What’s your attitude toward volunteers in your garden? I’ve always been benevolent toward plants (mushrooms and animals too, if truth be told) that decide to show up without my bidding, even the ones that I know I don’t want around. I let them linger until they start showing their true thug. That’s when I feel like I have no choice but to yank them out.
Sometimes I vacillate too long and then it’s too late. I currently have an is-is tree (ficus ulmifolia – scouring leaf) that I have to chop down if I want it gone because I let it stay beyond the time it could still be dug out. At this point, pruning is an easier task. I just tell myself that it’s actually a good idea to keep it because we’ll have scouring leaves if the stores ever run out of dishwashing sponges, several of its parts are medicinal, the wood is good for whittling and crafting, the figs are actually edible albeit bland but good eating for the birds, and it’s a threatened species… I think I just convinced myself to let it stay forever.
I read somewhere that gardeners have to be ruthless. I think it was from a Jane Jeffry Mystery by Jill Churchill titled “Mulch Ado about Nothing.” All the Jane Jeffrys have punny titles like “Grime and Punishment,” “Fear of Frying,” and “The Merchant of Menace,” and, yes, I collect this series too.
Going back to gardening being a ruthless activity… It does feel that way. Personally, I spare plant life when I can. If I feel like it’s not one of the common thugs, I typically simply repot. I do feel like most of my volunteers are gifts from the birds and other pollinators. My garden has surprised me with many plants that I would have otherwise bought at the nursery, such as syngonium, caladium, lily, and torenia. The most recent ones I was really thrilled and amazed to find are aglaonema.
I know most plant collectors have some kind of aglaonema. They have such pretty leaves that they’re really attractive as ornamentals. I, however, wasn’t into ornamentals for a long time. I just wanted edibles and flowers. Slowly, as I got sucked into the gardening barter trend during the pandemic, I started letting ornamentals into my collection. My husband’s aunt gave me a pot of njoy (or glacier – we’re still not yet sure) pothos and then my sister-in-law added more from that point on. Before I knew it, I was coveting all the other items the other plantitas and plantitos had on their wishlist.
There were some things I simply didn’t think of acquiring because they had just been plentiful around me when I was growing up, like croton, dracaena, spider plant, snake plant, and aglaonema. Nonetheless, now that the birds have chosen to give me aglaonema, I’m compelled start collecting them too. I’ll have to research on the different varieties, but I do know that I want a pictum tricolor. It has been on my wishlist even before I got into aglaonema. The leaves are gorgeous. They remind me of military fatigues.
Here they are. No, they didn’t show up right next to each other. The pink and green speckled one I had to repot from the foot of a star fruit tree. The red-edged one showed up in the pot where it is currently. I’ll be repotting them again soon. I’ll also appreciate being enlightened on the names of these varieties.
So, thanks to the neighborhood birds, and here’s to more aglaonema in my collection in the near future! What about you? Have you had any volunteers that you’ve chosen to keep? What’s your favorite ornamental?
This Small Life 