Rudbeckia hirta ‘Rustic Dwarfs’ germinating seedlings on seedhead
Wordless Wednesday – Unseasonal Autumn – Seedlings on Rudbeckia hirta Seedhead
Gardening Jules
Birds, Bees, Flowers, Trees – Organic & Wildlife Friendly Gardening
Rudbeckia hirta ‘Rustic Dwarfs’ germinating seedlings on seedhead
Gardening Jules 
I’ve never seem anything like that before! My first thought was how did the seeds get there – oh dear I had better got back to bed I think! A really good reason for not cutting back the old stems. Do these Rudbeckia generally seed around a lot? I guess the seeds usually fall before they germinate, though? Has it been warm and damp where you are? I must go and check my Rudbeckia seedheads, but they were looking very brown yesterday.
Me neither Annette, these ‘Rustic Dwarfs’ are short lived perennials and in a harsh winter they turn up their toes. But if you save the seed quicker than I have they are easy peasy to germinate in the Spring. I should think this lot will not do so well. Its far to early and in the wrong place! Last winter was so mild some of mine self sowed themselves though.
Really interesting though, thanks.
That is pretty cool – wonder if the mild weather is a factor?
I am sure it is, we had temperatures of 16 degrees yesterday and 14 today. I’ve just seen a Ceanothus in partial flower. I feel all over the place myself with this mild November weather.
What an amazing discovery Julie.
I was looking for something to contribute to Cathy’s Vase meme, when I spied these on Monday morning. We have even more mild weather forecast, I just hope there will not be a payback of horrid weather later on.
Enjoy the mild days when you can! We finally have sunshine again and it’s made everyone smile.
The unseasonal weather is confusing every one. I did see a similar picture on another blog some time ago.
I wonder if that was in a mild Autumn too, we are certainly saving on heating bills, I had been bracing myself for early El Nino freezes and its apparently warmer than Madrid currently.
That may be the oddest thing I see today! What a cool find 🙂
I’ve seen seeds sprout inside tomatoes but that might be the only thing that even comes close to this. Maybe you’re onto a new planting method which involves chopping their heads off and dropping it into a seed bed!
We normally have rudbeckia sprouting this time of year (in the soil of course). The tiny seedlings are far hardier than one would think and practically explode into growth as soon as the ice and snow disappear. Like you say though the adult plants are much less enthusiastic about life.
Well that would save a lot of messing around, I love plants that self sow themselves, all this saving seed, dry storage and mollycoddling to germinate on a Spring windowsill is time consuming! I am going to experiment with these ones and fingers crossed the new method will work. 🙂
What an amazing capture, Julie!
We are enjoying some weird November weather here, I am beginning to understand what it must be like when you have your second Spring, but as we are not used to it, its quite confusing to plants and people alike.
Oh wow! I would be very happy if mine did that. Then I’d know I had plants for next year!
I am not sure if ‘Rustic Dwarfs’ are particularly easy to germinate or that its our unusually mild weather, either way, I am going to try and salvage some and see if they overwinter.
Well spotted! That is impressive. I’ve seen a similar thing with poppies, but rudbeckia seems much more exotic. Will you try to pot them on?
As they are so enthusiastic, I have teased some out into potting compost, we shall see how successful that is, and have now saved seed from some of the other seed heads.
This is a new one on me – nature is always giving us surprises! Well spotted.
I’m constantly amazed by the natural world, I wish there were more hours in the day!
Very interesting shot, Julie. I’d say these seeds got very confused by the weather!
I think you are right Eliza, they are not alone, I feel fairly confused by the weather myself! 🙂
🙂
That’s amazing – I have never seen seeds sprouting on a seed head like that!
Me neither Jason, the product of a mild Autumn I am sure.
Great photo Julie! All the things I would have asked or said has already been done in your comments above 😀 I was too late!
Glad you liked it Clare, we have another sunny mild morning here, I hope you have some good weather too.
Yes it has been fine today and was very nice yesterday too 🙂
I have not seen that happen before, that is really awesome…Love the detailed photo.
Thanks Charlie, nature is rather wonderful in its detail. 🙂
The seed head looks beautiful and such a convenient seed tray! I try to leave the seeds on plants for the birds but if it is too damp they tend to rot rather than sprout. I think you must need just the right conditions to have them sprouting on the seed head. This November is going to be one for the record books, I think. Amelia
We have had a couple of dry days and already the sprouting seed heads that I left out side have died off, the mild damp days must of been just right for them. Normally I collect a few then leave the rest for the birds, but I am behind this year, the unseasonal mild weather has thrown me.
Well done for spotting this, Julie! Believe it or not I’m chasing Dipsacus fullonum for the same thing and haven’t succeeded so far…birds are always quicker than me. So glad you like Felix Dennis, well, at least I hope you like his poetry. The guy must have been a ‘enfant terrible’ somehow but reading his poems gave me the impression of a caring, very sensitive creature. Have a nice weekend 🙂
Yes I did like his poetry, thank you for the suggestion. Good luck with the teasels, I think warm and slightly damp weather have been good conditions to produce the sprouting.
It is fascinating how the weird weather around the globe is triggering equally weird sights in our gardens. I saw something similar here, gaillardia pulchella seedlings peeking out of the original seed ball that had been caught in sere stems. I think it is a particular combination of alternating very dry and very moist spells that gets the seed ready to germinate in place rather than simply rot.
Regardless, wonderful shot!
We have had just those conditions here Deb and Gailardia’s have a similar type of seed head. Currently really high winds and some trees down this morning, then finally for November we are heading towards our first really cold snap at the weekend, so no more sprouting seed heads for a while!
Wow, that is bonkers. What on earth is going on!
We seem to having every season this month, really high winds yesterday and I see for the weekend, really cold and down to 0℃, at least an opportunity to wear my new thermals!
Please don’t get excited about wearing thermals 🙂
LOL! They are ghastly white frilly things which I would rather not be wearing, hoping not to need them but the forecast this weekend means they may get an outing!
Hope you are sporting those thermals 🙂
Yep! 🙂
Oh my this is an amazing shot.
Thanks Donna, its been very mild here but thats about to come to an abrupt end this coming weekend!
What an amazing and beautiful photo. So interesting too – have never seen anything like that. It really has to be the warm weather.
I think so too, we are heading into a really cold snap now just in time for the weekend! I hope you have better weather. 🙂