Rudbeckia-the plants that gives pleasure for 4 months plus some.
young codger
Posts: 543
The Rudbeckia bloomed from July as usual, but remained in bloom well past October this year, so five months of colour. I guess that was due to the very mild November-the mildest on record apparently.
Rudbeckia are half hardy perennials. After sowing a few hundred seeds last year (most saved from the previous year`s flower heads) and watching them grow & flower as mature well developed plants, it would be a shame to let the frost wipe a lot of them out. This happened last year to the ones I left in situ. I’m contemplating digging some up, and putting them inside my mini greenhouse. I also have a bit of room in the lean-to building I knocked up. I’m unsure if a dark garage would work also?
Anyone else digging theirs up, or are you going to take a chance with the frost?. I know they are not like Dahlias but still at some element of risk.
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Rudbeckia are not all half hardy perennials. It depends on the variety. Some, like R. fulgida "Goldsturm" are hardy perennials that you leave in the border and they last for years. Others are annuals (they will die in winter anyway), others behave more like biennials, some that you grow from seed are short lived perennials that may live 2 or 3 years. Some are more tender than others.
I suspect they are probably like echinaceas in that it is winter wet rather than cold that does for them. I used to grow Hirta 'Rustic Dwarfs' in 2 troughs, raised on bricks, outside my back door and they always came up again even after severe winters, but when I tried plants in the open border they succumbed.
Either that Gertie, or the location where they are could be well protected (from frost).
I’m only referring to mine as half hard perennials because that was the description on the original seed pkt. There were 4 different colours amongst the original plants. I don’t know if that means there were different varieties/types, or simply means that there can be various colours amongst one variety.
Here are some photos from the original pkt sowed in 2014. It`s a shame that I did not photograph the other colours.
I really like the simple yellow colour (top picture).
Ours stay in the ground. Must get more around the garden.