I asked my darling:
"Which flower do you like best?"
He replied: “The yellow one is pretty,
I don't remember what it's called.It's so orange and yellow.
And it looks a bit like a sunflower,
It blooms all summer until autumn,
"Bright, bright, like the sun is shining."
I've been growing rudbeckias for a long time. They were among the first flowers I planted at my first dacha.
Our first dacha was located 40 kilometers from the city in the taiga, and every Saturday, starting in May, we went there. There were no flowers on the property, only a large, old brunnera bush with blue forget-me-not flowers.
The very first year, I bought annual seeds and sowed them in open ground. Among them were rudbeckias. Since then, they have become one of my favorite flowers.
I grow it from seedlings so that I can admire its beautiful large daisy flowers earlier.
But the self-seeding ones also delight with their blooms. I used to grow seedlings in my apartment, but now I grow them in a greenhouse. I sow the seeds in mid-April, cover them with a covering material, and plant them in a flowerbed at the end of May.
Rudbeckia is an undemanding, hardy, and frost-resistant plant. It doesn't require much care. At the beginning of the season, I feed the bushes with an herbal infusion, add humus and ash, and water them regularly. In all the time I've been growing rudbeckia, I've never encountered any diseases or pests.
It grows on its own. Even those plants that self-seeded in the most secluded corners of the dacha, in the backyards, bloom and bloom without my help or intervention.
Rudbeckia grows into wide bushes with large, stiff leaves and numerous brightly colored inflorescences on sturdy stems. The flower heads are large, 10 to 15 cm in diameter, with yellow and orange petals, either solid or bicolored, and a dark brown, convex center surrounded by a crown of yellow or brown stamens. See how diverse these flowers are.
The flowers are good for bouquets and do not wilt for a long time.
Rudbeckia blooms profusely from July until late autumn, and the petals do not fall off the flowers, but remain open until frost.
Plant height, depending on the variety, ranges from 50 cm to a meter or more. The perennial Zolotoy Shar variety can reach up to two meters.
There are about 40 species of rudbeckia - beautiful, shiny, dissected, hairy, among them there are annuals, biennials and perennials, with simple and double flowers.
I grow rudbeckias under the names: Autumn Flowers, Autumn Colors, My Friends.
This year I bought a Green-Eyed variety with a light green center and soft yellow petals.
I hope that she will also decorate my flower beds with her bright daisies.