The Firstfruits of Lockdown

May 2020. We had just been released from 12 weeks of strict Covid lockdown, during which my longest car journey had been to Tesco's – a not particularly thrilling 2 mile round trip. Now, blessed by a warm sun, we sped into deepest Herefordshire, determined to enjoy our newly-bestowed freedom.

An hour or so later we were relaxing in the shady porch of Bredwardine Parish Church, where some enterprising parishioners had set up a plant stall. Grateful for their enterprise, I helped myself to an oakleaf hydrangea and popped £3 into their high-security cardboard box. 

I'd never heard of an oakleaf hydrangea before, but Google Image gave me a taste of what to expect.  Would mine be white, pink or red? Well, here's what's grown...

 

 

 

There's no denying that it has oak-shaped leaves and it is rather pretty, but looks nothing like any of the photos on Google Image. Truth be told, it doesn't look much like an hydrangea at all. Is it, I wonder, a variety unique to the fertile plains of Bredwardine?  Probably not, though it will always have a treasured place in my garden – something good to have come out of Lockdown.

 

As well as this post, I've widened my reach to horticultural experts far and near by putting the photos on my Facebook page.  Perhaps someone will be able to put a name to it. 

One week later... and an answer

Thanks to my friend Lyn, the mystery has been solved.  It's a Rudbeckia.  If you look at the first photo again, you may notice that the leaves near the flowers are not oak-shaped at all.  They look like this:

 

I'd never heard of a Rudbeckia before, which just goes to show what a horticultural ignoramus I am.  Perhaps its a name that I will soon forget.  For me, this tall plant with its bright yellow flowers, that so beautifully graces the end of the garden path, will always be my Lockdown Plant – lockemdownious bredwardinium.