One of the most exciting things about gardening is also one of the most frustrating—unpredictability. Every summer is different. One year the earwigs eat everything and I vow to never plant another marigold again. Then the following year the weather is dry and earwigs are nowhere to be found. Or we experience a humid summer and all my perennial phlox spend their days looking like they were dipped in baby powder, and I’m convinced I should pull them all out. But the following summer is dry and the phlox are the prettiest thing blooming in the garden. It’s hard to keep up.
I’m struggling with such thoughts as I begin to plan for this summer’s flowerbeds. Last summer was a spectacular year for rudbeckias. Here’s a flower from a ‘Cherokee Sunset’ volunteer that grew into a huge, healthy clump and bloomed all summer long:
Part of the reason rudbeckias did so well is because the weather was mild and dry for most of the summer. The plants didn’t develop powdery mildew or get that weird bacterial thing that sometimes makes the plants turn brown, shrivel up and die. But the bigger reason they looked so awesome compared to prior years is that they weren’t nibbled to death by rabbits. I can’t remember a year with so few rabbits. It was wonderful.
In recent years I cut way down on the number of rudbeckia cultivars I grew because I was having so much trouble with rabbits. Last winter during seed-sprouting time I felt the urge to plant more despite the regular rabbit attacks. I’m glad I did because the gamble paid off.
Here’s the beautiful ‘Maya’:
While it would be tempting to treat past gardening successes as a new template for the future, I know better. There’s a good chance the rabbits will be back with a vengeance, so I need to tamp down my irrational exuberance. There will be highs and lows and unexpected surprises next summer, but I won’t know what’s in store for me until I stick those first plants into the ground in late May.