Black Eyed Susan Oil Painting by Mary Hughes

This spring was a cold continuation of our long cold winter. The planting season blurred a great deal and I just didn't plant a flower garden this year. So when a gigantic weed started it's takeover of the little garden spot in front of the porch I was temped as I was every year to bend over and pull it out of the soft sandy ground. It would have been so easy. But several times a day I would go out walking my dog and pass the fast growing monstrosity and keep on walking. I wondered at myself. Was I really this lazy that I wouldn't just do as I had every other time? What was holding me back from plucking it out of the ground and tossing it aside? It grew past my waist and I just didn't care. Yes neighborhood I have a huge ugly weed growing in my garden and I "Mary Hughes" am doing NOTHING about it.

Then one day I noticed buds. They didn't look terribly promising but they caught my curiosity and that would give me another excuse to not pluck the giant green monster. By now you've guessed. Huge beautiful yellow flowers opened up and fill the giant plant. I water it now, cut it's blooms, bring them inside, smile whenever I pass it's abundant beauty. My dog now waters it daily. We all do our part.

What is a weed exactly? A plant we don't want, or have low expectations of. One dictionary definition: "Generally, a weed is a plant in an undesired place."

I hope this weed comes back every year!

This a hand painted 10" x 10" oil on stretched canvas.  the cloth looks gray in the photos but it's a soft gray green.