Rudbeckia goldstrum | Mom in the Garden

Hi there! Well the good news is that summer isn’t over yet. 🙂 And honestly, there were even some decent spells of weather this past week. Just not last night, or this morning! What a storm that passed through our area! Our pear tree did not fare well, unfortunately. We’ll see if it is save-able. But most of the rest of the garden seemed to do O.K. (gladioli aside).

There are still lots of sunflowers blooming. And now they are joined by rudbeckia Goldstrum and persicaria Blackfield. There are still some dahlia that haven’t bloomed yet. I’m waiting … patiently. I cut a few Sweet Pea bouquets this week that were quite large – they are blooming like crazy! And I made another arrangement, this one with a ‘copper toned’ color theme. I added something more unusual to it too, just for fun!

I’ll be joining Garden Ruminations for the Six on Saturday meme. It’s fun to see what’s blooming in gardens around the world!

I hope you’ll enjoy the tour.

In Peace,
Dana

Persicaria blackfield and rudbeckia goldstrum in among birch trees

1 & 2 – Persicaria Blackfield and Rudbeckia Goldstrum. These beauties are in among my five birch trees. This little garden bed has hellebores in bloom in the winter, bearded iris in early summer and now these two colorful plants for late summer and early fall. I’m happy with how it changes through the seasons with minimal work from me!

Collage of flowers: Lilies, sunflowers and a single gladiolus

3, 4 & 5 – Clockwise from top right: Lotus Dream lilies, sunflowers, gladiolus (unknown variety). It was a rough start for the lilies since the lily beetle got ahead of me (I eventually got rid of all of those pesky beetles!) but the lilies are still flowering and not looking too badly. More importantly, they are smelling beautifully! I continue to cut the sunflowers and they continue to bloom. There are always bees around, and now butterflies, too. The Gladiolus is a beautiful vibrant red! I had to cut this today as it was knocked in the storm. It currently has flowers open going all the way to the top (this picture was from a number of days ago). It is truly fabulous.

arrangement of flowers with sunflowers, dahlias and artichokes

6 – Floral arrangement. I used a glass ice bucket for his week’s arrangement, with marbles to help stabilize the flowers. I started with a bunch of sunflowers, some chocolate colored, some rust colored and some golden. Then I stuffed the arrangement with as many copper colored dahlias as I could fit! The floppy, tall, yellow sunflowers were added next. It was at this point that I decided I wanted to bring in a different color. I took a quick walk around the garden when I noticed the globe artichokes and that was it – decision made. Purple would be the final color! And when you cut them just as the flower turns purple, they will actually hold that color even as the artichoke dries out (for those of you who like to work with dried flowers).

Thank you so much for visiting! I appreciate your taking the time to stop by. Any favorite flower? 🙂

Hello and welcome to my blog! It’s the start of a new month, and a great time to take a quick look back at what’s been happening in the garden. I have finally cut down my pumpkins from the ‘pumpkin arch’. They’re all lined in front of it now, posing for the many pictures I’ve managed to take, and will probably continue to take! It was a lot of fun watching the pumpkins and squash grow and make their way up the arch. Hopefully, it’ll be as fun next year, too! I’m joining the Propagator’s meme of ‘Six on Saturday’ today. I think it’s a super and succinct way to cover what’s going on in the garden. Here we go!

1 – Persicaria backfield with Rudbeckia goldstrum. Persicaria is a new plant to me. This past spring I was buying the black-eyed Susan’s specifically for under my birch trees, when the Persicaria was recommended to me (thanks Darren at Nature Works!). There are many different varieties. But this one, with red spires, fits in perfectly with the Rudbeckia and birch trees. I like the different shape of the spires compared to the other flowers in the garden.

2 – Coleus plants. I planted these guys from seed this year and I’m so please with them. There are so many different looks to them and they are all fabulous: solid burgundy leaves with a very fine trim of chartreuse around the edges, to a mix of fuchsia, burgundy and white leaves with chartreuse trim, as well as a thick edging of chartreuse and designs of burgundy within! They also bloom tall spires of tiny lilac flowers. I will try and overwinter them this year, but I think I’d also like to try growing some more. 🙂

3 – Red Astilbe. This single flower is all that grew this year from the single plant that I planted at the end of last season. It is lovely, so I hope it eventually settles in, makes itself at home and spreads!

4 – Compost! The compost in my tumbler is *perfect* at the moment! It is full of worms, is somewhat crumbly (it is moist, though) and doesn’t smell. I’m so pleased with it and have been working it into different flower beds. It is somewhat awkward getting the compost out of the tumbler, but otherwise the tumbler works well. I have two tumblers for food waste, the rest of my garden waste goes on open compost ‘heaps’. The system works for us, and I get a lot of compost from it all.

5 – Pumpkin arch. Ta-da! I think we’re at the end of the pumpkin arch now. I have cut off all of the pumpkins and there are just 3 Red Kuri squash hanging on. I’m quite pleased with what we’ve grown (all of it from seed). I’m already planning for next year, of course. I’m hoping to start earlier to get them over the top of the arch! 🙂

6 – Full view of the vegetable garden from above. It’s nice to get a bird’s eye view now and again! The asters and pumpkins really ‘pop’ in this picture, along with the Rowan tree! It was a really good season with the sunflowers, sweet pea, squash, pumpkins, coleus, blueberries, (and two pears!). I’m grateful to be able to do what I love to do – spend time in the garden!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed some quality time doing what you love to do, too!

In Peace,
Dana

Mom in the Garden

Enjoying life. In Ireland. With my family.

Tag Archives: Rudbeckia goldstrum

A golden hue in the garden

Pumpkin arch finale for ‘Six on Saturday’