As a little girl I remember going to my grandparent’s garden in the fall and admiring tall, delicate, yellow flowers. My Grama would call them “false sunflowers”. Upon further googling I have discovered that they can also be called ‘rough oxeye’ and ‘smooth oxeye’.

When we got our first home, my Grama dug up some of these flowers and gifted them to me. They are a perennial that comes back year after year and they have the oddest roots. The roots almost go at a ninety degree angle to the stem. In my Grama’s words, ” if you aren’t careful you will have them everywhere!”.

As we moved from house to house we always made sure we dug up some of these original flowers. They made the journey with us ( we even transplanted some from my Mom and Dad’s house when they moved). Sometimes they stayed in a pot for longer than they should have, but they always seemed to survive.

I think the beauty of these flowers is that they can grow well beyond fence height. As well they are the perfect shade of yellow and they blow so delicately in the wind. Being hardy and pest proof is also an added bonus. They do reproduce a lot – I have learned that mid summer thinning is sometimes a good thing. They also make a beautiful bouquet to add to your table or share with a friend.

When everything else in the garden is starting to wind down, the yellow flowers are just getting started. Today, I was out in the garden enjoying the sunshine and watching the flowers blow in the breeze. This made my heart so happy. Even though we said goodbye to my Grama so long ago, little things remind me of her. I think she would be very happy that descendants of her original plants are still thriving today after all these years.