I fell in love with a rudbeckia the other day, this is an August plant of course, great shaggy flowers in this month, the yellow was predominate in the nursery of Breezy Knees and I bought a couple of plants. But this rudbeckia comes from Daisies a local nursery. Its rich colour is marvellous and the graduated shading leaves me envious. Why? well I have been dyeing with wild silk, which is slightly yellow/creamy to begin with. I tried the acid dye 'ochre' and it produced what I would call 'old gold', the turmeric I used on the second batch created a softer yellow. I am now debating whether to get the whiter and far more expensive silk to spin, but the problem is that acid dyes come up so bright.
The other plants I bought, were a batch of cosmos and a yellow plant whose name escapes me.
Beginning to wonder if yellow is the colour of late summer, crocosmia also with its yellow/orange spikes. Flowers that are so heavy with their season, the massed ranks of glorious dahlias, they have the colours of the fairground, then there is the heavy heads of chrysanthemums. A memory of childhood, the orange, golds and deep red and their subtle smell, you hardly see them round now except small imposters which I dislike.
There is a soft gentleness to the garden, fading lavender and the airy fairyness of fennel, its yellow flowers already fading to seeds. Golden rod stands tall and will be moved to back the yellow plants in Autumn. Yes I have a renewed interest in flowers after all this drought ;) And yesterday I saw pale mauve/ gray Acanthus in a garden now that would look lovely at this time of year!
This has been such a good year for cosmos - everywhere I look there is thriving cosmos in all its glory - such a super plant.
ReplyDeleteI always think the mauve of Michaelmas daisies (just arriving) is the first real sign of Autumn.
On an entirely different note Thelma, someone I blog with in Pennsylvania has spoken about the way she pickles beetroot - like her Dutch ancestors did and when she spoke of small eggs I thought of your bantams.
When she pickles beetroot she adds sugar to make the pickling mixture sweeter and then pokes in a few small, hard boiled eggs. Within a day or two the whites go a pretty pink and when put out in a bowl they both look and taste beautiful.
Well I looked up my recipe book, and sure enough there was a sweet pickling vinegar, not sure I have enough vinegar, though but I do have beetroot and eggs, so I shall try it.
ReplyDeleteEvery year my cosmos go crazy in a far neglected bed. I have to be careful as our soils can be too damp for Rudbekia.
ReplyDeleteWell there I have learnt something, Rudbeckia likes the dry. My plan for the long bed is to fill it with flowers so that I don't have to weed!
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