Ratibida!

Have you ever collected seeds from a plant you saw somewhere else -- a friend's garden, a shopping center planting, a field? I've done this a few times, but really have had only two great successes with it. One is with the Brown-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia triloba) that I took from a wild plant I saw at the edge of woods at a park and now is everywhere in my yard.

The other is Ratibida columnifera or "Mexican hat". (I always just call it "Ratibida" because it's fun to say.) The seeds of this one I took from the garden of some friends when I was charged with watering while they were out of town a few years ago. I really liked the flowers, and the small plants looked like a good fit for my yard.

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Now I realize that their small plants were only that size because they were growing in a non-ideal spot and were completely neglected. Once these plants got into a full-sun location in my garden and were tended to a bit, they doubled in size. 

I now have a decent little patch of them in my "prairie" area of my garden, and although they tend to flop over, they support each other to some extent and end up looking okay.

They're not an "in your face" type of bloom, probably due to their darker color and somewhat smaller size. I think they're really attractive, and they really make this part of the garden special.

I don't typically think of them as attractive to pollinators, since I never see bees swarming around them like I do some of the other flowers like blue globe thistle or cleome. As I was taking these photographs though I realized that there were several bees visiting the flowers, and other wildlife too.

So they have nice blooms, attract pollinators, reseed readily... what else?

They're quite drought tolerant, probably because they form a taproot. That does make them more difficult to transplant if they end up growing in the wrong spot (say for instance in the middle of your grassy path), but I've never had a pest or disease problem with these plants. The deer seem to ignore them too for the most part, although they may nibble them once in a while. They bloom from early or mid-summer until frost too.

You can see from this photo that the flowers open from the bottom, forming a "column" as they open. Hence the species name "columnifera' I assume.

Here's a new flower bud, just about to start opening:

And here's one going a little wonky:

Looks more like Ratibida shnozifera

I've just reminded myself that I want to start some of these plants to put into another bed on the other side of the yard. They'd probably do really well on the south side of my house too, in the hot zone that I have so much trouble with. The Brown-eyed Susans are doing well there, so the Ratibida may too.

This is one plant I wouldn't mind having all across my yard. I love it!

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