Not only did I get free seeds, but my seed-swapping friends planted the seeds for me! They are so considerate, don't you think? My friends were very careful and chose the best companion plants and color combinations when sowing their seeds.
My seed-swapping friends are birds! All winter long, we fed the birds plenty of seeds. They gave me some interesting flower seeds in return for the food. I don't think some of the seeds came from the bird food that we supplied. I think some of these seeds came from other gardens.
Maybe this yellow lily came all the way from Jamie and Randy's garden! They received a sunflower gift from the birds and THEY grow Oriental lilies in their gardens! Perhaps their Goldfinches brought the lily to my garden?
The birds planted the lily with the deep purple salvia nemorosa 'Marcus' and gold/burgundy blanket flower, creating a nice little grouping in the butterfly garden. There is also a purple coneflower in that mix of free seeds. Since I grow the salvia, blanket flower and coneflower, then I suppose my flowers could have reseeded. However, there's no way that the yellow lily came from my garden.
There are also two perfect yellow, short sunflowers. The plants have very similar flowers with a height around 30 inches. I have no experience with sunflowers, so I have no idea how to find these seeds - other than buying sunflower bird food! I like these so much that I'd love to have a mass planting to brighten up the color in the butterfly garden.
One sunflower showed up in the cottage garden between the color-coordinated pale yellow shasta daisies and yellow coneflowers. The other showed up in the butterfly garden with agastache 'Blue Fortune'.
Not only did I receive some interesting plants in the seed swap, my feathered gardening friends were gracious enough to sow the seeds in good locations!
Story and photos by Freda Cameron; Location: home garden; June 2009