I can provide both White Swan Echanacea, Heliopsis/or False Sunflowers, and Goldstrum Rudbeckia.....all perennials. Prefer a SASBE trade as I need nothing. Photos avail. Ginny B.

Wagonwheel - wow - love the image of 'Prairie Sun.' Thanks. I sowed both varieties from seed and had poor germination. Another weird spring too hot too cold not enough water, etc. I have a single 'Irish Eyes' I'm nursing and expect to plant soon. I've been debating where to put it! I've been very happy with the way the 'Cherry Brandy' looks in and among the other Rudbeckias I have which are common R. hirta and fulgida. I have R. triloba all over the place - self sown - and love it wherever it pops up - as for 'Prairie Sun' - there is something green in one of the containers so I'm hoping I have one. Funny how precious a single seedling can be when it's the only one. Dee - I have wondered about the perennial/annual listing of all the Rudbeckias, but here in zone 7b/8a they almost all overwinter in sort of a semi-evergreen rosette stage.

ramazz, I bet you're correct. That "Maya" is a dwarf double. That would explain why your new one is so short. I have "Goldilocks" blooming now and love it. Is "Maya" a seed variety? I'd like to try that one next year. These double Rudbeckias are just phenomenal to me. They are the prettiest things in the garden. I have had so many people ask me where I got them. I, of course, tell them about winter sowing. LOL.

Actually, a lot of sites list ALL rudbeckia hirtas as annuals. For me, zone 6, I'm lucky if they last 2 years. Generally they do return for a second year, bloom their heads off, then suddenly die. Sometimes they last till I yank them in fall but often bolt around August of the second year. The few that survive to year 3 are poopy and bloom little. I prett much treat them as biennials and yank them if they make it thru the whole second summer. For anyone trying cherry brandy for the first time, be patient. Don't pass judgement until they've been blooming for a few weeks. Mine were pretty ugly, I thought, when they first opened. After they were open a few days the colors changed and I ended up really liking them For a long-lived rudbeckia, I think only Goldsturm can make that claim. Karen