“Brown-Eyed – Surrounded” – Summer 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA
“A Plant a Day till Spring” will highlight one plant a day, starting on the winter solstice (December 21, 2013)… And ending on the vernal equinox (March 20, 2014)… If all goes to plan I will be starting with old Snowdrop photos from 2013… And ending with new photos of Snowdrops in 2014…
One of my favorite wildflower memories from last year was a product of the photograph above… I was carefully working my way into a massive expanse of golden flowers in an attempt to take a few macros… Right around the time I got to the middle of the patch the wind started to pick up… As the flowers began to dance the feeding honeybees took flight… I guess since I was the only object not uncontrollably swaying in the wind… I became the preferred landing zone…
As I stood nervously covered in nervous honeybees… I suddenly became calm… The bees had no intentions of stinging me… They were just happy to have found a safe spot to rest until the wind relaxed… After a little while the wind relaxed long enough for the bees to resume their duties… It was right around this point that I came back to reality and realized I had a camera in my hand… I was kind of blown away at what had just happened… I took out the camera and snapped a single photograph of the expanse of flowers I was sitting in and made my way home… I had forgotten about that day until last night when I came across this photograph…
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Brown-Eyed Susan… Black-Eyed Susan… Any of the Rudbeckias really… Are very easy plants to grow… In fact… Wildflowers are some of the easiest… Specifically the types that flourish in full sun… These types of flowers are designed to thrive in neglect… Oftentimes surviving periods of extended drought without showing a single sign of stress… When someone responds to me by saying they do not have a green thumb… My reply is always look to nature for the answer…
Mother nature… Though she can be a huge bitch sometimes… She isn’t a stupid one… She has created plants for almost every climate on our planet… Now… I would be willing to bet that your garden matches at least one of those climates… Right… Armed with this information plant selection is only a few mouse clicks away…
I’m not sure what to say about this plant as far as the garden is concerned… It is perennial most of the time… I would go as far as calling it a tender perennial… Although it can survive most winters… A harsh winter will often kill it… Because of this Rudbeckia’s are voracious self-seeding plants… Each flower produces mass quantities of extremely viable seeds… This is basically the plants way of saying it will survive regardless of conditions…
Collection of seeds occurs in the fall… They can be sown on the surface of freshly prepared soil… I prefer to do this before the first snowfall… But it can also be done in the early spring… I prefer doing it before the snowfall because that is when it would happen in the forest… Like I said before… And will continue to say for the rest of my life… If you have a garden question… Ask nature before you ask anyone else… 9 out of 10 times you will find your answer… And experience something magical in the process…
plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello
If you want some science – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudbeckia_triloba
These “Plant a Day Till Spring” posts are simply intended to kill time until spring when I start writing more… My source (where applicable) is Wikipedia.org… The photography is all my own… And I am adding my own information…
This website and all of the information presented within is provided free by the author… Me… It is my sole opinion and is not representative of anyone other than myself… You can contact me directly with questions at – c.condello@hotmail.com
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