My flower for today is Rudbeckia, also know as Black-eyed Susan.  I couldn’t resist choosing this flower that shares my name and that has grown in my garden, too. It’s a native plant, too, and related to echinacea–their centers are similar.
Here’s part of a poem by that the common name might have come from:

All in the Downs the fleet was moor’d,
streamers waving in the wind,
When black-ey’d Susan came aboard.
Oh! where shall I my true love find!
Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true,
If my sweet William sails among the crew.
William, who high upon the yard,
Rock’d with the billow to and fro,
Soon as her well-known voice he heard,
He sigh’d, and cast his eyes below:
The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands,
And, (quick as lightning) on the deck he stands.
So the sweet lark, high pois’d in air,
Shuts close his pinions to his breast,
(If, chance, his mate’s shrill call he hear)
And drops at once into her nest.
The noblest captain in the British fleet,
Might envy William’s lip those kisses sweet.
‘O Susan, Susan, lovely dear,
My vows shall ever true remain;
Let me kiss off that falling tear,
We only part to meet again.
Change, as ye list, ye winds; my heart shall be
The faithful compass that still points to thee…

Very romantic!  And supposedly if you plant Sweet William and Black-Eyed Susan together, they will bloom at the same time.  Sweet!
That’s all for now.
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Thanks for stopping by!
XO