About 6 or 7 years ago I planted a few queen-of-the-prairie plants in the corner of my yard. There’s an ugly power pole there and I wanted to cover some of it with taller plants. Filependula rubra ‘Venusta’ fit the bill. It grows 4- to 6-feet tall with airy, rosy-pink plumes.
This prairie plant prefers very moist, humusy soil. My location was not ideal, but it also didn’t help that we had a drought the summer I planted them. They all died. Or so I thought.
This year I noticed a volunteer peeking out of the ground in early June. I have no idea if it came from one of the original plants or if it self-seeded and finally sprouted after all of these years. By mid-July I had delicate pink flowers waving on a 6-foot-tall plant.
My urge is to pamper the plant and make sure it survives this time, but I’m going to ignore it and see if it will survive winter and surprise me again next year.
