Mystery Bloomers

I have clay pots on my patio – my little container garden. In the spring of 2014, I replaced the plants in two of the pots with Dahlias. Last spring I was looking forward to their return, when I noticed something else was growing in those two pots. I knew it wasn’t the Dahlias (which never did return), but had no clue what it might be. I felt fairly certain it wasn’t weeds, because I rarely get weeds in my containers. So I left them alone and just watched them grow. Before long I had these mystery bloomers displaying their beauty. They began blooming in early June and lasted through August. And I enjoyed every day of their season.

This year, they returned again. And there are twice as many as last year. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Here is a recent photo of the bloom above. You can notice that when one group of florets dies out, another group opens and covers up the spent blossoms. So it looks like the flower head appears to be lasting about three months.

Here’s a photo of the entire plant.

If you know what this mystery bloom is, I hope you leave a reply and clue me in. Thanks in advance.