Volunteer Ferns

At least I never knowingly bought them. The heavy duty broad leaf ones have been doing well in my planter for quite awhile and I even transplanted a few to pots. Suddenly a few weeks ago I saw two new branches pop up with the yet unborn leaves rolled into a ball ready to be unfurled. Much to my surprise it's a different type of fern with much more delicate leaves. The broad leaf ferns don't send out new branches like that, at least that I've noticed. I do remember large ferns on the Olympic Peninsula using that frond unfurling method.

Almost everything I bought at nursery's (vivero's) came with another plant or two, sometimes knowingly and others snuck in the back door. The orange/pink plant below I have no idea where it came from or what it is but it produces a lot of seeds and spreads. Another is Noche Buena or Poinsettia. This Noche Buena does not get totally red leaves, just a little red in he middle. It keeps popping up all over the yard well after I've pulled up all the old and tired ones

Young delicate frond popping up

With 12,000 species I don't expect know which is which

Broad leaves in planter with unknown 

Two unknowns but I'm assuming the lower is a weed

From Facebook the orange identified as Crossandra

Poinsettia or Noche Buena

Well it's both but known as La Flor de Noche Buena here in Mexico (Christmas flower). Mine was one of three plants in a pot that I bought for the Cissus vine. They were so entangled I planted them together as is. The third plant is long gone but the Noche Buena grew to about 2.5 feet last year and was very pretty but didn't look like the Poinsettias you see up north. They are considered annuals up north because they can't take the cold but are native to Mexico and are actually perennials.

So for some reason last winter the plant looked old and tired and nearly dried up - so I cut it back to nothing. Very surprised a few months ago to see a few popping up near the original and now coming up as much as 10 feet away. So many that I have been digging them up and putting them in pots. So the question is are these starting from seed as there is no sign of runners off the original. They have individual root systems. Noche Buena is classified as a shrub or tree and can grow to 10 feet so we'll see what happens to some of these this year with better care.

The Poinsettia got it's US name from Joel Poinsett who was the first ambassador to Mexico and he introduced it up north. Lots of legends in Mexico from Early Christian times back to the Aztecs which are fun to read but pretty typical legends.

What you´d expect to see up north around Christmas

Mine in the garden

A few I´ve put in pots