Sometimes its the small things that matter. Growing plants from seeds and finding traits that are inherited over time in a population of plants is a joy for me. I have no idea why I like it. I just find it enchanting. It is fortunate I am not following a predescribed trajectory laid out by years of scientific inquiry. I consider myself more in the ‘Miles Davis’ musical camp of no practice and using my intuition to hit the right notes unlearning my way in the process.

This week I uncovered these blue lima beans only because they had something that was hard to find and unexpected; all at once early ripening. That may not seem like a big deal but for years the limas that I was fostering through hybridization with their perennial cousin the thicket bean were creating very vigorous and unexpected results. These side light populations are beautiful but you need to have something very uniform in ripening with husks that split open easily expelling the beans. It makes cultivation much more practical and easy. There were only two plants. I have both the white speckled and blue versions. The yields are high all along the vine and not overly vegetative. For me it was a great discovery.

I grew a lot of sunflowers over the years. I loved all the varieties but they were too uniform to use for finding new characteristics. It was from this accidental seedling that I found near a cottage that had more variation and a means to find new traits of unknown possibilities. Here is the smallest plant I have found so far surrounded by its siblings. Under a foot tall with a tiny head is ideal to cross with the sunchokes. I bend down the Jerusalem artichoke flowers near this sunflower to make it easier for a bumblebee to go from flower to flower. The timing is critical and it might be too late but it is fine in that I can try a more robust planting of teeny sunflowers next year. I will save the seeds of the annual and perennial plants in the process and see what discoveries lie ahead. I blasted the area with fish emulsion and deer-off yesterday. This combination of stench and fertilizer seems to be a bumblebee magnet and brings them in to the point the whole planting is alive with the sound of music. zzzzzzz……go to the sunflowers my humble bees. I love the music you make.

Potatoes grown from true seed create a whole myriad of exciting traits some of which are confusing at first but revealing about the wild spud of yesteryear growing out of rocks in the Andes mountains. This particular clustering of tubers creates a very small one foot tall plant which produces between 50-70 potatoes. Its hard to count them all. The seedling was grown from my Perennial Perpetual Diversity seed mix and was one of those dense fibrous compact roots found in a seedling population. The above image is in the second year of growing it. Next year I will devote more time to this and split up the clusters a little. This was definitely an outlier in the population but seriously what’s not to love about this plant. To me its the perfect potato filled with wonder and excitement. The below image is another form that was found in the same population. Here the potato decided to produce the spuds in a more robust and larger fashion. It too is in its second year from tubers. You cannot predict what will happen and each one is different.

All joyous discoveries come from unexpected directions. Such is the case for the Umbrella magnolia below. Today they reside in my yard planted over 25 years ago. Originally a lone tree was found on a berm at a fast food restuarant. I got a call late at night from a horticultural friend of mine from college who asked if I had seen the fruiting Umbrella magnolia tree at the Long John Silvers restuarant. How in heck did that get planted there was his comment. I had driven by it for a few years thinking the same. How in heck? Here on a berm smack dab in front of the restuarant known for its delicious fried fish was a rather unusual horticultural find. The next day I found a grocery bag at my house filled with the beautiful red seed cones. He went in and asked the manager if he could pick the fruit. They thought it was odd but fine to do that. At that time, I was growing many seedling magnolias in my nursery but not this one. The issue usually is that seed companies ruin them by over drying. When I moved, I quit selling them and put the remainder around my home. I collected the seeds this year because there was quite a few. I thought back to my friend, fried fish and the eventual demise of the tree. I got an email from him letting me know the tree had been uprooted for a new landscape replaced by the sterile mini-compacta shrubs. He told me not to look as to avoid the pain. Too late, I saw it. It sat there on its side for some time before they chipped it up. Luckily I captured the germplasm. Its progeny will live on. I have the Long John Silvers near the parking lot entrance magnolia now. I had converted them to the black oak and hickory woodland. It was easy to do and there was only joy remaining.