Sunday, December 11, 2011

Black-eyed Susans, Deptford Pinks, and Ox-eye Daisies in a summer meadow...

This winter when all the color has been drained from the Cincinnati landscapes and only cold greys, bleached beiges, and spotty browns can be seen, I'll come back to this post to remember what a the warm yellows, bright greens, and hot pinks of a summer meadow look like...

Black-eyed Susans ( Rudbeckia hirta) and Deptford Pinks (Dianthus armeria) danced among tall grasses in a warm summer breeze in the High Meadow at Voice of America (VOA) Park.

Black-eyed Susans ( Rudbeckia hirta) in June. VOA Park is one of the few remaining prairie settings in our area. It is fast succumbing to succession because the park officials have not mowed or burned the High Meadow in years. Let's hope they do something this winter so the Boblinks, Eastern Meadowlarks, Savannah Sparrows, and Henslow's Sparrows have a habitat to return to, and so we can sit in the middle of a summer meadow and watch the wildflowers and grasses sway in the heat and breezes of a summer afternoon...

...another grouping of Black-eyed Susans ( Rudbeckia hirta) scattered throughout the fields, their characteristic summer yellow drawing the eye in. American Goldfinches flew overhead in up and down arcs, chattering the day's news while waiting for some of their favorite seeds to ripen...


Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are native flowers. Originally they could be found only on the prairies, but now can be found scattered in any field.

Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria) is not a native wildflower. It was introduced from England but has naturalized throughout Ohio. The flower petals have shaggy edges and are covered in white spots.

The Ox-eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) is also a European import. I remember I was surprised when I read that years ago. I always had thought it a native because it's such a part of summer...


...a video of a field of Black-eyed Susans, Deptford Pink Dianthus, and Ox-eye Daisies swaying in a warm summer breeze in June. Not a lot of action, but the day was so perfect I videoed the scene so I could come back to it in winter for a reminder of what's waiting on the other side of the grey and cold days...

For more of that summery meadow feeling:
Click here for a post on a Savannah Sparrow from the same day.
Click here for a post on Red-winged Blackbirds from the same day.
Click here for a post on Eastern Meadowlarks from the same day.

16 comments:

  1. I'll give it to Susan, you make it 100 per cent lovely.

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  2. So pretty! It's so nice to remember what lovely colors we see in summer. ;)

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  3. love the meadow grasses as much as the blooms. :)

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  4. What a great remembrance of summer, loved the video.

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  5. such lovely feelings evoked from natures bounty you captured so beautifully. Loved the video clip too

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  6. Now you're making want to go out and hunt for dragon!

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  7. I LOVED the video! The flowers moving in the breeze, and the birds singing...think I may have heard a cricket in the background at times. Wonderful post!

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  8. How wise you were and are, to have actually planned on saving this for winter. I'm not even minding winter yet, but I will, and this will make a nice sabbatical. Thank you.

    Montanagirl, are you sure your cricket wasn't a sports car or speed boat? :)

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  9. Beautiful photos. Black-eyed Susans are such pretty flowers. I don't want to wait 9 months to see them again!

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  10. Hi Kelly

    A beautiful tonic for a winter's day.
    I love the black-eyed Susans, they provide such a vivid splash of yellow.

    Guy

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  11. Ah, beautiful! A field full of wildflowers always beats the carefully tended domesticated flowers.

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  12. Thanks for the flowers and video, Kelly! Winter scenes are pretty, I love our field covered in snow, but the thought of summer flowers, bees and butterflies helps, especially on grey cold days around February.

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  13. What lovely flowers. Definitely a post to come back to in the dead and brown depths of winter!

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  14. With my gray sky today and lack of color in the desert foliage right now, this looks great to me already!

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  15. ...thanks, everyone! I know I'll be revisiting this post in February and March when it's grey, grey, grey and the sun has been hidden by thick cloud cover for months!! I can't believe how picking I was back in June. Second time around, all these "lost" photos have been found!

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