Year of the Rudbeckia
We should all celebrate this striking plant, says Peter
NINETY different cultivars of rudbeckia were planted for the FleuroSelect Year of the Rudbeckia trial at the RHS Hyde Hall Garden last month (there will be a duplicate planting at Harlow Carr). Who would have thought there were that many? This includes a number of new introductions.
I had already seen some of them in the Rudbeckia Enchanted Series, bred by Charles Valin and planned for a Thompson & Morgan Chelsea Flower Show
2020 launch. When the Chelsea show was cancelled, some of the show plants were carried forward to help clad my
50th Anniversary Sun pyramid display at RHS Hyde Hall.
Enchanting they certainly are; very free-flowering doubles in five eyecatching colours, with lime green
R. ‘Enchanted Forest’ a particular beauty. Each and every plant has the same flower colour and plant habit, because they are vegetatively propagated by micropropagation.
It will be interesting to see how they measure up against all the others, mostly seed-raised and therefore often having some variation from plant to plant. These
Enchanteds will face some stiff competition from FleuroSelect Gold Medal 2020 winner Rudbeckia hirta ‘Amarillo Gold’, bred by the famous German breeder Benary.
This is another super garden plant, with a green central disc and golden inner ray petals radiating out to yellow tips. Benary has quite a record in the FleuroSelect Gold Medal stakes, with its R. ‘Prairie Sun’ (yellow with a green eye) and shorter to 18in/45cm
R. ‘Maya’ (the first fully double with yellow flowers) both winning Gold.
Rudbeckia – commonly known as black-eyed Susan and coneflower – are tough survivors. R. ‘Denver Daisy’ was so called for the Mile-High City’s 150th Anniversary in 2013. It is so dry there that half the 16in (40cm) of rainfall evaporates before it hits the soil!
“Every one has the same flower colour and plant habit”