My experience with Rudbeckia is limited, never having grown anything but the standard Black Eyed Susan, but when I followed a link to some real beauties from Harris Seed I immediately decided my collection needed to grow. However there was a note in the description saying that they should be treated as annuals in most parts of the country which has me confused. I don't exactly live in the tropics and have no problems with the Susan...are there diffent types of r. hirta and if so which will and which won't grow for me in cold old Ohio?
(By the way, if I do decide to proceed I will probably offer to split the seeds with a few other folks if anyone is interested. The smallest quantity offered is 250 seeds.)
Thanks for any input,
La
Rudbeckia Hardiness
Do you think you could post the link to the ones you're looking at? I too thought Rudbeckias were hardy almost by definition... Hmmm... let's look up "Rudbeckia hirta" in PF...
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/b/Asteraceae/Rudbeckia/hirta/cultivar/0/
it does look like they tend, as a group, to be short lived perennials, maybe biennials or not making it through the winter at all... but it also looks like they are easy self-sowers and good candidates for winter sowing also, so if you have them one year you can have them every year thereafter.
Thanks Critter. I was also told on the coneflower forum that these would be annuals. I did however decide to go ahead with the split and the seeds I'm ordering are depicted in this picture. If any of you would like to split them with me I've started a thread on that board.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/898654/
I should have known we'd have a coneflower forum by now! LOL