There are three flowering plants that I hope I shall never lose, although I make no effort to keep them.
They are the self-seeding sweet rocket, the black-eyed Susan, and the tall blue lobelia.
Sweet Rocket (Hesperis Matronalis)
The hardy perennial sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis) begins blooming early in spring, crowding its paniculate racemes of delightfully fragrant lavender or white flowers on erect stalks 2’ to 3’ feet tall.
Several of these plants rise from a crown of basal leaves that remain green all winter unless the weather has been severe.
The flowers resemble those of single-flowered stock. Lower branches extend the blooming period, and if spent blooms are cut off in summer, plants will continue blooming intermittently until fall.
Or, if the faded flowers are not cut, the plants will set seeds which may scatter, become new plants—in sun or shade, they care not where—and produce a rush order of new but more restrained bloom before winter comes. The sight of such blooms on October 30 started me on this story.
The sweet rocket is also known as dames-violet, garden rocket, and just plain rocket. My first seeds were sent to me many years ago by a friend of a friend in Missouri, who labeled the seeds “sweet rocket.”
I could not find that name in my garden encyclopedia, and it was not until a friend found the plants growing in Norway that its Latin name was discovered.
She was told it was called Hesperis (with a Norwegian accent, of course), and thus, I could identify it through the international language of flowers.
It is a common flower in Europe and grows wild in Denmark. In 17th-century England, it was called the queen’s gillyflower.
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia Hirta)
The black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), known to everyone as the state flower of Maryland, settles down in my garden wherever it finds space. It never intrudes or pushes but gently settles in, always providing a welcome touch.
The first year I grew the new Gloriosa daisies, I found that a defiant black-eyed susan had planted itself directly before a spectacular Gloriosa.
As always, the yellow daisy did not detract from its neighbor but enhanced its attractiveness, and it served to remind us of the many years it had brightened our garden since it first crept in from the neighboring fields.
Tall Blue Perennial (Lobelia Siphilitica)
The tall blue perennial Lobelia siphilitica is a pusher. As a young plant, it seems delicate, beginning with a crown of basal leaves like the sweet rocket, but it grows rapidly and soon takes on a coarse, weedlike appearance. At this point, it isn’t easy to refrain from pulling it up.
But the flower spikes 2’ to 3’ feet tall soon form, and the vivid blue of the first opening flowers is a welcome sight in the late summer garden. It provides the blue spire effect in the fall garden given by delphinium in the spring.
The individual flowers on the spikes have the same irregular shape as the low border lobelia and the Lobelia cardinalis.
Although the blue lobelia prefers moist soil, it is perfectly happy in ordinary soil with half shade. My first blue lobelia came from the top of a neighbor’s compost heap, where it was flourishing.
It is good to have such standbys in the garden. All of them can be transplanted easily. Seeds that start growing during the spring or summer will provide flowering plants the following year.
44659 by Alma Byhre Bond