Rudbeckia fulgida-Orange coneflower

Description

The Pollinator Program at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation recognizes this species as being an important pollinator plant as it “attracts a large number of native bees.” Garden guides and common experience tells us that it grows best in full sun, well drained soils. Native plant field books indicate it can be found growing “chiefly in woods or moist places.” Knowing where and how a plant grows in the wild gives us other ideas of where we can use this plant in our planted landscapes. (I would have never considered trying to grow this plant in woods or moist places based on where I see it growing in cultivation.) Even though we see this plant growing all over the place, it is because it has naturalized and not necessarily native, at least around here (in Maine). It’s native range is PA to MI south to TX and FL. We include it in our selections because of its pollinator value and it’s just plain pretty.

Stays in bloom longer than most other native plants, starting in mid-ish July and going through at least mid August. Vibrant orange/yellow flower color is a real show stopper, especially when planted en masse. This species is almost “bushy”, if we can apply the term to non-woody plants. It produces lots of stems and hence lots of those incredibly colored flowers. Doesn’t seem to get the pollinator traffic that Joe Pye and Rose milkweed get, which are blooming at about the same time, but it does attract crescent butterflies and carpenter bees, among others. A recent night time foray into the nursery revealed a significant amount of moth activity on the flowers, something we don’t hear too much about. Try going out at night with a headlamp and you will be surprised at the amount of nocturnal insect activity around our native flowers.

2 gal size(Seed grown, MOFGA certified organic.)