OVERRUN BY OVERSEEDING

See all these baby seedlings? (Ignore the dead bush.) I didn't plant them, but I'm responsible for them. Every year I rhapsodize over a Nicotiana Sylvestris I planted several years ago. Its heady fragrance in the evening, its startling size, its huge sprays of white trumpet-like flowers. People would stop and ask me what it was. And every fall I would sprinkle the dried seed heads from it over the rest of the beds hoping for new plants. Nada. Zilch.

Except for this spring. Suddenly they were everywhere. About a hundred of them. Bemused by this sudden explosion of nicotiana, I let them grow. And grow. Now I am overrun by tobacco plants and I can't even smoke them. Some of them are still babies, others grew into teenagers and young adulthood, grew tall and flowered like their parent. I haven't seen the small junipers I planted for about 6 weeks now. The miniature roses are hidden under giant nicotiana leaves. The Canada Goose decoys look like humpback whales cresting a sea of green, and the Japanese anemones are vying for air space to unfurl their blossoms.

I transplanted some to the back yard, the side yard, and next to the pond. I sent some back home with my brother-in-law when he came to visit. I'm getting ready to pot them up and leave them on the neighbors' doorsteps like babies in a basket. When fall comes, there's going to be a lot of digging-up going on around here. Hope I'm up to the task or Nicotiana Sylvestris will become my new nemesis of the garden. And I won't be doing any overseeding this fall. In fact I think I'll collect the seedheads carefully and seal them in plastic bags on their way to the garbage bin lest any stray seed fall on this suddenly fertile ground!