It's going to look absolutely MARVELOUS!! A field of Ruds!!

My uncle started out with one little plant he bought from a catalog 3 seasons ago, and he already has TONS. He's started deadheading them because he has so many. I can't imagine what you're in for.

I hope I have that problem!

That's like having too much money or being too good-looking.

They'll look amazing once you get all those holes dug!

Tee hee....As my favorite garden guru says in his general propagation notes - "Don't oversow. How many of us, as gardeners - or even as owners of small nurseries - need four thousand Clethra barbinervis? If the seed is viable and sown fresh, it WILL germinate. Sow your pots as you would pepper eggs."

I know it, doesn't mean I've learned it perfectly but I'm getting better.

Token, know you have some room though, and your rudbeckia will make quite a showing.

I've got a meadow area planned behind the house. I scattered seeds back there all during the fall. So far, only larkspur and red clover has germinated. I'm still looking for the poppies. Now, I wasn't planning to use these BES back there, I was going to sow cosmos instead. BUT. As it stands, I've got to put them somewhere.

Anybody know how to kill English Ivy? I could double my space if I could kill that stuff.

BUT I REALLY LIKE PEPPER ON MY EGGS!!!

I really thought I sowed lightly. Sheesh.

Thats what I was thinking Tokin. Morz8, hasnt seen my MIL pepper her eggs. You can almost see the egg when she is done.
The only other thing I can say, is "Token, your going to need your rest this winter"
Tammy

What WERE you thinking, Token? You're going to have a rud farm. Maybe all of NC will be a rud farm. It'll be gorgeous.

Karen

Why don't you plant them as is and let survival of the fittest apply? That's 4X less planting. They'll reseed anyway no matter how you do it.

Either that or have a plant sale or give some away on Freecycle. Spread the wealth lol.

When I moved in late 2001, I brought along one Rud to the new property. Since then I have never planted another except one Donn gave to me. This is the result 8 years later. They make excellent fillers and brighten the gardens so much. I usually have to cull hundreds in the spring.

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Token,
I know you have CDO. "as it should be" So I won't poke fun at you. But boy am I jealous! No sprouts yet here in the zone 5 tundra. :(
:) Laura

At the time, I was thinking of having a plant sale. Then I did some research. In order to sell plants in NC, you have to have a license. If you sell them where they were grown, you have to be inspected by the Dept of Agriculture. It seems too much hassle. If I did it anyway, the fine, if caught, is $10,000. So, it's not worth it at any rate. Now, I'm just going to have lots of plants. It may be my last year wintersowing. ;)

At least I took out all the grass in the backyard this fall.

Tiffy, your gardens always inspire me. Did you scatter seeds from that one plant? Or did you just let it happen naturally?

That's so beautiful, tiffy. No matter what you plant, you make it work. Did you stack all those stones yourself or do you have help? It's never been clear from the posts of yours I have read.

My extras never go without homes! There are always community gardens who have plant sales (or need plants), grass that needs removing, neighbors that need free flowers, sweet children who pass by and love the plants and will plant anything you give them...(even the not so sweet ones ;)

I know it's a terrible problem. And it must be weighing on your mind so heavily, Token :)

Tiffy,
You're giving me spring fever!lol
Just stunning!!!
:)Laura

Token,

At east you're beautifying your litte corner of the world. Or should I say more than a little corner?? LOL Congratulations on your sprouts!

Ann

Hey YOU know what I'm gonnna say here.... ;)

You'll need to set up a bouquet stand at the end of the driveway and sell bunches of them out of wet buckets.

Buy one bunch and take two more. PLEASE! You could also try giving away a dozen zucchini with each bunch too ;-O

Oh no. I am not growing zucchini. I know all about that. My dad, two years ago, decided to grow some for my mom. He planted 50 of them. They have a large garden on several acres. They had zucchini coming up all over the place this past summer thanks to just tilling it back in that year. Oh no. No zucchini for me. I'll stick to my yellow squash. It matches the rudbeckia. ;)

Erika, I love your statement "That's like having too much money or being too good-looking. "

SO true!

