Gorgeous Rudbeckia Bouquets at Hopewell Market

I’m so happy with how these turned out! I wasn’t sure I would have enough flowers to make bouquets this week. I’m in between my spring and summer flowers, which are two to three weeks behind because of the rain and cool weather this spring.

This week’s bouquets are made entirely of perennial flowers, which means they come up on their own every year. The focal flowers are these beautiful, fluffy black- eyed Susan (rudbeckia) called Gloriosa Double Daisy. I also grow other varieties called Indian Summer, Cherokee Sunset, Prairie Sun and Sahara mix. I started my rudbeckia bed from seed back in 2022, and they’ve been coming back reliably every year. Even though they come back, I start a few plants every spring from seed because they will bloom later in the season and provide me with a second succession of blooms when my other bed is starting to slow down.

Focals:

• black-eyed Susan - mostly Gloriosa Double Daisy but there were a few Cherokee Sunset

Fillers:

• bachelor buttons

• pincushion flower (fama scabiosa) in white, lavender and dark blue

• feverfew (two different varieties-magic single and tetra white)

• bee balm called raspberry parfait

• yellow yarrow

• and a harvest out of my other yarrow bed which blooms several weeks later than the yellow.

Foliage:

• boxwood

• bupleurum

• anise hyssop