Anyone who has ever been in love is familiar with “she (or he) loves me, she loves me not.” The petaled Gloriosa Daisies (aka Rudbeckia), a strain of black-eyed Susan that was developed in the United States, is now grown world-wide, and is named for the Swedish physician/botanist Claus Rudbeck (1660-1740) who was the predecessor of Carolus Linnaeus. Reliable summertime bloomers, rudbeckias provide bright splashes of color in perennial borders and porch planters, attracting butterflies of many species to visit the very petals that lover pluck to divine their romantic futures.
The Gloriosa daisies are difficult to classify; they are considered biennial, short-lived perennials, or hardy daisies. The reason for this is that they are freely self-sowing, so lightly pressing the seeds into the soil in spring after the last frost may be enough to have these beauties return year after year!
They love sun to partial shade, bloom from mid-summer to fall, are drought-tolerant with average water needs, and are just the thing a mid-summer garden needs to take on a fresh look. While the butterflies and birds will be frequent visitors, deer won’t. Rudbeckias bring shades of yellow, gold and mahogany to a border, are hardy from USDA zone 3 to 10, and are excellent cut flowers.
Truly the ideal addition to your summer garden.