Let’s hear it for the arrival of Friday! If it’s Friday, that means it’s not only our most welcomed friend, but it’s also a time when we stroll around Blogville checking out the beauty of Mother Nature. As usual, we are joining our friends, Rosy and her brothers from LLB in our Backyard.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who follows along with our whinging antics, but it’s been hot. I mean, H-O-T. With temperatures in the upper 90’s a fair part of this week and little moisture in our ‘hood, you’d think there wouldn’t be much to look at. Wrong! It’s Rudbeckia season. Often referred to as Black-eyed Susan’s, this beautifully colorful perennial is a herbaceous flower belonging to the aster family. Growing throughout the US, the Black-eyed Susans is actually the state flower of Maryland and a symbol of horse-racing’s Preakness race.
Black-eyed Susans grow to between 12 to 40-inches in height, and 18 to 12-inches in width across the petals. Its stem is hardy and covered with tiny stiff hairs. This plant is fairly resistant to the wind and the elements, making it easy to grow in all conditions. It’s probably why you see it often along highways and in meadows.
The leaves arrange themselves in rosette form around the “bee,” with the plants shooting leaves from the stem in the second season. The leaves have a toothed edge with a rough texture. The plant produces a flower heads consisting of 8 to 20 orange-yellow florets that cluster into a cone-shape and turn dark toward the center. They are part of the coneflower family.
Ever wonder how this garden favorite got its name? The scientific classification actually comes from Sweden. Born in Västerås, Olaus Rudbeck was a famous botanist and professor of medicine at Uppsala University. Black-eyed Susans garner its scientific name, “Rudbeckia,” from the Swedish scientist although Rudbeck didn’t name the flower himself. Botanist Carl Linnaeus, who studied under Rudbeck’s son, named the plant in loving memory of Rudbeck and his son. The Black-eyed Susan belongs to the Asteraceae family, which includes other coneflower species.
We hope you are able to get outside and enjoy a lovely summer weekend and check out all the beauty Mother Nature offers. Like this pretty sunrise from this morning.
* * * Exciting News * * *
Recently I mentioned there’s be some exciting news coming and now I can share it with you. For some time now I’ve been working on writing a collection of treat recipes in a cookbook BarkBook. After exploring numerous publishing options, I decided to ‘publish’ it in our e-shop in the form of a download with a portion of sales benefitting local pet rescue groups. With lots of starts and stops (including a catastrophic disappearance somewhere in the Cloud) requiring me to lose my mind a total rewrite, this baby is now done. I’ll be beta-testing the download process over the next few days but wanted to give you advance notice that it’s coming soon. Finally. I feels like I’ve birthed an elephant. Stay tuned for the official arrival ( hopefully next week). In the meantime, don’t forget to check out the e-shop for bandanas, hand-painted greeting cards and (now) another new item, “Scrubbies” (which work great as an exfoliator for uprights or work hard cleaning your veggies-we use ours all around the house for cleaning too). Check them out!
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Lovely flowers again and congratulations on the book.
Thanks…on both counts. 😄
HuMom loves Black-eyed Susans. Thank you for sharing 🐾 Pawtacular news about your treat book!🐾💜🐾
Thanks Olivia!
Dang. I’m late to the party but yay on Black Eyed Susans. I had them in my backyard but those suckers can reproduce! They are as bad as weeds. So I cut them in half and planted them in the front as a deterrent for the mailman and anyone else who crosses the yard to save steps. So they made a trail through them. GRRR. Oh, right. What am I talking about? That was the OLD house… Gonna have to get me some new ones for this house – next year.
Way to go on the book!
Mailmen need a greater deterrent than a row of pretty flowers. When a fence isn’t possible, I find anything with a thorn usually is quite convincing. 😈
They do!!
And yes. That should work…
I did not know that about those pretty flowers! They’ve always been a favorite. Congrats on your upcoming book, it sounds like it was a lot of hard work – maybe more than it needed to be! 🙂 Glad you got it all worked out.
It was a lot of work but hope it’s worth it. Black-eyed Susan’s are one of my favorites and do really well here.
Hi Monika,
Loved the black-eyed Susans. They’re so colourful and have such personality. Although I’ve seen them here, they’re not common. They must look quite spectacular en masse. I particularly loved the last photo where that large flower at the front towers over the others like an umbrella.
Well done on getting your book done and I’ll be keeping my eyes open for it. I also loved the cartoon drawing of the dogs. Did you do that? It’s beautiful.
Hope you have a great week.
Best wishes,
Rowena
They really are pretty en masse and do so well in our arid climate. I love photographing flowers from different heights and I was very low on the ground for that last one.
Thanks for the kind words on the e-book. The cartoon drawing was a collaboration with my daughter. My photo and clip art, her creativity. 😊
You and your daughter make a great team.
