Rudbeckia blooming in perennial bed
Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan) is a long-blooming plant with lots of golden orange black-eyed daisies that create a bright spot of color for many weeks in late summer. Their coarsely textured, hairy leaves make it easy to distinguish rudbeckia from coneflowers who otherwise look very similar. Easy to grow, rudbeckia naturalize well and require little maintenance. They are not particular about soil and once established are quite drought resistent. Also, regular deadheading of the faded flowers keep the plants blooming longer.
When we bought our house, I spent a lot of time just walking through the yard and trying to learn what was already planted and what I wanted to change. I noticed some rudbeckia growing in dry shade under our silver maple tree close to the house. I kept watching it that first year wondering if it could bloom in such a bad spot or even survive. Well, it did survive. It bloomed right on schedule and looked very cheery in that dark spot.
So, based on its initial performance, I decided to move some of those rudbeckia into a better area of the garden where it could really thrive. In fact, I was so happy with my Black-Eyed Susan plants that I moved a lot of them. Bad Idea! While each of those rudbeckia plants in better areas did very well and bloomed from July through September, their clumps spread quickly. They began crowding out many neighboring plants, becoming real garden bullies.
Eventually, I had to dig out some of the rudbeckia clumps because they proved much too aggressive when given better growing conditions. I do think that rudbeckia is a beautiful, carefree plant and deserves a spot in the perennial bed. However, it is important to give it room to spread because that is what will happen.
As a side note – the original rudbeckia plants next to our house are still growing nicely. They struggle each year but still manage to bloom brightly and more importantly, they stay put. While growing our rudbeckia for the past few years, I found it to be a great plant for difficult areas and a real showstopper in better areas, well worth its space in the garden.
Information:
Exposure: Full Sun / Partial Shade.
Bloom Color: Golden Orange
Bloom Time: July-September
Height 24”, Spread 24”
Hardy in zones 3-9
Deer resistent