Rudbeckia Rules

Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum'

The 'Goldstrum' is a very popular cultivar (1999 PPA plant of the year) and a bit over-planted all over town. It also spreads like crazy, which is okay if you have large expanses to fill that need some mid-to-late summer bold color. The clump above has spread a second time to the front of this large perennial garden at Aunt V. The large patches of several cultivars of these black-eyed susans are dominating the garden right now.

The tall asters also have spread too much and need to be aggressively dealt with once again. Everything grew so fast this year that I neglected to cut back the asters by 1/3 at the opportune time. That helps control the height (they flop) and varies the bloom time a bit if you prune selectively. I'll try to include a shot next month, although neither my aunt nor I am fond of the tall fall asters. This year, as you can imagine, they are extra giant. Large gardens like this that are allowed (somewhat) to go their own way can become chaotic by this time of the year! Just look around town for the chaos. Some say they have cottage gardens. I have other choice descriptive words.

We planted some Russian sage in a few areas that looked a little sparse this spring. Now I can't even find these "fledglings"--they will eventually be tall enough to show up, I hope.

Here is another photo of the ever-expanding chaos in the garden:

The plants in the front are re-seeding celosia that will be quite dramatic in a few weeks. They are the only annuals in the garden, unless you count the blue salvia (not visible) which came back very sparsely this year. Usually it lines the entire front.

The tall green stuff along with a few shorter varieties are the asters. The largest green poof (center right) we think is unwanted--it's looming large this year--does anybody have a guess what it is?

Victoria Blue Salvia with Rudbeckia and Butterfly Bush