Sunday, September 15, 2019

Biding My Time Brings Flowers Again

Bidens aristosa
I have a pretty yellow flower blooming in my garden this week: bearded beggarticks (Bidens aristosa). It is an annual member of the Asteraceae family that can grow to be as large as a shrub, covered in late summer with soft yellow flowers adored by bees. Another common name is tickseed sunflower, and while it resembles sunflowers (Helianthus), the foliage is quite different; the leaves are heavily lobed and soft to the touch.

I have loved this flower for years but haven’t grown it in a long time. This year’s flower came to me by way of a friend who knew that I liked it, but the story is more interesting than that. I moved to Georgia 31 years ago. Harry’s Farmers Market in Alpharetta was newly open at the time and we shopped there a lot. A roadside near the store had a gorgeous hillside of this plant and the fall blooms were quite noticeable.

Bidens aristosa foliage

At some point, in later years, I must have gathered some seeds because I remember having them bloom at my old house; I haven’t had them since we moved in 2003. Harry's store closed in 2014 and the flowers on the roadside diminished over the years, barely noticeable on my less frequent trips on that road.

About two years ago, construction was slated for the road and the hillside was in the way. A friend of mine, who was getting into native plants, got permission to rescue plants along the road and he found the Bidens. I helped him to identify it and shared my story of blooms long ago. When he got seedlings this spring, he shared some plants with me, and now these plants, long admired, are with me again.


Carpenter bee on Bidens aristosa


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