I begged and traded for as many ruds seeds i could get. Now I noticed about 1/2 of my containers are some type of rud. I am so happy though. I grew them for the first time last year and they did great!

I guess this is a good problem to have cause it would have been worse if none of them sprouted. :)

I still have a couple rud seed packs to sow...yikes I need more soil and containers :)

Karen

Uh-oh. Sounds like you do have a problem. How many containers did you WS last year? This year you planted more? I recall that you were very glad when you finished planting out last spring. ;-0

OT: Your hoop house is so neat, with everything lined up. Mine is little (ok, a lot) less organized.

Karen, next year we should swap seeds. It'll be nice to get another strain in the gene pool here. I'm still planning to purchase some gloriosa daisy seeds this year to sow in late spring. It'll keep the color going til frost.

Pam, yes, I was happy to be done last year. I know what I'm getting myself into, I think. Last year I did 712 containers. I'm in the 5-600 range already.

You are in more trouble than you think, token. How in the world are you going to plant all those seedlings????
Lucky you. You have all that room to fit them in. :-D

I would love to swap some seeds next year. I owe you some anyway so I can just send them to you

I plan to collect from the ruds. I got some real special ones like one called Hot chocolate. Can't wait to see that one :)

Color me green!!! You can never have too many flowers! I can't wait to see your garden this year!

That's a good problem to have!:)

You did sow lightly the sprouts aren't all touching the edges of your containers. I agree with planting them out whole or in halves. One cup is about trowel sized anyway.
I also love the comment about your squash matching the ruds. I can't wait to see your pics.
On the other hand you can learn and not gather as much seed this year. I'd be happy to trade some with you later on.
You are going to be one tired man at the end of the day. Just remember that planting out is best that way you don't have to buy planets worth of potting soil to keep up with them all.

Floodie told Token: "On the other hand you can learn and not gather as much seed this year."

I can't imagine either of you actually doing that! :) :)

Lynda

Token,
The plant reseeded and then it all started happening from there. I do hesitate to cull at times and now only do it if really necessary. The reason I don't like culling these is that it's "like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get." Some have the chocolate centers, some don't, some are singles, others are doubles, some have more red, etc.

Aliska,
The paricular rock wall you see there was here when we moved. The gardens on top were not. It was all just weeds. There is a second wall, but you can't see it in that photo. I built the second one to access the gardens from the back without walking too much in them. You can see it in the following photo from early summer 2008.

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Thanks, tiffy. Some of those rocks look pretty heavy, but the effect is great. I prefer natural materials any day over what some people use you buy at the big box stores. I don't care for railroad ties either; a lot of people use them here; in a pinch, I would use them as once plants get going, they don't look so bad. Every photo you post, there is something new and fresh. It's nice to see the birch saplings. I'm too far south to get them, but if you head north not very far, you will start seeing them.

How I loved seeing the stone walls in Massachusetts, suppose they're throughout the New England states and beyond.

Birches will grow here if we plant them, however.

Tiffy, I know what you mean. I hate to discard any rudbeckia seed because there is so much variety. And every year, each seed holds the promise of a new bloom that you haven't seen before. Just a sampling of mine from this year.

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My absolute favorite. The bloom was easily 6" across. It failed to set seed before the frost killed it. I tossed the crunchy flower into the bed anyway. You never know...

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Did I sound presumptious? I meant that they will reseed on their own and save him the planting out. You know I have a no seed left behind policy. I learned a trick from my Mom where you trim the seed heads on the spent stems and then dump the whole mess where you would like them to reseed. That is going to be my tact with some of my hardies. I do tend to save some seed to winter sow just in case though.

Token,

I don't care what anyone says. The best looking ones are the ones in the third photo!!!! When I spot those in the gardens I can be heard to say, "Ah! There you are my pretties!!" They are perfection and beauty in one package!

I think this year I will only collect a quart sized bag rather than a gallon sized bag of seed heads. I'll collect from my favorites. I hope I don't have to actually sow any more rudbeckia seeds. I'll deadhead and scatter seeds, which I also did this past year, so there's no telling WHERE these will be popping up in the garden.

Tiffy, I do like those, but I like all the ones I took pictures of. I had some lovely brown ones too. They always seemed to pop up next to pink flowers. Not really my favorite combination.

