Popular Flower Types

When it comes to giving flowers as gifts, nothing beats a bouquet of your favourite blooms. These top 10 flowers have a long association with happiness and are the perfect choice for birthdays or anniversaries.

Orchids symbolise thoughtfulness, refinement and fertility, making them the best gift for a loved one.

I recently had to take out my 10-foot tripod Hasegawa pruning ladder to take a picture of a flower blossom while standing on the top step. The flower, a black-eyed Susan, stood 9 feet, 3 inches tall on a thick stem that has withstood the wind and rains of recent weeks — without any staking. It is truly a Goliath.

This is no ordinary black-eyed Susan. Its Latin name, Rudbeckia maxima, gives you a clue about its inclinations. It wants to be bigger and better than any other in the same genus, or family group. Its common name is large coneflower, which is appropriate, as the flower does have a large black cone surrounded by yellow petals. I’ve read that it commonly grows 6 to 8 feet tall, but this year it has exceeded that — and may still be growing. The leaves are few but large, and blue-green in color. Quite interesting. The leaves are mostly clustered toward the bottom of the stalk.

“Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants,” by Steve M. Still. This is an 800-page text that tells me most everything I need to know about any flower I want to grow, where a plant will grow best, zone hardiness, flower description, how best utilized, related species and much more.

gardening-guy.com. Write to him at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, N.H. 03746. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you wish a mailed response. Or email henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Source: providencejournal.com