Black-eyed Susan

Rudbeckia fulgida var. fulgida

The straight species var. fulgida is the wild-type Black-eyed Susan that precedes all the garden cultivars. deeper orange-yellow rays, slightly smaller flowers, and a naturalizing, colony-forming habit that makes it the right choice for meadows and naturalistic borders rather than formal gardens. It blooms from July through September, forming dense, spreading clumps of dark-stemmed, rough-hairy plants with the classic dark brown central cone and bright orange-yellow ray flowers that read as summer in the mid-Atlantic from a hundred feet away. This is the Black-eyed Susan that makes the most ecological sense in a native planting. The var. fulgida form spreads vigorously by rhizome and self-seeds, naturalizing into open areas and mixing with other meadow natives over time. Native bees work the flowers heavily, and the seed heads that follow feed goldfinches from fall through early winter. Pair it with native grasses, ironweed, Joe-Pye weed, and goldenrod for a fully self-sustaining late-summer planting that requires nothing from you once established.