Our weather has been a little weird this spring. We barely managed 70 degrees for most of May and June. As a result the atmosphere was quite stable, and we didn’t have any severe weather until late last week.
I don’t ever remember a time when our first heavy thunderstorm arrived in late June. I definitely got a lot more sleep. All of our precipitation was gentle and beneficial. Usually our first storm comes days after I’ve tucked all my self-sown plants in the garden. I lie in bed listening like a sentinel for the ping of hail on the roof or whooshing winds and pouring rains that are battering my vulnerable little plants.
Because of the cooler temperatures, everything has grown very slowly. In fact for a few weeks the plants just sat in the garden staring back at me. “You expect us to grow in THIS???” We’ve jumped from the refrigerator into the frying pan. Starting today, we’re flirting with 90 degrees for several days.
One of my plants finally bloomed late last week. I could see it from the window. I thought it was a zinnia, but when I went outside to investigate I was shocked to discover it was a rudbeckia. Usually rudbeckias bloom several weeks later than the rest of the plants in my annual garden.
‘TigerEye’ is the first F1 hybrid rudbeckia. I wanted to give it a try because it boasts significant resistance to powdery mildew. The plants were bred for multiple blooms on each stem and the 3-inch flowers are supposed to keep coming all summer long on 16-to-24-inch plants. I had great hopes for ‘TigerEye’, but I never expected the plant to start blooming so early in the season.
Rudbeckias like hot weather so it’s even more surprising that this plant jumped ahead of all the others during such a cool spring.
So far it’s a winner.