Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta.
This lovely sunny wildflower is native to Texas and many other states. Easy to grow and the butterflies love it as a nectar source and also larval food.
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUHI2
Close up of the flower.
A sunny row of them at the Wildflower center.
And a field full of them at Pappy Elkins Park. This park is a small preserve right in the center of the city, and it is a jewel where many rare and common wildflowers and native plants can be found.
It contains a small lake and some woods plus trails and a small prairie.
Thank you Pappy Elkins for being so generous and foresighted.
I love these - and have a baggies of seeds to travel with me... one of those must haves :-)
Again, so very pretty Josephine. Does my soul good to see scenes like this.
Thank you Angele, it is truly a spiritual experience when you are lucky enough to be in a place like that.
I love these. They grow in the lawn sometimes and I have to move them to a better location. I have some good pictures somewhere. Need to look.
Please don't forget to show us your flowers.
Josephine.
Thank you, Nature is amazing, isin't it?
I just found the pictures. Mine seem to be not as full as yours, but pretty non the less.
Very Very lovely, Keep them coming!!
I mix them with a daisy or two. I really like my "weeds"
Those are MY state flower! Lol. I keep forgetting to get some. I want to set up a section so it can go wild with common milkweed, joe-pye-weed and some others of those unruly natives.
Capt, which is your state flower? is it the Black Eyed Susan?
This message was edited Feb 24, 2008 9:30 AM
Yup. Interestingly, I don't see a lot of them here in MD. I did see a lot in the Catskills. Maybe I'll bring some back with me this year... Or buy seed. Or buy plants. Does it take two years to flower from seed?
Our state flower? ummmm, is this a test? I think the cherry blossum. (or apple) Not a very exciting one. Why don't I know this?
Ok, I cheated and went on the Mi forum. The state flower is the Sweet crabapple. That explains the mood of the state on our 8th month of winter!
Very Funny Cpartschick, but I think Crabapples are beautiful.
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Capt, I think they do bloom the first year especially if planted early.
Josephine.
Lovely flower and I love to see them growing voluntarily popping up here and there in the fields here in Missouri. Reminds me(your picture) that spring and summer will soon arrive as will these beautiful flowers!
Cuckoo
The fuzzy oval-leaved annual Black Eyed Susans will bloom first year. I also have a perennial BES with smoother, pointed leaves that look like pic #2. Goldfinches love the seed heads.
I picked bushel baskets of black-eyed susans and daisies for our wedding almost 36 years ago from a small field on a back road. It had gone to small trees but I noticed not too long ago that it's back to being a field with a lot of daisies, black eyed susans and goldenrod.
New York's state flower is the rose, but rather than a species, say the lovely swamp rose (R. palustris), that is native, the state record says:
"The rose shall be the official flower of the state in any color or combination of colors common to it."
and it is most often shown as a tea rose, of all things!
I remember about 10 years ago, at our old house, going for a walk down a dirt road. The sides of the road were covered with wildflowers. There were blue flag, daisies, BE Susans, etc. I picked a huge bunch and took it home. It was the prettiest bunch I ever had.
A neighbor came over and remarked how it was against the law to pick these flowers. I felt really bad, until the next day when I went for a walk and the county had MOWED the sides of the dirt road. All the flowers were chopped and tossed.
It's only against the law to pick protected flowers in most states. None of those you picked qualify.
That is what I thought too.
Most of the protected flowers here, wilt instantly upon picking and are not anything you would want to pick.
