365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
A Rudbeckia Of A Different Color
Day 291: Typical of my haphazard gardening, I bedded starts and sowed seed in the spring and then promptly forgot what I'd planted. The best part of this method is that something invariably takes me by surprise. I did remember that I'd stuck some Rudbeckias out there...perennials because I'm getting lazy in my old age...though the fact that they were a rich maroon entirely slipped my mind.
I have a passion for dark-colored blossoms. I love Queen of Night and Black Parrot tulips, Superstition Irises, black Callas (which I can't grow), even silly little black Pansies. I am always looking for new black-flowered plants which can survive my neglectful gardening practices. If not black, give me the darkest shades of purple or red available for a species.
This is not to say that my garden has a funereal aspect. Far from it! I really don't plan for color, so the flowerbed looks more like a crazy-quilter had a hand in its design. Over here, there will be a thick mass of bronze marigolds; over there, clumps of blue Globe Gilia or a tangle of pink, white and purple Nigella. It's not a "scatter garden." It's more like a mosaic.
The Rudbeckias will be permanent fixtures, although they may get shifted around over the coming years so that they form a backdrop for shorter flowers. I'll probably forget where I put them until they burst through the ground, ready to surprise me with their gypsy-dark eyes yet again.
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