It makes them sound so eager. 'Volunteers' -- to the plantsman/woman -- are the naturally germinated seedlings of plants you like but which you don't actually need. If they're seedlings of plants you don't like, of course, they're weeds. Right now my garden is full of volunteers -- lambs ears, fortnight lilly, rosemary, strawberry, california poppy, sedum, anemone, acanthus, even the odd rose. So Ada and I decided to pot a bunch of them up and make use of their willingness to help. We sold them to our neighbors in an impromptu plant sale this weekend to raise money for the non-profit Ada's school is supporting in its 'Penny Power' drive this year (the group is called My New Red Shoes and helps supply poor and homeless Bay Area children with new shoes and clothes to wear to school). With 4" pots of perennials selling around here for $3-5 and gallon pots at $5-9, we could have made a fortune. But Ada strongly felt a range of 25c to $1 (for the two 5 gallon pots we had) was about right. And that certainly made them easy to sell. She made signs for the sale and called out to all who passed for most of the day. Many, very kindly, came over and shopped. We raised well over $15.
