You probably know from my letters that Hampton Park here in Charleston is a regular source of inspiration for me. My walks there tend to be meandering—or they take me to yoga class or Sightsee for a decaf cappuccino. But this time of year, I always hope to see a familiar sight. Two summers ago, I got into the habit of cutting across the grass past the duck pond to look at the flowers. There was this abundance of brown-eyed susans that reminded me so much of the ones my mom grew in her garden at our old house on Cape Cod.

They weren’t quite the same as my mom’s flowers. These were smaller, rounder, and more yellow and brown. The varietal she planted had big, long, pointy petals that went deeper than yellow, to an ochre orange. We always had them on our table in the summer, and she would cut them every week for the restaurant, too. I remember refreshing them with her. Now I think that’s so special. I try to arrange flowers with my daughter often in the hopes that she’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

I love it when a bunch of one type of flower is planted very densely. So I kept visiting these brown-eyed susans, partly because of their beauty and partly because of my memories. I knew I wanted to paint them—and I kept meaning to. Finally, toward the end of their season, I brought big 30-by-40-inch paper, small jars of gouache I had premixed, and a set of watercolors with me and did it. And I’m very glad I did, because the park hasn’t planted them again…at least not yet.

The result is our Coneflowers Mural. Immersive is the best way to describe it. I wanted it to make you feel the way I felt in my mom’s garden, lying on the ground and looking up at the sky through the petals. The tallest  flowers reach about five and a half feet tall, so you really are enveloped. I love how they spill over onto each other, like friends talking. 

While I was painting this mural, I was also busy putting in my own garden. It’s filled with plants that remind me of my childhood, mostly native ones. Reading Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy a few years ago inspired me to focus on them, as did the work of a local program called the M.A.R.S.H. project. They both emphasize how native plant species can help restore the environment in such a powerful way. I hope you’ll learn about them too. In particular, I’m so fond of the coneflower that I’m planting all the colors I can find: brown-eyed susans, black-eyed susans, the giant yellow ones that grow six feet tall, and echinaceas in purple and red, like the ones that inspired our Bramble fabric. 

My garden is in its early days now, with lots of plugs that will take a few years to really grow in and bloom like the ones in the mural. I hope it will become a haven for birds and insects and of course for my daughter. As for my mom, she’s living in Charleston now too, embracing all the tropical plants that thrive here and planting a new garden of her own. 

- Rebecca