This is the year I was going to get all of the Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' out of my garden except for the single row on the east side. Well, well. Another success story.

I was warned not to let this sunny intruder stage a takeover, and yet I did. All spring, I dug out wheelbarrow loads of it and gave it away to everyone who drove in the yard. All summer, what remained of it was just another shade of green among the peonies, between the irises, next to the lilies. Now, in late August, it shows its true color--and what a color it is. The color of the August sun. Of ripe corn. Of tasty squash. A foreshadowing of turning leaves.

Common old Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'--so eager to please that it just can't help itself. It sings the end of summer, but not a lullaby. This is blaring jazz, all trumpets and brass. Soon I will begin digging it out of the garden again--but not all of it. Never all of it.