Black-Eyed Susan

Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) is one of four members of the flowering plant family known as Asteraceae with the other three members being; Echinacea, Dracopis and Ratibida.

All varieties of these four plant families’ members are known as Coneflowers and this has led to confusion on the part of many gardeners.

The term Coneflower comes from the black seed cone center produced by these plants.

Rudbeckias should be planted in full sun and you will find them extremely easy to grow.

Butterflies love Rudbeckia blossoms and you will enjoy this free flowering perennial too so be sure to harvest some that you can use as cut flowers.

The pure native forms of one variety or another in this family are located in all of the lower forty eight states with the exception of Arizona and Nevada.

One word of caution when selecting plants for your flower beds is to treat the following selections as annuals as they tend to be short-lived even though you will find them listed as perennials on plant identification tags: hirta, Cherokee Sunset, Indian Summer, Prairie Sun and Tetraploid.

I have consulted with professional landscapers that have used large numbers of R. hirta on projects only to have them fail after blooming with vigor for a while only to die a short time later.

These designers and landscapers could not figure out why they were experiencing a high number of fatalities and that is why I was contacted.

Mature plant heights vary by selection from twelve inches up to seven feet.

Planting in full sun is a must which will help your plants to prosper.

Flower color will be in the yellow to yellow-orange range with both single and double floral displays available.