Please identify this plant

I saw this plant this past weekend. I've never seen one before. It's HUGE. It has blooms like a Rudbeckia or yellow Echinacea. Here's the best photo I could get with my phone.

rudbeckia maxima
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/83/

My neighbor has a big stand of this. Looks like it should be in Jurasic Park. I used to grow it too, when I had a big perennial bed on a hillside.
This photo of it in her garden is from 2006. It is a lot bigger than this now!

I found another pic, taken last year in July at my neighbors.

LOL you can tell that the quality of digital cameras improved from 2006 to 2010!

My neighbor's perennial beds are done on a large scale so this plant fits in. Here is a photo of the other side of the bed... the side seen from the road as you drive by. The bed is probably 100 feet from the road. All of her beds have large masses of each plant in them.

My neighbor used to work at a very large well known nursery near by that is known for unusual perennials. She's a graduate in plant biology and now has her own landscape perennial design business.

I don't think this plant would work well in the average landscape. The scale of it is to large.



This message was edited May 31, 2011 11:27 AM

Thanks! I think it's interesting. I always have to know what plants are. I've been like that since I was a kid. I was impressed with the size of those plants.

daylily, your neighbor's bed is GORGEOUS!

That is just one of about 15! It is prettier than any park I have been to! She told me sometimes during the busy season (May - end of July) she comes home from doing her commercial work, and has a hat with a light on it and weeds till midnight in her own beds. Her DH is a worker like that too, and loves it just as much as she does. I've never seen two people do so much physical work. In the winter, they remodel their house!

She does lots of containers too...

and shade beds...

ok, that's all.... LOL

I won't torture you with hijacking the thread showing my neighbor's garden!

I am lucky. I had a home daylily sales business here years ago - then this neighbor moved in. She was so happy to have moved in across the road from "the daylily lady!" Then, I had health issues and I cut way back so that I hardly have any plants any more.

Then to the east of me, a really nice couple moved in. He always had plants and flowers, and when they moved here, he now has 60 acres. So, he grows flowers for local florists and also takes to farmers markets. Last fall, he put in 400 each of 6 different peonies!

The neighbor with the mixed perennial beds - her place is a show place. The neighbor with the commercial garden - he mows between things - but it's not "pretty" the flowers are, but lots of weeds etc. Not someplace you would take a garden club.

lovely containers

Looks like lythrum to me. Dropmore Purple would be my guess. I know she grows several of the lythrum cultivars.

There are other colors besides purple?
I have a plant that looks like that, but the lady that gave it to me said it was purple loosetrife. (sp?)

Mordon's Pink is one I grow in addition to the Dropmore Purple. They are hybrid, sterile loosestrife. We don't have any of the wild ones growing anywhere near us.

cool, do you know if there are other colors besides pink and the purple?

Those are the only ones our local perennial nursey sells. I think they used to sell a Mordon's purple, but the Dropmore Purple is supposed to be an improvement.

You could check plant files.

edited because I can no longer spell....

This message was edited Jun 8, 2011 8:39 PM

will do, thanks so much!

Gorgeous beds! Thank you for showing us.

In the third pic you posted, daylily_ohio, is the tall yellow on the right a daylily? Any idea which cultivar it might be?

LOL - I don't know a lot of my neighbor's plants, but you all have asked about the few I do know!

yes, that is a daylily - one that I gave to her! It is called "Notify Ground Crew" and it was hybridized by Curt Hanson.

It is not shown on his website - as he has been doing a website update and some of the older ones are not shown... but if you send an email to him, I am sure he still has it for sale. Here is a link to his website with email contact info. If you email him, put something in the subject header about info for purchase etc. or he may not "see" your email. He gets a lot of junk emails and is rather merciless in trashing them. If he doesn't recognize your name, or something in the subject, well... you may not get a reply.
http://datablitz.net/crintonic/order.php

I always try to order daylilies from the hybridizer if I can. Just a "thing" with me.

However, I do see it advertised in Charmain Rich's site, and I know she probably got her plant from Curt originally. She uses a lot of his plants in her breeding lines. I know you would get a good plant from her. I saw it on PlantDelights - but I would be afraid it would be tissue cultured or who knows what from them. Here is Charmain's website
http://www.holdnheavendaylilies.com/tetpricelist_m_r.htm

Notify GC grows really great. It is a dormant, though, so I am not sure how it would grow in the south. Up here in the north, you can't fault it for making a statement in the garden.

Thank you so much! That's one I've been admiring, anyway, so now I will definitely have to get it.

daylily, Thanks for posting pics of your neighbor's garden. Amazing!

I remember driving by it when I was up a few years ago and I really did a double-take .

She truly does have an extensive garden lay-out and so beautiful.

What I was thinking when I saw it was: "She must have soil with steroids in it!"

Or I thought maybe she was married to the guy who owns 'Posey Power' or 'Ohio Mulch'!

Next time you see her, pls. tell her we love it (and that she should sign up at DG!)

t.

Thanks, Tabasco, I will. The other neighbor I mentioned that sells flowers at the farmers markets stopped in today. He had at least a dozen stems of various lilies to give us. I think one he said was "Pink Lady." not sure. I am not up on lilies. They are lovely! They have so much fragrance, I think they may go on our screen porch tonight! I have a very small home, and you can smell them everywhere!

Odd to have three avid gardeners move next to each other.

Oh, and right next to the neighbor that has the gardens I have been posting photos of is an older couple with an orchard,and raspberries. And, on her other side, a neighbor with hens that gives us eggs, and he sometimes has spare honey.

But then the remaining neighbor is a real jerk, so there you go!

This message was edited Jun 15, 2011 6:50 PM

You are very lucky with your neighborhood. Lots of good gardener-growers including your own daylily spread!