4. Black-Eyed Susan

What I knew--it's the state flower of Maryland and my mother's favorite wildflower. The Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is another flower in the aster family. Aster is, incidentally, what my oldest wants to name his hypothetical pet cat. Anyone who has read my other blog knows that we recently got a puppy. A cat is not on the horizon in the foreseeable future. But persistence is the middle name of all of my children, so I'm sure I'll be hearing about Aster for years to come, until he eventually exists in the flesh, in our tiny little house with no out-of-the-way spot for a litter box. Be it ever so smelly, there's no place like home.