Thank you susan. I was concerned about these, I am not used to plants where the whole plant dies after blooming, but that certainly is the case with these. In fact, some will be in full bloom, and the next day the whole plant has turned brown. Though, there could be other factors. We have experienced both drought and too much rain in the past 6 weeks, followed by a terrible heatwave. I suppose any of these could be a factor, though I am very consistent with my watering. These plants do not give me the opportunity to deadhead. They all seem to bloom at exactly the same time, then die out at the same time. Even if these do tend to die out, I will still have them every year, along with other dwarf Rudbeckias. Just need to plan to put them in a spot where die out wont cause the bed to become unsightly. I am certainly impressed with 'Autumn Colors'. If there are other Rudbeckias which grow like this, I will definitly have them from now on! Other than Black Eyed Susans, I have never grown Rudbeckias before.

Adding onto Al"s message. If you cut off the spent blooms on perennials, the plant WILL stay green longer. However the plant energy, will be directed at the roots, new growth instead of creating seeds. This is why so many of us work at deadheading our perennials, to make better plants. Better roots allow better leaf and stem growth to produce more flowers NEXT year. As Al said, annuals only live one season in most places. Warmer climates may allow some to overwinter, they survived to bloom again. Depends on how your winters go. Some annuals can actually be tender perennials, will survive in warmer winters. I do not count on my annuals being around next year, too cold, frozen ground. You can deadhead annuals, it helps produce more flowers. I regularly trim my salvias, dianthus, marigolds, geraniums and they reward me with more flowers. Many new annual plants are great at deadheading themselves, flowers fall off. Kind of like mowing grass. The more often you mow a short amount of leaf, the thicker, nicer, lawn grass looks. Not mowing regularly then whacking off large amounts of leaf on grass, makes lawn look kind of tatty, patchy. May go to seed and then dormant. Annual flowers can like being trimmed of dead flowers, will bloom again for you.

Pam: R. fulgida "Goldsturm" is reliably perennial. The hirtas vary for me from year to year. They seem to last about 2 years but some survive for a third year. In their second year they tend to bloom incredibly, bajillions of flowers, but then suddenly croak after that in mid or late summer. All of them are pretty winter hardy. I sow them early and plant out early because they always do better once transplanted to a garden bed. They don't need cold strat and will germinate well at any time of year. Mine don't freeze out in winter so much as they suddenly die in 2nd summer after incredibly prolific blooming. I've never lost a rud seedling to spring cold and frost. Sow them any time of year and expect good germination and survival of seedlings. Karen

If you are in western Washington (and it looks like it from your zone info), I think you'll find most cultivars of hirta will behave as annuals here. It is simply a bit too damp here in winter for them - unless you have spectacular drainage - and seldom hot enough to ripen the seed of such a late blooming species. I buy perennials for a local retail nursery and would never bring in R. hirta, as I cannot reliably guarantee their ever reappearing after winter. They are carried by our greenhouse department as annuals and/or seasonal color, as is the case with most other western WA garden centers. OTOH, our first frosts tend to be rather late, all things considered, and this plant will bloom its fool head off until then, sometimes beyond if the frost is mild. A $5 investment for such a colorful and relatively longlasting reward this late in the season is not too much to ask, no?