Well, I have been thinking about crossing over the coneflower aisle and putting in some Rudbeckia. I have avoided them until now because I don't have enough time/patience to work with seed and so many of them are annuals or biannuals that I haven't bothered to sift through who's what. So if I were to put in Rudbeckia it would have to be a perennial or at least reseed itself readily. I want something with long blooming and large flower impact, which shouldn't be difficult with Ruds. What are your best Ruds that fit these parameters? Please post a pic if you have one!
Rudbeckia Winners
This one, I just love it!!
This is my favorite. The blooms are bigger than Echinacea Pink Poodle's blooms. This is Rudbeckia "Goldilocks."
All of my Rudbeckias seem to reseed themselves. They are so easy to start from seeds though. I winter-sowed these in February and they are the best thing going in the garden.
This message was edited Jul 14, 2009 8:15 AM
Are all these tall or are there differences in sizes in the Rudbeckias?
Mine are about 24-28 inches tall. I heard there is a dwarf double called "Maya." Someone recommended that one recently.
Here's a link showing "Maya"
http://gardening.about.com/od/choosingperennialplants/ig/Black-eyed-Susans---Rudbeckia/Rudbeckia--Maya-.htm
Even at 28 inches that would be ok.I'm going to look into the ones that you guys are recomending..I need some yellows in the garden.
Everyone I know loves "Prairie Sun." If you get Rudbeckias that one is probably a good bet!
Here is a link to it...
http://www.tmseeds.com/product/7728.html
I'm also going to be planting dwarf sunflowers next year for more color in addition to Rudbeckia and Echinacea.
I love the doubles! I really like Maya b/c of the green centers. I like Goldilocks, too. I wish I could remember the name of the ones that they have at my local nursery. I dismissed them b/c the info on the table said 1 to 2 years (and they were in the Annual section) and I asked her if they would reseed and she said No, probably not. They were doubles, though and obviously a new one from the popularity of them. I might see if I can find out what they were.
The only one I am currently seeing down here sold as a potted plant is the new Rudbeckia "Tiger Eye". I grew my own from seed. It's new this year so I can't make a judgment as to whether it will come back or reseed next year. I also have "Cherry Brandy", "Chim Chiminee", "Goldsturm", "Prairie Sun" and "Denver Daisy". All of them were grown from seed also except for Denver Daisy. They are first year plants for me also. Chim Chiminee and Prairie Sun I've seen referred to as both annuals and perennials, so that confuses me. They may simply reseed and return for that reason instead of the existing plant returning.
I'll be interested in hearing how your first year plants do for you in your heat. And if they come back, reseed etc. Are they blooming now?
Yep. I only had two Rudbeckia's last year. One came back and one didn't. All the ones I have this year are currently blooming. Some are blooming great and some just have a few blooms at a time. The heat here, I don't think, is the real issue with Rudbeckia. I get a feeling its our non stop excessive humidity, abundance of tropical moisture and lack of winter dormancy that are the real issues. The temperatures are consistent here but most days in the summer it stays in the upper 80's to lower 90's. The Atlantic Ocean and The Gulf Of Mexico have a moderating influence on our summer temperatures.
With us the thing seems to be the heat that doesn't go away at night. We have temps around 85-90 degrees at 10pm. It may go down to 78 by dawn, but then it is scorching at 0ver 100 for 6-8 hrs during the day.(we've had 8 record breaking high temps so far this summer and several nights where our low temps were record breaking"high" temps )The poor plants have to work nonstop it seems to get water from their roots up to the leaves.
Yep, I've heard its been brutally hot in Texas this summer. Our temperatures are almost always very consistent in the summer. We may have 4 or 5 days in the summer when it gets up to 95 or slightly higher. We have had 3 of those so far this summer including one day when it hit 100 for the first time ever.
Jon, of the varieties that you have, which one has the longest, most profuse blooming? Which one is your favorite? I'm going for a yellow variety, by the way. Thanks!
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.
My favorite, by far, is Rudbeckia "Prairie Sun". I can't really make a longterm judgment on it quite yet though.
Jon
This is my first year with PS. I am waiting for it to open fully. But I love the look of it very much so far. Will it reseed like the other ruds? Have lots of BES that seed around every year. Also have two perennial ruds, 'Goldsturm' that is about five years old and indestructible and 'Pot of Gold' which is new this year. It is supposed to be more compact.
This Rudbeckia is my favorite. It's about 14" tall. The flower tag I have identifies it as Autumn Colors. Snug, :o)
I'm not sure about "Prairie Sun". There are some claims out there that are quite different. I get the feeling the original plant does not come back, but that it may reseed itself. Hadn't heard of "Pot Of Gold". They compare it to Goldsturm but more compact. That is "Autumn Colors" Snug. Looks familiar to me.
Jon
I went to my local nursery again today (my weekly Friday fun!) and made sure that I noted the names of the Ruds there. The ones that are in the Annual area are called Indian Summer. The blooms are huge and they are breathtaking. I wonder if they will reseed? She said No, but I'm not so sure.
In the perennial section were the typical Goldsturms. She said they did crazy well for them this year and they had so many that they would be trashing a ton of them. She said they had to move them into 2 gallon pots this week, they were so big! Yow!
This message was edited Jul 17, 2009 3:44 PM
Have heard of Indian Summer, but haven't tried it. I see it generally referred to as an annual due to not being as hardy as Goldsturm. There are some notations that it will set seed. Yes Goldsturm has been around for a long time and it must be for good reason...it's overall performance. Mine keeps continuing to bloom and spread very well although it seems to be a plant that sprawls here. Not sure if that's a typical characteristic???
Jon
My first Prairie Sun to bloom!
Nice photo nanny, it's a beauty. It's my favorite of the varieties I have here at home.
Very nice. They are new here too. I just love them. Missing mine today with more rain all day. Good slug smashing weather at least. Congrats on yours blooming so beautifully and thanks for sharing it with us..
Yeah, I see its looking like a pretty rainy week again up there ngam. It just goes on and on. Some of those "Prairie Sun" blooms can be real monsters! They can be quite LARGE.
The Rudbeckia I just fell in love with the pictures & everything I read about it is called Rudbeckia nitada 'Herbstsonne' , or Rudbeckia lacinanta Autumn Sun. I thought it was going to be hard to find-everybody seemed sold out. I started looking under R. Herbstsonne, but when I added Autumn Sun to my search, I found Bluestone had it (lousy photo), then even better, when I went to a sale at a local nursery there it was. The seeds are sterile, but I hope to divide and plant to take cuttings just in case this plant doesn't make it. But I don't plan on that happening. It sounds pretty tough. And florifersent. And tall. And glowing.
It looks a bit like "Prairie Sun"/"Irish Eyes" color wise. Might hasn't bloomed-yet.
Diane
I wasn't familiar with it so I looked it up. It's a monster that can grow as high as 8 feet!! I can see the color similarities to Prairie Sun and Irish Eyes.