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Naturopathica

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Black-Eyed Susan

Black Eyed Susans are wonderful flowers to have in your apartment garden. I love having fresh floral arrangements inside my apartment, and black eyed susans serve as an excellent source of cutting flowers. The plant produces what seems like an everlasting supply of cutting flowers, and the flowers last long in a vase.


Black eyed susans have yellow petals, a dark dome-like center, and long stems. This plant is a perennial, which means it will come back year after year. Because the plant can be propagated by dividing the rhizomes, I do not bother collecting the seeds. In fact, I do not allow the flowers to go to seed because I want the longest blooming period possible. To prolong the blooming period, take regular flower cuttings or dead head spent flowers.

These flowers do well in full sun, but can survive in light shade. Once these plants are established, they are fairly drought-tolerant. I started these plants from seeds earlier this year. I currently grow these flowers outside in full sun in an unsealed terracotta container. They have been able to easily withstand California's dry, hot weather even when I have neglected to water them for a few days. I plan on dividing the rhizomes later this fall.




Available for Purchase at Park's Seed


5 comments:

Gina said...

I should try them. I've killed every single flower I've tried to grow. My balcony gets full sun and I mean full. So perhaps the BE Susans would do ok.

Lina said...

I'm sorry to hear that Gina. I've had trouble finding flowers that will withstand full sun. Have you tried cosmos or pot marigolds? They seem to do well in full sun. You can also try growing some succulents. My succulents have been sending out flowering stalks all summer, and they can easily withstand the sun and heat.

Gina said...

Haven't tried cosmos. Marigolds seem to do ok for a while, but they do shrivel. I got a rudbeckia this weekend (that's a BE Susan variety, no?) and have high hopes.

BTW do you ever get squirrels digging in your pots? I think some are getting to mine. I found whole peanuts in the soil and I'm pretty sure they weren't there when I potted the plants!

Gina said...

I've had a rudbeckia, which I believe is a kind of black-eyed Susan, which is doing very nicely after a couple weeks. Maybe I've found "the one"! :D

I think I'm going to put out a windowbox of sedums and see how they do.

Sampoorna said...

Hi, I'm new to your blog. I have been thinking of starting a garden in my apartment but I have no idea how to go about it. So I thought may be you could help me with that. I wanna grow kitchen-useful stuff like tomatoes, coriander, green chillies, curry leaves n stuff like dat. I'm form India and the climate here is hot right now. So where can I start?

Sampoorna - "R".