Oy, spring!

I might as well stop promising that certain posts are coming. On different occasions I've promised future topics which almost never transpire (at least in the time frame promised). It's never too late for resolution in one's life!

The Midwest is known for one of the most fitful climates on the planet (and if I'm being hyperbolic and it's not, it should be). We are having a pretty good iris bloom season but rain and wind are dampening (most literally) the show today. A national gardening magazine is coming this evening and tomorrow to shoot the garden and farm. If only the weather would cooperate!

I'm playing catchup on a few things with this post:

1. Thanks to all of the attendees of my lectures at the Baker Creek Spring Planting Festival a few weekends ago. It was a great time in one of my favorite parts of the country, the Ozarks.

2. Posted above is a photo of the 'Henry Eilers' rudbeckia. My column in Garden & Greenhouse erroneously communicated that this was a rudbeckia of U.K. origin, which it is NOT. I have no idea what I was thinking (probably had the TV tuned to the BBC). Henry Eilers is a plantsman from rural Arkansas and has grown this distinct form of Rudbeckia subtomentosa for a number of years.

All the best to each of you in whatever corner of the world you garden in!