ABC Wednesday R is for RudbeckiaIf you are her for Wordless Wednesday scroll down to the next post.
Here it is Wednesday again. I had a lot of choices for this week’s letter but decided to go with genus Rudbeckia, one of the several genera referred to commonly as Coneflowers. These are great plants for the garden as they are tough, free flowering and mostly reliable perennials. I am never sure how to phrase something like ‘mostly perennial’ because with just about anything in the botanical world there are a few exceptions. A couple of the 25 species are annuals and a couple are biennial. For the most part the Black Eyed Susan (R. hirta) are perennials. I started off with 125 plants in the Estate Garden and have multiplied that to a couple thousand by encouraging seeding and using divisions to propagate them. This year was the first year the deer completely ate the tops of my whole crop. The plants started to flower and in about a week I was gone they stripped everything. I had to laugh when I saw on a gardening website that the deer don’t like them. They seem to eat them with abandon in certain situations. Lucky I was able to get this picture before the massacre. There were a couple of other older posts on Rudbeckia, use the search if you are interested.
One of the 25 species of Rudbeckia, Three-lobed Coneflower (R. triloba)These flowers really add a lot to the late summer garden and look great planted in masses. I have always grown mine in full sun but read that they can take part shade. They like moist soil but can grow in just about any conditions. For a little extra pizzazz check out some of the new cultivars.
Here are some interesting (I get mostly plain yellow) seedlings I have gotten from my unsupervised crosses:
I really wanted to use Rose for ‘R’ but since there were over 70 (that’s where I stopped counting) different roses posted on this blog this year I thought that was enough. It is almost time to beput the roses to bed for the year now. The preparations in the different gardens range from elaborate to almost nothing. I am so far behind at work it isn’t funny. The 2 people I have working are leaving for Mexico on Saturday. One is not returning and the other says he will be back but his work permit is expiring so we will have to see what happens.
Here is a list of other ‘ABC Wednesday’ Blogs:
mrs nesbitts place
hin's photoblog
tech the man
a bit of this a dash of that
Little Rock Daily Photo
photoxication
Kissing the Dogwood
strolling through Georgia
Ruth's Garden Blog
kate isis
photography by kml
AVCR8TEUR'S Blog
Salty Dogs
The Modern Goddess
Simply Sage
author blog
kai
Mollitudes
ten forty
Neva
Ackworth born, gone West
Secluded Habitat
katch photo
Mr. Mapper
The Max Files
Oswegan
Watch me, No Watch me
Peter Miller
Lynette
26 comments:
Such a shame the deer got those beautiful flowers but glad you were able to get some pictures first.
black eyed susans don't see them in Florida- but oh the bushels I picked a a child . great thanks sandy
The second picture is fantastic with great use of DOP. I never knew that deer ate flowers. I thought they mostly chewed on grass and such like.
The flowers are beautiful. I am sure the deer enjoyed them too.
What a cheery sight. Your crosses are beautiful too. My garden is quite shady and they do reasonably well but I've never had such flowers as these even without the deer!
Thanks for your lovely comment on my post :o)
Rx
Oh i love these flowers they are pretty easy to grow, which is what i need as i don't have a green thumb.
Great post for R
Those are beautiful flowers - I love the sunflower types :-)
nice flowers happy ww
Chris! You disappointed me, I was 100% sure you were going to proudly display a rose. :)
Not disappointed really I love conehead plants, they've brought loads of beautiful butterflies to my garden.
It's a dear game these flowers, colours are always so vivid, all I can say is grow till ya go
wonderful photos - great work.
It's a beautiful reminder of summertime joy, coming to your place today. I have a few blooms still but tonight our freeze may take them. Winter is almost here in Arkansas.
Wow those are pretty.
What great cone flowers. I have purple cones but they have not reseeded as well as I would like. Maybe I will try yellow ones....Loved the post and I did expect a rose!
wow! what a lovely flower it is...c",)
here is mine:
Wordless Wednesday...
Happy WW c",)
I love the 2nd picture as the beautiful flower stand out in narrower DOF. Very pretty shot. Apology in not visiting as often and as quickly as I like. I spend way too much time in buying some used camera gear in pentax and I spent way less time in blogging. Please forgive me not. Have a great thanksgiving.
Wow those are beautiful!
Thanks for the visit.
They're kind of pretty. I've never seen them in australia, i guess I'm going to have to look harder next time i am at the nursery.
I've always enjoyed these flowers. I admire their vivid color and look of strength.
I think my favorite is the second photograph.
~Oswegan
I don't know how you do it, but your crosses look very colorful and successfully in bloom. Happy Thanksgiving.
So much yellow! I like the second picture best. Blessed Thanksgiving, everyone... too bad we dont have this holiday in my country. i.e. Singapore. So it's a normal working day for me.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I guess the shallow depth of field wins the day (2nd shot).
I haven't heard of ABC Wednesdays before. Sounds like an interesting meme to join.
I love Rudbeckia. I grow several clumps in my own garden and they are just lovely long lasting flowers. Great shots.
These are some really nice pics of the flowers. I wouldn't have known their name though! I would agree that the second picture is the nicest - the depth of field is very good, and there is also an interesting low-contrast effect.
Cheers,
David Webb
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous... shame about the deer but your photos are wonderful. Happy Thanksgiving (sorry a bit late, we don't celebrate it here in Hong Kong or in Australia). I hope you had a wonderful holiday.
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