Many years ago, I bought a perennial plant at a nursery, and after I planted it, found that there was a ride-along plant in the pot. I had planted them both before I realized that I had a two for one. Now many years have passed since then, and the plant I bought has long disappeared but the ride-along plant has naturalized all along one edge of my yard.
I asked Helen May, whose family owned the nursery from which the plant came, to identify my free plant, and she told me that it was a wild petunia.
The botanical name is Ruellia humilis, and it produces many two-inch lavender flowers in the summer, and sometimes into early fall. The plant is 20 inches tall, and here in our Midwest gardens it grows well in full sun, but I have read that it prefers shade in Southern gardens. It likes my alkaline soil, which I read that it prefers, and has spread, but in a well-mannered way.
It is quite cheerful in the garden, even though it pops up in my lawn at times. It is a hardy plant, so I feel very fortunate that all of those years ago it chose to come home with me. The more one gardens, the more one treasures happy accidents that help create our personal gardens. Gardens seem to know what plants they enjoy growing and the results, though serendipitous, can be quite wonderful.
This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on wild petunia.
