Edison’s Favorite Rudbeckia
By Karen Maxwell, Horticultural Specialist
Did you know that Thomas Edison kept a “Best in My Index” list of plants during his rubber research? In January of 1929, he noted: Rudbeckia laciniata “Very stiff viscous rubber, good plant.” Indeed, the rubber content was listed as 3.6%, higher than some of the goldenrods he tested. The Rudbeckia genus has twenty species including popular perennials, such as the Black-eyed Susan which multiplies by underground rhizomes and Brown-eyed Susan which is a biennial and reproduces by self-seeding. At the Estates, we grow Black-eyed Susan Vines in pots around the property; however, these plants are not Rudbeckia, they are Thunbergia alata.
Edison rarely, if ever, used common names for plants. Rudbeckia laciniata is known by North American wildflower enthusiasts as Cutleaf Coneflower. The Cutleaf Coneflower looks very much like its cousin, the Coneflower, or Echinacea purpurea, another American native wildflower. Both are perennials in the Asteraceae Family, but that is about all they have in common. Let’s take a quick look at the coneflowers or Echinacea. Historically, Echinacea was grown for its medicinal value. Today, they have been hybridized to include more than 100 varietals, many of which are sterile or have a dense, but beautiful double flowerhead which renders the nectar unavailable to pollinators, as seen in E. purpurea ‘Double Scoop.’
Practically speaking, most of our readership (Zones 9-10) should only consider growing Echinacea as an annual or short-lived perennial. Should you wish to give it a go, I would recommend sticking with the Echinacea purpurea and not a hybrid, to provide the wildflower benefit to pollinators if this is your gardening goal. The inclusion of wildflowers in the garden is encouraged to benefit our pollinators, both insect and avian, and attracting songbirds is most rewarding. If Thomas Edison were growing Rudbeckia laciniata in any quantity, it surely would have been to the delight of his wife, Mina who loved birds. Personally, I cannot brag about any success in attracting butterflies and birds to my black-eyed Susan or brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta and Rudbeckia triloba respectively).
Rudbeckia laciniata or Cutleaf Coneflower, produces great seedheads of thistle-sized seed, loved by finches – goldfinches and house finches alike, which are both grown for their health properties but have always been enjoyed as a staple in a cut flower garden, and this one is an underutilized stunner. The plant has a single row of yellow petals surrounding a greenish to yellow nubby center and the variety ‘Hortensia’ or ‘Goldquelle’ looks like a double yellow pom pom. Grow R. laciniata in rich, well-drained soil – these native plants would naturally be found in wetland areas in partial shade.
While R. laciniata looks similar to the multitude of hybridized echinacea, here is how to distinguish them: The name “Cutleaf Coneflower” is indicative of the foliage having cuts or deep lobes, usually 3-5, where echinacea leaves are never lobed. The center of echinacea flowers is typically dark colored and quite bristly to the touch with R. laciniata being soft and yellowish, earning it another common name: Green-headed Coneflower.
In the garden, R. laciniata can grow in clumps up to three feet tall and can be dead headed regularly to prolong flowering. Provide support such as a fence or trellis for these heavy bloomers, especially during rainy season. As the plant diminishes, keep the seed heads to attract a charm (group of goldfinches) to your garden.
Realizing that August is a brutal month in Southwest Florida for gardening, here’s a couple of quick house-keeping tips to do early in the morning: Check your palms for any signs of significant yellowing. (Yellowing throughout the fronds, not just on one or two aging fronds). An even disbursement of yellow speckling along the fronds indicates a potassium deficiency – and this is especially true for non-native palms. The heavy rains of summer can easily leach potassium from the soil, thereby starving the palms of this necessary nutrient. Apply an 8-0-12 fertilizer per instructions based on the size of your palm(s) this month, while they are still in active growth mode.
For those of us who like to keep our poinsettias in the ground, now is the time to give them a good pruning to force branching and blooming for the holidays. Use clean sheers, wiped down with alcohol, to prune your stems back to only three or four leaves, or down to about eight inches from the soil top. Continue feeding monthly until they bloom with a balanced fertilizer (20-10-20). If it is granular, be sure to water well before and after application. Keep your plants protected from any artificial evening light so blooming will not be inhibited. Remember that if you purchased nursery grown poinsettias, they will rarely look so lush again – those plants were regularly fed with a liquid fertilizer and pesticides while they grew in captivity. Your aim is to re-grow a natural looking, beautiful poinsettia.
To learn more about gardening in Florida, sign up for the gardening classes and talks, which will be on the Edison Ford website soon.
Historical Connection – Marjory Stoneman Douglas
By Alexandria Edwards, Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an activist and pioneer woman who worked tirelessly to protect natural resources in Florida and improve communities around her. Douglas was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 7, 1890, and moved to Massachusetts with her mother, Lillian, a concert violinist, after her parents separated. She graduated from high school in 1908 and continued her studies at Wellesley College, where she studied English literature. She excelled in her studies and was elected class orator at her graduation in 1912. Her greatest inspiration was her grandmother, a marvelous storyteller, who inspired her to pursue her career as a writer.
Douglas’ father, Frank Bryant Stoneman, a judge and newspaper editor, founded the Miami News Record (renamed the Miami Herald in 1910). Marjory worked for the paper as a society reporter and editor. She produced write-ups of weddings, pink teas, and stories that were unique to the community, as well as her own editorial pieces and stories. In 1920, Frank Stoneman offered Douglas a job as the assistant editor of the Miami Herald. She established a column called “The Gallery,” which included information about the consequences of Florida’s rapid development, landscape, and geography – a preview of her later work to protect the state’s natural resources.
