YardSmart: Black-eyed Susan beginning gardener's delight

Magazine perennials look gorgeous, but these are tended by professionals, and in the photos, often the color has been touched up digitally into shocking shades that would make Mother Nature blush.

In our gardens, there is no retouching. We garden in limited spare time and frankly, it's hard to measure up.

But there is one plant that has never failed me, even under the most trying conditions. It is black-eyed Susan, which seems to get bigger and better every year.

This is Rudbeckia hirta, a native wildflower of the plains and prairies (including Florida, where it grows naturally in 54 of 67 counties). It exhibits the same hard-to-kill character as the American pioneers who gathered them on the long wagon trek across country. Naturally they were among the first natives to be grown in the homesteader's flower garden.

The species produces daisy flowers with golden petals surrounding a root beer brown center. It grows readily from seed in the wild and has spread to every corner of America with feed and hay shipments. If you let some of the flowers go to seed at the end of the season, they will likely self sow in your garden, too.

But Rudbeckia is a perennial, which means it returns on the same roots year after year. Each season the clump grows larger producing proportionately more blooms.

Over time you might find the Rudbeckia patches tend to die out in spots. That's a signal it's time to divide them in early spring. Dig them up using a spading fork, which reduces damage to the roots. Divide them by breaking into smaller chunks at naturally weak points of the root crown. Replant these smaller pieces elsewhere in the garden, but leave a few behind to renew the original stand.

The species itself may become a short-lived perennial or biennial. So breeders worked toward increased longevity and a wider range of flower color. Few varieties can compare with recently introduced "Autumn Colors."

They produce enormous flowers from 5 to 7 inches across on 2 foot tall plants. The color range is the full spectrum of autumn leaves in Vermont, from gold to deep burgundy, red, rust and brown. What's really cool is that each individual flower is unique in color. A single plant may produce a strongly red bloom next to a yellow flower at the same time. This makes each new blossom a surprise.

Autumn Colors blooms over an extended season from late spring through fall. However, this requires you to cut off the spent flowers promptly after they fade so that no seed is produced. If seed develops it seriously slows down buds.

This prompt dead heading will ensure your plants keep the color coming nonstop until the holidays, barring a hard frost.

Buy seed for Autumn Colors and many other Rudbeckia varieties at local garden centers or at Park's Gardens: www.parkseed.com

Another unique new variety is "Chim Chiminee." Its odd "quilled" petals are more like wagon wheel spokes. They more resemble cactus dahlias or spider chrysanthemums than rugged black-eyed Susan.

These bloom in the typical yellow, bronze, and mahogany hues. They produce a strong branching plant with stiff stems perfect for cut flowers. Buy seed for Chim Chiminee at garden centers or online at Thompson & Morgan Seeds,www.thompson-morgan.com.

You can grow all these Rudbeckias easily from seed ordered this winter. Some of these will be available as seedlings in garden centers in late spring. So if you're a nouveau gardener and want to learn to grow one superior plant well next year, make it Rudbeckia. She'll stand up the challenge.

Suddenly, Susans

In Florida, plant black-eyed Susan seed in November to early December. Planting seed in November to early December will minimize the need for supplemental irrigation. Supplemental irrigation should only be necessary during very dry winters. Planting in late fall will help to insure that plants will be mature enough once environmental conditions are favorable for flowering.

During the growing season, no fertilization should be required unless the soil is extremely infertile. Irrigation might be necessary during extended periods without rain.

Black-eyed Susan is an annual, or at best a short-lived perennial (2-3 years) that reseeds itself. Thus, replanting new seed should only be necessary infrequently. -- University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service

Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of 'Weekend Gardening' on DIY-Do It Yourself Network. For more information, visit www.moplants.com or www.diynet.com. E.W. Scripps, which owns DIY Network, also owns the Naples Daily News.