It's September but our plants are still giving new blooms. The lady who brought me this claims it's a yellow Rudbeckia, but I'm not so certain: Our trusty Colchicums always put on a good show. They're big blooms, a lot bigger than spring blooming crocus: The little, pale blue thing from New Zealand is spreading out and blooming. A true sweetie: The dark blue Penstemon decided to start blooming again. I'm not complaining: The yellow Anaphalis is a stayer, it keeps putting forth new growth and blooms: The Ixia one of the post order companies decided to bless me with. I put them in an open space and forgot about them, and suddenly they decided to bloom for us: This grass is really looking good in autumn, with it's fountain-like growth: We've also god a few of these, and they're very good in apple pie:
Beautiful blooms Droopy. I keep hoping my Penstemon 'Husker Red' will bloom this year but I guess I should hope for next year since I just planted them last month. The first picture looks like Rudbeckia fulgida aka Black-eyed Susan, Brilliant Coneflower, Eastern Coneflower, or Orange Coneflower. It is the only Rudbeckia I can find pictures of with the long thin petals and the leaves look like the ones I have in the back yard. The petals on yours are just a bit longer and thinner than mine but yours could be a slightly different variety.
I would sure like a bushel of those apples right now for sauce and a pie...thanks for sharing your pictures..I don't recognize quite a few of them...
Very pretty Droopy. I agree with Toni-Rudbeckia Fulgida-they are blooming here now and putting on quite a show. Your blue Penstemon is very pretty and your apples look great. I'm having a very poor apple year here. The apples are very small and scabby, perhaps from the very wet summer we had here.
Those are really colourful, Droopy. I like them all. I wonder about that first oen, but perhaps you can better tell by looking at the leaves, not the flower. I do like them all, but some stand out more than otheres for me--the colchicums, the "pale blue thing from New Zeeland", the penstamon and the Ixia. Splendid plants. ...as for the apple--well I could just take a big bite right out of that thing!
Thank you for liking our blooms, and thank you for helping me with a positive ID on the Rudbeckia fulgida. The leaves are like the red coneflower, but the blooms just looked different from the ones I found photos of. Maybe it's in a slightly wrong place. The Penstemon was planted in June and was blooming then. It's actually darker than the photo shows. My camera won't show purples and pinks correctly. We had bad apples last year, and we also had a wet, cold summer, so I'm happy they're looking good this year.
Your ixia is really lovely Droopy and I also like the 'fountain' grass and your beautiful colchicums. I've just picked all my apples and am about to make up sauces and pies with them. I still have pears to pick but they're rather small and hard at the moment.
Droopy, check out the Echinacea paradoxa it is also called Yellow Coneflower and is a close relative of the Rudbeckia, but their family trees branche off. They are both members of the Tribe: Heliantheae but different Genuses.....Genus: Rubeckia or Genus: Echinacea I think I might change my mind on the ID of your plant, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea_paradoxa See if this more closely resembles your plant.
Thank you Toni, I'm really not certain. I think the Rudbeckia flowers look more like my plant than the Echinacea flowers. I found one called R. fulgidia var. deamii that has the narrow petals, so maybe you were right the first time around. I'll see how the dark center develops.
Droopy, I really enjoyed viewing your blooms. Very envious and at the same time, happy for you. Your Rudbeckia looks very much like the ones I saw at the HortPark today. They labelled it Rudbeckia Goldstrum.
Thank you both! songlim, it's not "Goldsturm", that one has broader petals. A friend of mine has that in her garden, so I could bring a bloom for comparison.
