YES! And it’s everywhere and I’ve been pulling it for two weeks and more just keeps coming up.
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Two alleged bluestars showed up. They aren’t state natives but aren’t too far out of their range and we were smitten when they flowered
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I have plenty of ‘volunteers’ and spontaneous additions to my yard. Sometimes the birds help (they’ve planted several spice bush saplings for me), and sometimes I’m guessing seeds just blow in. By far the coolest ones I’ve had coming up so far are two species of orchids that popped up on their own.
Ragged fringed orchid:
Ladies’ tresses:
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Within the city we live not far from where my husband grew up, maybe 20 blocks, but we only bought this house seven or eight years ago.
We had to do a good amount of work before we moved in, such as upgrading the electrical, which was all 1960s when the previous owner bought the house, and redoing all the walls which are mamposteria. My husband also wanted to build a laundry casita at the back of the garden and a pool along one long wall.
As is traditional, albañiles stayed in the property to do the work. They cleared the garden completely (to be fair, there was not much there) to best be able to construct the pool and the steps surrounding it on all sides as well as the casita. They also laid a cement path for me, winding. There was not one bit of green in the back garden. The photos of the work in progress are just rocks and dust for about a year.
They asked me what plants and trees I wanted in the garden but to be honest I just wanted my house back, I wanted us to move in and have privacy, so I told them I would think on it and probably do it myself later. Then I never did. Not one plant. I meant to. I looked and admired all the gardens I saw and asked plenty of people what that was or this was. But I never put a thing in. Eventually because we are in the tropics, things began to grow and so I kept pulling them, always with the intention that I was keeping the garden clear for what I planned to put.
Then came the pandemic. My husband and older son were actually out of the country when the border closed. My older son was finishing school, in his last semester. My younger son, the one with Asperger, and I were going to fly to his commencement, then all four of us fly home. We ended up separated, half our family ine one country, half in another for two years.
I kept pulling “the weeds” at first. Then one day a plant appeared behind the water tank, an enormous tank meant to collect rainwater from the roof for use in the garden. And I was scared because it looked like a plant that made me very sick once and I did not want to touch it. So I found an application, a different one that was not very good, and tried to identify it. For months I was concerned.
Every night I spoke to my husband on video chat. I showed him photos of insects and butterflies I had seen and we would watch the sunset together. He promised to get rid of the plant when he ever came back. He was concerned too. I did not know he was searching for a better solution. Then he suggested iNaturalist to me and said maybe that could identify the plant.
When I uploaded the photo of the plant, the application immediately suggested the correct genus and then showed me a photo of the species as a suggestion and I was like OH. I cannot explain how that felt. Just nothing to worry about, Hamelia patens. It became my favorite plant and I watched it daily during the pandemic.
And I stopped automatically pulling things and began identifying things, including the bugs and butterflies I saw.
My entire garden comes from the birds and the bats and the anoles and the breeze and the bees.
Everything is a surprise. Everything is a gift.
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This reminds me I had several plants of Epipactis helleborine show up in my yard. Not really the kind of volunteer plant I want, however, since it’s a non-native orchid.
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You might enjoy reading about this garden in France! https://landezine.com/jardin-des-joyeux-by-wagon-landscaping/
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I’ve also seen Epipactis helleborine in my garden! It’s exciting (orchid!) but since it is non-native I keep an eye on it. So far it’s not taking over, though I know the seeds spread on the wind.
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It is pretty, but I can see how it could become a nuisance! It looks similar to coriander, the herb. Perhaps you could grow coriander instead?
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Lovely!
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That’s a great story. Lol at the bat being a messy eater 
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Wow, Lucy, what a beautiful story of finding solace in nature! Thank you for sharing. I’m sorry you were separated from your family for so long! I can see how the anxiety and uncertainty of the pandemic mirrored your anxiety about this plant. And what a gift that it eventually became something you were able to check in on every day and appreciate. I’m glad iNaturalist helped you!
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Sometimes I pull it out, sometimes I’m soft-hearted and I don’t. (The bittersweet seedlings get pulled immediately, however. I do have SOME standards.)
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At my parents’ house, we’ve always had trillium, which we’ve never planted. It comes up every spring, and we avoid cutting it down. Last year, I also noticed yellow trout-lilies growing under a tree in a patch of the garden where we plant nothing. It was a nice surprise. I suspect, given the age of the house, that the trillium and trout lilies are survivors from a time when the land was still wild meadow and woods. I also ran across bluebells in an old garden in town at the edge of a wood. I suspect they are also hold overs from an earlier time and are now just lost among weeds and hedges, but beautiful nevertheless if you know to look.
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That must be lovely in spring! I’ve heard that the presence of trout lilies suggests that very little, if any, disturbance or cultivation has ever occurred on the land where they grow.
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Oh, that’s interesting! Thank you for sharing that.
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You’re welcome! Here’s an article on these “old growth flowers” https://newildernesstrust.org/old-growth-flowers/
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I am very fortunate to have numerous native (and otherwise) volunteers in my half acre habitat. Over 12 years I have encouraged much of the area to go back to a more natural state, mostly by not mowing or raking, with great rewards!
Orchids: Was so excited to find orchids growing in the front lawn soon after I moved here. Since then I’ve found quite a few in another part of the property, with variations in colour. These Epipactis helleborine started to spread further last summer, but not densely in any one place, so I’ll leave them. I also have a Spiranthes cernua, and an S. romanzoffiniana (which is not native). The Spiranthes don’t grow every year.
I have a Sweet Pepper Bush (Clethra alnifolia, which is ‘critically imperilled’.) https://inaturalist.ca/observations/95356041 Who knows how it got here, meanwhile I enjoy it, and the bees love it.
There are several mature areas with Mayflowers (Epigea repens), bunchberry, Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum Canadense), Several Cinquefoils (Potentilla), Common Jewelweed, Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris), Cockooflower (Cardamine Pratensis), Eastern Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens), 4 or 5 native Goldenrods, Northern Star Flower (Lysimachia borealis), Several Oenothera species, including Meadow Evening Primrose (O. pilosella) https://inaturalist.ca/observations/63363768, Canada Clearweed https://inaturalist.ca/observations/31783529, Shinleaf, Rattlesnakeroot, Whorled Aster (Oclemena acuminata) Yarrow, and more… Getting tired of typing. 
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A big drift of Teucrium canadense arrived a few years ago. I don’t know how or why, but it looks great there.
I have a spot I call the sedge nursery, which is growing…maybe pedunculata? It looks like it was meant to be. I’m hoping to propagate it and spread it around.
This week i found mountain mint in the front garden that i dont remember seeing in flower. I’m looking forward to planting more.
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Oh! You’re reminding me that some sedge with a big fireworks-type display of flowers made its way into my garden. I still haven’t figured out what it is, but I enjoy it when it’s in fruit.
Mountain mint is great for attracting pollinators.
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Can I just say that the plant has an amazing common name of Tall sock-destroyer? Sounds like it’s pretty accurate.
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