BTW have you heard about Miss Norma whose final life wish was to go on a road trip with her white standard poodle? Sounds like something you would know about but obviously made me think of you: https://www.missnorma.com/america-s-great-loop?fbclid=IwAR1t7uT4Y6J3bmMUbeO3KlSw8vBnpaq5q_OzuBTqhkO_7c2GEuf9ufLD3no
Best wishes,
Ro
Thanks, Rowena. I am not familiar with Miss Norma but poked around on her bog. What a love and beautiful read!
Olaus Rudbeck’s son was named Susan? Wow, who knew that Johnny Cash song actually had a basis in reality….
Hadn’t thought about that angle. Only you could come up with something so funny!
We have cooled down to the 80’s maybe we can send it your way
hugs
Mabel & Hilda
Please do, if you can spare it 😇
Thank you for joining the Feline Friday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. ♥
Beeuteefull flowers Miss Monika! Reememburr to stop an smell them when you are stressed out OKay?
Concatss on yore mew book! Mee iss sure it will bee a big ‘hit”!!!
Sam an Elsa did you pawticipate ritin THE book bye sampellin THE foods??? Mew mew mew……
**purrsss** BellaDharma
But of course. They’re quality control!
Congratulations! And what a gorgeous sunrise too!
Don’t you just love pretty sunrises? Seems like such a lovely way to begin the day.
CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!!! Soooo happy for you!!!!!!! I was going to say how much I love black-eyed Susans, but I love your great news even more!!!!! xoxo
Blush, blush. Thank you!
What beautiful black eyed susans…and VERY exciting news!
Thanks!
Very exciting news. We look forward to seeing your work.
Those black-eyed Susans are so pretty. Mom remembers as a little girl going for Sunday rides with her mother and grandmother and picking bouquets of them along the country roads.
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
Thank you. Black-eyed Susan’s are one of the most cheerful flowers of the summer.
Great shot of the Blackeyed susans! And I love the sunset pic.
Congrats on your Barkbook! Exciting!! 💜🙂
Thanks. They’re such a happy looking plant.
🙂🌻
Black eyes Susans are the best roadside flower. Congrats on the book.
Many thanks, John. Yes, it’s always a good day to come across lots of them along a roadway. Makes me smile just thinking about it.
Me too.
We love flowers like black eyed susans that don’t mind the heat.
We have high 90s but very low humidity so we are enjoying it.
At least the humidity is low here too. I couldn’t take both high temps and high humidity.
Congrats on your ebook! Can’t wait to check it out…would also be happy to link to it in a blog post on our end when it’s up!
Why, thank you, appreciate that offer. It’s been a long time in the works so to lose it in the Cloud was especially distressed (that’s putting it mildly). 😇
I’m sure! Technology is so stressful 🙁
👍🏻 Boy, you know it!
Beautiful flowers. Have a great weekend.
We hope you and the Chessies have a great weekend too!
WOW! An e-book! Great job!! I’ll be watching for it! This week has been a bit “busy”, getting ready for a family visit, but I’ll get to it eventually!!
Thank you, Sue. It took every ounce of patience and skill I could muster but excited about it. A family visit eh? Enjoy!
Way to go on the E-book. That rocks, but the not losing it and having to redo. That would make me lose my mind too.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. Scritches to the pups. ♥
Thank you, Sandee. Yeah, I was pretty verklempt when I discovered it missing, but that’s ancient history now! Enjoy the weekend.
We love Black-eyed Susans too. They are so cheerful!
They are like a bouquet of sunshine!
I too love black-eyed Susans. We have had a hot, and humid and thunderous July and so far August. My weeds are thriving!! Have a great weekend!
Only takes a couple of drop of moisture for the weeds to thrive. Have a swell weekend!
I love Black-eyed Susans. As for temps that hover and stick in the 90’s? Not so much. It has rained here basically every day for weeks. After which we just get steam. Yay.
Great news on the recipe book! WOOT! And WOOF!
Both.
Thanks, Marco. I’m excited for the e-book to be finished. Now to sit back and enjoy some beautiful perennials with a nice beverage in hand. Ahhhhh. 🍹
I learned there is a Black Eyed Susan drink the other night. What rock have I been living under?
Be still my beating heart! I’ll have to be on the lookout for that cocktail.
We decided to go old school with gin martinis. Rum tends to make me feel wonky for some reason.
You can never go wrong with gin. Or vodka. 😉
You got that right!
Or a 22 years old, Single Malt, Made in Scotland.
Good point. 🥃Cheers!
congrats!! Happy weekend. I love rudebekia
Thanks, it’s very exciting. The Rudbeckia is so prolific right now-it’s everywhere and they are so pretty.