Volunteer Potatoes in My Petunia Flowers

After the incredible thunderstorms in Perthshire this week, I took a walk around the garden to see if there was any damage. The heavy rain (and HAILSTONES) had left petals scattered, soil washed from the beds, and a few plants looking rather windswept. And that’s when I spotted something unexpected among the petunias – a potato plant pushing its way up, a true volunteer from last year’s compost.  I spotted the unmistakable foliage of a potato plant pushing its way up.  Every gardener knows the joy of surprises in the soil – but this one made me laugh out loud.  

These little intruders are what we call volunteer potatoes. They’re not weeds exactly – they’re simply tubers left behind from a previous crop. Even when you think you’ve lifted them all, one or two always seem to escape the fork and remain hidden underground. Given the right conditions, they’ll quietly bide their time until spring warmth and rain coax them into life again.  We had simply put the compost from last year's tubs into the shed and brought the tubs out again this spring.  

We’re secretly hoping it turns out to be a Catriona – a classic Scottish variety.  The main commercial crop had problems in the 2024 season and we were not able to have them for you this year.  It’s too early to tell just yet.  We also grew some Heidi Red last year which would lovely as well!  

It’s a reminder that potatoes are determined, resilient, and always keen to grow – even when you’ve planned something completely different for the space!

Should you leave them?

Volunteer potatoes are charming, but they can bring a few problems if left unchecked:

• They can harbour diseases like blight, carrying spores from one season to the next.

• They may compete with your flowers for nutrients and space.

• They rarely fit into your crop rotation plan.

In flower beds, though, a single volunteer potato is more a curiosity than a catastrophe. I decided to let mine grow alongside the petunias, just to see what might develop. The soft pink and purple blooms of the flowers with the lush green potato leaves have made quite an unexpected pairing.

The lesson in all this

Potatoes are survivors. No matter how carefully we plan, nature sometimes has its own ideas. That little potato popping up in the middle of a petunia display is a small reminder of the joy of gardening: you never quite know what you’ll find.

And who knows – at the end of the summer, I may even get a handful of bonus spuds to go with my flowers!  We haven't actually got any growing on our patio this year. 

We always say that tubers need to be protected from frost and this is true - frost will kill tubers and newly emerging shoots quickly.  I assume that this tuber was well protected in the soil (in the bag, in the shed!) but if you planned to do this it would probably not work!