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ty for the photos.

:)

I sprinkled a couple million of those seeds around also, kept some for WSing tho, cuz, I didnt have the best of luck with those BES the last couple years. I did end up with 2 or 3 pretty kewl plants tho. Looking forward to a few more this year.

Even if you have a yard sale and put your cups of ruds up for a buck you have to be licensed? That is harsh.

I still dream of sitting beneath the canopy in the front yard selling my produce, plants, and cut flowers. Don't make me think I will have to look into state regulations! ugh.

Today we are snowed in again (at least the power is on) and I fully intend on getting my jugs ready to roll. They are heavy plastic and take some effort to cut but I am ready. I bought fresh bags of soil (meaning not frozen)and need to get the winter sowing season started! (little late but it's still cold and snowing).

WOW Token! The one in the third photo you last posted is BEEEEAUTIFUL!! Look at the orange and red in those petals! Yep, I like that one too. It's a shame they are hussies in the gardens. :O) Can you imagine a spread of those?? Ohh la la!

Those photos are great! I love all those ruds! I colleced a few seed head but I was not sure if I did it right. I may sow those this weekend to see if I collected correctly.

Karen

Token,
What gorgeous flowers!! Are those some of the same ones you sent me a while back? You sent SO many seed packs but I do remember one was labeled Rudbeckia hirta 'Autumn Colors.' I sure hope I've got some of those WS in my 229 containers!

The Autumn Colors seeds came from the parents of those brownish varieties. So if you got those, yes, you should have some similar plants this year. They bloom a little later than the yellow ones I may have sent.

Here's the one original plant. It died shortly after I planted it, but I managed to collect seeds anyway. Some of them will be third generation, so the variety tends to head back to yellow, I believe.

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I can see how I could easily become a little obsessive about seeds. No seed or plant left behind lol. Am already that way about little plants and feel a little guilty when I lose some I've nurtured due to neglect. But I do not want to go overboard on that track.

When I woke up I was thinking about "things", don't have much of a mind for deep philosophizing, but seeds represent life potential and resurrection of sorts, no matter what there is or isn't. It's nice to be a part of it, helping the process along. The beauty of a job well done is rewarding.

Was also thinking about weeds, how much we hate them, why they are so easy and other plants so hard. But would we really want a perfect world where every flower is perfect? Just speaking for myself, the imperfect ones make the best ones seem all the more special. In some ways we have the power of life and death over the seeds, the ones we don't get around to planting. A lot of the rest of it is beyond our power to control.

I am having a little trouble understanding why some are so into rudbeckias. I like them well enough and always get a thrill from diversity and the unexpected, but some of them look pretty much the same to me. And what is the difference between the yellow ruds with the red splash and Indian Blanket gaillardia? Normally I shun red and yellow together but see the beauty in those. Granted the flower form is different, but which are better and why the preference? Both seem to bloom all season, but my ruds topple. My sister doesn't like ruds but saw my Prairie Sun and Cherry Brandy and did like those.

Certainly don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings or cause offense, but I don't like black-eyed susans; there is no rhyme or reason for it. I've been known to change my attitudes though. I've noticed I now like color combos that I would have never dreamed of putting together when I was younger.

With me there seems to be a law of diminishing returns. The more perfection I strive for in composition, colors, types, etc., the less I seem to be satisfied. Then I see photos of things I wouldn't put together or things that just look "thrown" together, and they are the most beautiful of all. I know behind it all it required some thought and planning.

Lots of deep thought there to ponder. Hmmm why I have learned to love black eyed susans.
1. My Mom loves them because her name is susan
2. My first plant grew from under water and then bloomed despite being in standing water at the time.
3. Amazingly hardy, I had an amazing crop of these last year and they bloom and bloom even in my shade.
4. Classic and as yellow as you get.
I think I went through the same thing with Hostas, I liked them but didn't learn to love them till I moved into the dark clay mosquito habitat I call a back yard. It's kind of like going through something horrible and learning who your real friends are. They stand by you and don't let you down.

On top of that last year I learned they come in annual varieties and color varities, who knew?
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