Two years ago (or more, I can't remember), I planted seeds for Euphorbia
marginata (snow on the mountain) under an apricot tree, with the idea that
the leaves would light up an area of my garden in which root competition
made it difficult to work the soil.. Not a single one sprouted, and I have
just tromped around the understory of the tree since then, weeding and
picking apricots - paying minimal attention to the bits of greenery here
and there under the tree. Today while watering by hand, I was concentrating
on the struggling rhubarb behind the tree, when all of a sudden my eye
caught a flash of brilliant variegation on some foliage under the tree - and
there was a full-grown euphorbia in all its glory. It reinforced the notion
I have always had, that seeds have a timing all their own - and self-sown
seedlings have a way of picking the perfect environment for themselves -
which ensures that I have alyssum every year in certain areas, calendula in
others, and cosmos elsewhere..