where everything grows happily, no matter what it might be, or what its light or soil requirements are.  So many things have appeared there, just like magic. A vast selection of plants I did not seed in, or buy from a garden center.  "Weeds" like chickweed, plantain and dandelion sneak in, but that's to be expected.  What is unexpected is the strange flowers that pop up from who-knows-where.  Flowers I've never laid eyes on.

This alien beauty appeared four years ago. I had planted the garden with a bright pink foxglove, and then a foot and a half over, a dark purple salvia, and then another foot and a half from that, a fierce blue delphinium. The following spring, a strange plant appeared exactly where the pink foxglove had been.

I waited for it to flower, and was terribly confused when it did.  I nearly pulled it out that first year - disappointed in its odd look and sudden encroachment in my garden.

But it grew on me - the mysterious beast.  Each year I've been waiting to see what it will do.  The flowers are the lightest pink, some veined with green.  It looks like a delphinium, but not one I've ever seen.  Just a tuft of flowers on the top of wildly tall stems.

I've taken photos to the local garden center, but they can't tell me exactly what it is.  A faerie flower perhaps.

I'm so glad I didn't pull it out, those four years ago.  I tell my silly self that this is how you know magic is real. When flowers appear that you did not plant - that you can't imagine you've ever seen the likes of before.

Have you ever seen anything exactly like my mysterious beauty?  I'd love to know!  By its foliage and flower I'd have to say its a delphinium-of-sorts.  Perhaps the blue one down the garden had a love-affair with the racy pink foxglove, and this odd duck is the product.

How it found its way to my little garden I may never know, but I'll treasure its company each summer and remind myself that strange and wonderous things do happen. Sometimes right under your nose.