Rudbeckia fulgida (rud-bek-ee-ah full-jih-dah)
Black-eyed Susan

Family = Asteraceae
Subfamily = Asteroideae
Supergenus = Heliantheae
Genus = Rudbeckia
Origin = North America
Zones = 3-9
Perennial

Sun loving Black-eyed Susans make excellent and reliable stands of tall, orange flowers with black cone-shaped seed heads in the center, leading to their common name. Because of their tall, thick, and clumping habit, they are best used in mass plantings by themselves or to the rear of beds that contain plants less dominate. Susans grow 2-3ft high, bearing flowers on branching stems. They form solid, rhizomatous clumps both in the wild and in captivity. Susans will reseed themselves readily, making propagation easy both by seed and division.

R. fulgida var. deamii (syn. R. deamii)
R. deamii is a shorter (to 24in), free-flowering variety occurring in Indiana.

R. fulgida var. speciosa (syn. R. newmanii, R. speciosa)
R. speciosa is a variety from New Jersey to Alabama and Georgia that appears to vary mostly in leaf shape with the basal leaves being more elliptic and the stem leaves being more coarsely toothed than R. fulgida.

R. fulgida var. sullivantii (syn. R. sullivantii)
R. sullivantii is a variety from Michigan to Missouri and Connecticut to West Virginia that appears to have less hairy and courser toothed leaves than R. fulgida with slightly wider flowerheads.

R. fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm' (bred in Germany in 1937¹,) one of the more popular and easily available cultivars, has slightly larger flowerheads and shorter stems (to 24in.) than the species.

¹ National Home Gardening Club's "Perennials", ©1997, NHGC.
Variety information referenced from "The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants"
©1996 Dorling Kindersley Limited

Suppliers:
Bethlehem Seed Company

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