When the United States entered World War l in 1917, Douglas enlisted in the Naval Reserve while she was writing for The Herald. She became a yeoman first class in the navy and was stationed in Miami. After a year, she was discharged and then served for the American Red Cross in Paris, writing stories about the organization and her team’s work.
Not only was Douglas concerned about the environment, but also women’s equality and civil rights. She met many influential individuals during her early career and accompanied Mrs. William Jennings Bryan, Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Mrs. William Sherman Jennings, and Mrs. Frank Stranahan to Tallahassee to lobby before the legislature on behalf of women’s suffrage. According to Douglas, “We all five spoke. Mrs. Bryan made one of the best speeches I ever heard.” By 1916, she helped organize the Women’s Business League chapter in Miami and became its first president.
In 1923, she resigned from the Miami Herald and focused on freelance writing. Her pieces were published in The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and Woman’s Home Companion. For nearly 30 years, she produced short stories, unsigned editorials, and poems. She came in second place for the prestigious O. Henry Memorial Prize for short stories in 1928. In honor of her centennial, the University of North Florida Press issued “Nine Florida Stories by Marjory Stoneman Douglas,” a sampling of some of her magazine pieces from the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
Her tales were usually set among the sawgrass and scrub, and plenty of readers in northern cities got their first glimpse of South Florida through her sharp and forgiving eyes. Douglas also taught at the University of Miami from 1925-1929 and served on the editorial board of the University of Miami Press. In 1951, she published her first novel titled “Road to the Sun,” set in Florida in 1845 – the year the state joined the union – followed by the history of Florida and a biography of the environmentalist, W.H. Hudson.
Douglas was most noted for serving on a park committee that supported efforts to designate the Everglades as a National Park, and it officially opened in 1947. The committee was led by Ernest F. Coe, and other members including David Fairchild, and John Olive LaGorce of National Geographic magazine. Douglas visited the Everglades often, and in the Ten Thousand Islands, she saw “great flocks of birds, amazing flights of 30,000 to 40,000 in one swoop.” In 1942, one of her long-time friends, Hervey Allen, an editor for Rinehart and Company, dropped by her house and asked her to write a book about the Miami River. She inquired if she could write about the Everglades that connected to the river, which initiated Marjory’s research on the Everglades ecosystem. Five years later, she published the book “The Everglades: River of Grass,” a blend of local history and insight on the magical place. It highlighted the unique wildlife of the Everglades, home to ibises, spoonbills, manatees, saltwater crocodiles, freshwater alligators, and many other creatures.
In the 1950s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed a complex system of canals, levees, dams, and pump stations in the Everglades to protect the land from seasonal flooding. Douglas recognized that this unique area was a system that depended not only on the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades but also on the Kissimmee River that feeds the lake. In 1969, she formed the Friends of the Everglades to create awareness of the destruction that this system could cause the fragile river of grass. Throughout the remainder of her life, she expanded the organization into Broward, Palm Beach, Lee, St. Lucie, Osceola, Hendry, Glades, and Monroe counties.
In his introduction to her autobiography “Voice of the River,” John Rothchild described her appearance in a 1973 meeting, stating, “Mrs. Douglas was half the size of her fellow speakers and she wore huge dark glasses, which along with the huge floppy hat made her look like Scarlet O’Hara as played by Igor Stravinsky. She reminded us all of our responsibility to nature, and I don’t remember what else.”
Today, many birds can be found at the Estates.
When Thomas Edison celebrated his birthday in Fort Myers, reporters would interview the inventor and ask him questions about the topics of the day. One reporter who showed up to Edison’s birthday interview in 1928 to speak with Mina Edison was Marjory Douglas. She was impressed by Mina’s ability to manage her Fort Myers’ estate, support the world-famous inventor with such grace and give back to the community. Douglas published the interview in McCall’s magazine.
In 1985, Douglas went on to establish the Biscayne Nature Center at the age of 95. It began as a summer camp for students in Crandon Park and was one of the first hands-on environmental programs at Dade County schools. She went before the county school board and declared that the nature center needed a building of its own. She established a portable classroom and planned a community facility in Crandon Park. In 1991, the State of Florida Department of Education awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center 1.8 million dollars for the construction of the center in the park. When it opened, Douglas stated, “It is my hope that all who come to visit the nature center will leave with a better understanding and appreciation of this area.”
Douglas’ efforts to care for nature did not go unrecognized. In 1975 and 1976, the Florida Audubon Society and Florida Wildlife Federation named Douglas as Conservationist of the Year. She also received a Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement award and was named the honorary vice president of the Sierra Club. To support her work, congress passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Everglades Protection Act in 1991, which funded water treatment facilities in the area.
Lastly, in 1993, President Clinton awarded her the President Medal of Freedom with the citation, “an extraordinary woman who has devoted her long life to protecting fragile systems of the Everglades, and to the cause of equal rights for all Americans, Marjory Stoneman Douglas personifies commitment. Her crusade to preserve and restore the Everglades has enhanced our Nation’s respect for our precious environment, reminding all of us of nature’s delicate balance.”
We hope that when you visit the Estates, you will reflect on the beautiful things that nature has to offer. As you stroll the gardens, take time to observe the flowers and wildlife. To learn more about Douglas, listen to Holly Shaffer’s Digital Discussion on August 15 at 10:30 a.m. (it will also be available on YouTube at a later date).
