Why I Oughta...

I was nosing around on a bulb and seed site recently and came across a new (to me) perennial:  Rudbeckia Black Beauty.  Rudbeckia is something that I've heard (and seen) from Roy Diblik on YouTube and at his nursery (Northwind Perennial Farm) in Wisconsin.  But, this particular variety is something that I don't think I've come across.  Visually, it is quite different (at least to me - the novice when it comes to Rudbeckias).  Check out the photo below of Rudbeckia Black Beauty from DutchGrown.com :   Photo Source - Dutch Grown dot com .  This is *not* my photo.   What does that photo show?  For me...it shows a lack of petals.  This looks (to me) to be a flower that has already bloomed and drop all of its petals, doesn't it?   But that's not what is going on here; rather this is a (dare I say) unique coneflower that doesn't have any petals.   From Heritage Perennials comes this description : This is an unusua...

A few days after my last post about new flowers, I'm picking back up on fall planting list - with something way, way, way out of my comfort zone:  Echinacea.  I have no coneflowers.  I have little sun, but that's not the point.  I've been way out of my element with echinacea with little understanding of the entire world.  But, let's get uncomfortable, right? I found and bought one (a single...yes...I know...that's a mistake) Pow Wow Wild Berry Coneflower.  I saw this on the side of the container: And went online. Walters Garden sold me with these details : This variety is incredibly impressive for a seed grown Echinacea. It’s no surprise that it is a 2010 All America Selections winner. In our trials, we noted how floriferous the plants were. Each stocky, relatively short plant carried a bouquet of fragrant, 3-4”, deep purple-pink to near-magenta flowers on stiff, branched stems. More branches result in more flowers per plant and a showier display in the l...