Sunday, January 2, 2011

Black-Eyed Susans, Summer 1991

Some of my mother's favorite flowers were Black-Eyed Susans—Rudbeckia hirta. I tried to have at least one of those plants in each of our perennial gardens at her home. This is a group just off the brick patio during the summer of 1991. Other flowers seen are Mullein Pink—Lychnis coronaria, edible common Tawny Day lilies, white Yarrow—Achillea millefolium and a pot of chives, which are still going twenty years later. You can also see a perennial variety of Dusty Miller, which was much finer and more delicate than the annual variety mostly seen today.

I miss this yard, which was virtually all flower gardens, with barely more than paths in between them that needed to be mowed. We had blooms from very early spring until the first frost. It got to the point where people would stop while driving by to look at the gardens. Frequently we'd find beautiful old-stock perennials sitting on newspapers in our driveway, thinned out from other people's gardens, because they knew we'd take care of them and love them. We probably had more than one -hundred old-stock perennials, including very rare native early spring flowers almost extinct in Connecticut. When the house was sold after my mother's death, the new owners bulldozed the yards, front and back, and put in "easy-to-keep up" grass. If they only realized that established perennial gardens actually need less care than cutting the grass!

10 comments:

  1. A lovely photo to warm a winter day.

    I think I could write a story from the perspective of a bulldozer, racked with pain from the destruction it wrought.

    I love the snow but don't get me wrong the burst of color was most welcome on this 20 degree morn.

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  2. thanks! it's in the 40s today, and so foggy I can barely see the end of the yard. It might be a nice day to walk down to the water, but I have a lot of work to do, lol.

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  3. Oh, something to warm the heart! I woke up this a.m. thinking about my iris' and wondering how long before they can peek out (quite a while yet I'm afraid)
    Thanks for the bright spot ...we are finally out of the single digits here at least for a bit.
    Mare

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  4. Oh I forgot, that's a great idea for a story, Annie! I hadn't ever thought about it from that point of view.

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  5. G'Morning, Mare! Yes, it will be another 4 months before any Iris really start to grow.

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  6. STOP YOUR KILLING ME. I WISH MY WHOLE YARD HAD FLOWERS PEEKING OUT OF THE GROUND. TO MUCH WORK. I'LL ENJOY YOUR PICTURES.

    GRANNY

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  7. I remember your yard . . . you forgot to mention the gnomes! =)

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  8. Hey Deb! I still have the gnomes! Most of the time they live indoors now-they're retired, lol. Happy New Year!

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  9. Oh, no! You must have been heartbroken, Casey, when they (cringe) dozed the yard! That's practically a crime in my eyes!

    Katie

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  10. some of the ones along the road still come up, they didn't do a very good job of bulldozing, lol. But they also put in a large circular driveway which cut through what my mother used to call the "grove" which was all mountain laurel, the CT state flower/bush. I've only gone back past the house 4-5 times in all these years.

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