My MIL recently passed. Some of my plants came from her stash. Warm fuzzies when I look at them. Friends have passed other cuttings.
It is interesting what decides to thrive and take over!

and I have so few that I have bought surviving, that I refuse to buy perennials anymore.

My trip around my garden in my head: Peonies from my grandmother planted in the 60's in a place that would never be suggested if I had researched it. Pachysandra everywhere from a neighbor. Ginger saved from a wild area that was being excavated. Goldenrod, dame's rocket, and sweet peas from the roadside. Cranesbill taking over in several locations. Bishop's weed that someone should be slapped for passing on to anyone, as well as mint and honeysuckle. Lizard tail given to me for an area where nothing would grow---it did too well.

My favorite is purple lamium that somehow rooted on my brick patio where fall leaves had built up. I have left it and the whole patio is a carpet of lamium now. Why I love this is because I tried to get the bricks out so I could put a garden in there...impossible, but I still got the garden there.

What have I learned from this? Never accept plants from anyone who is getting rid of "surplus", because that means that it is a lot of work to keep in check---and I don't do a lot of work well.

the only bought perennials that are thriving were ones I bought seriously marked down and almost dead that I've brought back to life. I've also had bad luck shelling out full price for perennials.

we loaded up on greenhouse beds this winter with ground up home "garbage" to feed the worms and create some richer soil and we got volunteer cantaloupes, jalapenos, and tomatoes... all for free.....

When we bought this farm in 1978 I found one small clump of paper whites behind the old house. I've been dividing them and transplanting them every since and now have enough to go all the way around our new house. Last month my husband dug some of them up and took to his mother's house to put in a neglected raised bed.

About twenty years ago my Mom gave me one pot of African iris. Those have done better than the paper whites and they are around the house and down the driveway. Some of those went to MIL's, too.

Mom also gave me some Crocosmia which have done well, but they no longer bloom where I planted them - the sycamores now shade them too much. But over the last winter I liked the foliage and how green it stayed even when we had severe weather. So this spring we dug up a lot of them to transplant around the new house and took some to MIL's, too.

My pale pink rose climber grew from canes my mother gave me. The hosta is from a transplant my sister gave me. She also gave me a clump of chives that's been growing in a big pot on the patio for about 20 years.

There are probably a few more if I really give it some thought.

But the yard as a whole has mostly previously propagated items. I bought the apple trees, the cherry trees, and the bush cherry as plants, and started the raspberry patches from wild raspberry seeds from berries I picked in the woods. Mom just suggested I branch out into growing blueberries, but I think that's just because she really likes blueberries.

But this reminds me, the garlic is getting ever closer to harvest, the green stalks are getting more and more yellow. And I do want to try and propagate some of the raspberries into pots so I can give them out to friends and relatives.

I have bee balm and morning glories from my best friend in Massachusetts. I have two peonies, and three or four varieties of chicks and hens from a former classmate; sedum, iris and daisies from a craigslist garden swap; and johnny jump-ups, licorice mint, and honeysuckle from my ex's best friend's wife!

I drew my boss last year for Secret Santa. Gathering a little bit of intel from a coworker, I learned she loved plants but kills them. So I potted a pothos cutting I had rooting in a vase for her. She loved it, our custodian cares for it, and it's thriving in her office!

So easy, so many varieties. I carry a little scissor on my leash and share liberally with neighbors.

I have at least 10 kinds out front, they're surviving nicely on very little water now as we adjust to this drought. I wish I could say the same for my strawberries and blueberries, those I have to give up I guess. Sad...

gave me when i started my farm.
some peppers, too.

i tell the story of the big fat envelope full of seeds i got from you 4 years ago. and the next year. and the next.
opening up that envelope was a blast back to the past of my childhood ways of gardening. my dad had all sorts of things growing from cuttings and bits that he got in his travels when he was a plumbing supply salesman.
and when you went to the nursery and got a flat of plants, it was a flat. you cut them apart w a sharp knife.

have a few trees that were planted for occasions, buying our house, the littlest baby.
stories, stories, stories. i could talk all day.