We've seen some lovely rudbeckias appear in recent years but this one is a little bit special. Selected for planting all over the great American city of Denver, Colorado, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the city, Rudbeckia ‘Denver Daisy' is now available in Britain from Dobies Seeds. And it's a very dramatic plant.
Reaching about 60cm/2ft in height, the large single flowers are brilliant yellow with a dark chocolate zone at the base of each petal creating a zone of chocolate brown around a purple eye ringed with yellow anthers.
Easily grown from seed as an annual, peak flowering is in mid summer but regular dead-heading will keep it performing well into the autumn. It's especially valuable as it does well in hot summers, in dry conditions, on windy sites and even in a summer deluge - it's altogether a tolerant variety which does not need rich soil or regular feeding to thrive. And, once established, it doesn't need much water either.
Although ‘Denver Daisy' is a self-supporting variety, it's stems are long enough to cut and because the flowers are so large and dramatic you only need one or two in a mixed arrangement - although a whole jugfull would be spectacular. Cut them just as the flowers are starting to open, make sure there's flower food in their water and they should last about ten days.
‘Denver Daisy' is a hybrid of the American native Rudbeckia hirta which was developed in Germany.
You can buy seed of Rudbeckia ‘Denver Daisy' from Dobies Seeds from 1 October.