Coneflowers: Rudbeckia Winners, 1 by amorecuore

amorecuore wrote:
It's hard for me to make an accurate judgment regarding how well they bloom over the course of a complete year or from year to year. I started "small" with only two last year just to see if they would do ok down here in South Florida. I had one "unknown" purchased variety that didn't return. The other was "Autumn Colors" that did pretty good last year. It was snapped off at the base by wind this March when it had just started blooming this spring. I probably should have left it in as it might have regrown. Impatience got the best of me and I removed it before giving it a chance to regrow. Sometimes we ALL get a little impatient!!! LOL
This years Rudbeckias were all grown from seed started last winter except for a new one named Rudbeckia "Denver Daisy". Denver Daisy can be grown from seed but I haven't seen seed available quite yet. My most consistent blooming Rudbeckias this spring and summer have been, in the following order: Goldsturm, Tiger Eye Gold, Denver Daisy, Chim Chiminee. I'm still neutral feeling on Prairie Sun and Cherry Brandy. My worst has been Cappuccino. I grew 4 Cappuccino Rudbeckia from seed. They all grew to large sized plants, had a couple of deformed blooms and then went into sudden death. I ranked Goldsturm first because I haven't observed any "downtime" in the blooming. The other three bloom very well, but they do seem to go through brief periods when there are fewer blooms.
Here's a photo from today of 3 different varieties. Goldsturm is in the back, Chim Chiminee in the middle and Tiger Eye Gold in the front. Hope this info is helpful to you.