Late summer and fall are the time when Brown-Eyed Susans, Black-Eyed Susans, and other members of the genus Rudbeckia come into their own. This year has given us a chance to consider how some of these species perform in a year of moderate drought and with no supplemental water provided.
Let me be up front with my own bias: Brown-Eyed Susan (R. triloba) is by far my favorite Susan. To my mind, nothing beats those masses of golden daisies with small, rounded rays (petals). It can grow up to 5 feet and get bare knees but if that bothers you it responds very well to being cut back for a more compact habit.
Anyhow, Brown-Eyed Susan stood up to our August-September drought pretty well. Flowering remained profuse and foliage looked normal. A few individual plants in exposed areas did go somewhat droopy or brown, but those were rare exceptions.
Ask Cutleaf Coneflower (R. laciniata) about our drought, and the response you’ll get is “Drought? What drought?” This big clumping Coneflower, which showed up in the garden on its own initiative (as far as I can remember), is not easily slowed down by a lack of rainfall.
In fact, it kept pumping out blooms long after the first flush of flowers were going to seed.
We have only three Rudbeckia species in the garden, and the last of these had the hardest time this year. It could be painful to watch the frequently droopy leaves of Black-Eyed Susan, or Orange Coneflower (R. fulgida). Sometimes the leaves or even the flowers got crispy. Black-Eyed Susan is probably the most common garden Rudbeckia, especially the popular cultivar ‘Goldsturm’. It’s relatively compact habit is, perhaps, one reason why this Susan is fairly ubiquitous.
Very happy to have all three of these Rudbeckias in the garden, even when they do struggle a bit. Also happy to say that we had a long, soaking rain last night. We may also get a couple days of rain later in the week. That should help with fall planting/transplanting in a week or two.
gardeninacity 
That is the saving grace of the Brown eyed Susans. They never wear out. They always look good. Doesn’t matter if there is too much rain or not enough (to our eyes) they keep on… I see those sea oats hanging out there over the path. They too thumb their noses at what ever weather is thrown at them. ha.. Cheers…
Yes, I never worry about the Sea Oats fading away … more likely they will take over.
They just look so darned cheerful ya can’t help smiling at them! The drought has hit mine pretty badly, but they’re troopers, they’ll come back. Yours are looking quite good, yay!
They will come back, for sure.
I’ve seen even the native black eyed Susans wilting from the drought but thankfully we’re getting some rain now. Yours look great!
Glad you’re getting some rain at last.
Congrats on the rain! It does appear that Rudbeckia was going along happily without it, but I know it was needed. That bright golden yellow is beautiful — love those close-ups of it!
Officially we have slipped back from moderate drought to abnormally dry, so that’s something.
Jason, here in a Kentucky, we went 12 days without rain but were blessed with a good soak yesterday and now (2 hours before first Presidental debate) an unexpected downpour! What does that mean?
I’ve had all three Susans you mention. Black-eyed Susan is everywhere but does provide a nice pop of color in the glory days of summer. Since I’m in the throes of tackling dreaded bindweed the black-eyed gals are pretty easy to pull up. Ratibida sprung up in my back yard this year beside verbena bonariensis. So, another yellow/purple pairing.
12 days without rain isn’t so bad, I think we had one day of rain for all of August. Ratibida is starting to volunteer in unexpected places here as well, but I’m leaving it be.
I’ve been moving plants, so kept them watered before and after transplanting because, yes, it has been a dry summer. Re your volunteer Rudbeckia, I have a few surprises that apparently hitchhiked into the garden with other plants ordered online, like a lone rattlesnake master, some golden rod, and I think a yellow coneflower of some sort. Bonus!
A nice bonus indeed!
The Coneflower looks lovely. I find a post talking about plants that cope with drought extremely useful as my summer garden can be very difficult. I will try these Rudbeckias next year. Amelia
I hope they work for you. I would say R. laciniata is the most drought-tolerant. But you know, most prairie/steppe plants should be the same.
I love all the yellow flowers in your garden…they make the garden look green and lush… your neighbours are very lucky to drive by regularly.
Lots of yellow in summer and fall.
We finally got enough rain last night to even make a puddle. We’re down 12″ so we need a lot more, but I’m grateful for the shower.
Oof. Well, better than nothing. I see from the drought monitor map that almost all of New England is classified in severe to extreme drought conditions.
Love black-eyed Susans! Glad you got some rain. We hadn’t had rain in well over a month, but we just had a good soaking. Yay!
I hope you get some more! I see from the drought monitor map that most of Maine is still considered to be in severe drought. https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
Yes, indeed! It has been raining, a little, off and on for the past few days. We sure do need it.
I don’t know how they manage to perform so well and look so lively in such dry conditions! Quite miraculous. Those lovelies are on my shopping list for next year.
I never heard the term “bare knees”… I love it, and will use it from now on. I hack my Aster early in the season so they wouldn’t get too leggy and fall over. This tactic has the added bonus of a bushier plant with more blooms.
Yes, I try to do the same thing with many of my plants.
Their sunny simplicity never fails to cheer a person up. Lovely.
Agreed!
I only grow the last one, and it does really well in the Sunshine Bed in drought! That bed hardly ever gets any water from me and we had periods of no rain at all for three or four weeks, and then just enough to moisten the surface of the soil. I suspect yours had just got used to having more water in a normal year. If it has to face another very dry year it might do better now. I have heard that trees ‘learn’ to cope with drought, so am sure plants do too.
That may be. Interesting.
Those Rudbeckia are beautiful, Jason. Yes, drought is getting to be a real factor in plant selection these days, that and deer resistance. With some plants, even though they received plenty of water, they did not like days on end of searing sun and high temperatures, preferring cooler days.
I would feel the same!
‘Drought’ is overrated. This region seems to get a ‘drought’ annually. People do not seem to realize that it is our natural climate. None of the Susans would be so happy here without some degree of supplemental irrigation, even during a normal year.
Drought is not nearly so normal around here, though it comes and goes.
Of course I enjoyed seeing these ‘relatives’ of our native R. texana growing so happily in your garden! The black-eyed Susans are ubiquitous on our prairies, and do quite well through the flood/drought cycles, so I’m not surprised that yours have done well in droughty conditions. They’re so immensely cheerful, and they always make me smile — my smile’s even larger looking at these.
They certainly are cheerful.
Hello Jason, it’s interesting to hear how these three different Rudbeckias perform differently in dry conditions. We’re planning to have some in the final large border in the garden when I get around to making it next year, I hope it looks even half as good as your picture of the borders along the grass path in the front. Simply stunning.
I love them all, such cheery flowers. Mine are flowering away too, it’s always good to have plants that can tolerate drought, glad you got rain though.xxx