Many rudbeckias do bloom the first year and if Cherry Brandy is an annual it had better have first year bloom. I think some places list it as a tender perennial. I also have some Cherry Brandy seeds to ws. Think I will mulch it really, really well to see if I can have it carry over the winter. I think this rudbeckia had a small amount of bloom the first year, r. burpeii also bloomed the first year. Had r. burpeii in a pot as wasn't sure if it would be a perennial for me. I put the pot next to the house for the winter and it bloomed nicely again last summer.

erika - I'm using the sprout chart for Zone 6 on the Wintersown.org website too. I didn't need the entire list so I just selected the rows of the table that corresponded to the perennials I WS and pasted them in a Word document. My sprout chart is just 2 pages. I like that it captures botanical name, common name, date WS and date sprouted--makes it so easy to keep track. So far 26 varieties out of a total of 66 have sprouted so that's more than a third. My first WS attempts I used recycled foil salad bar containers but once I read about milk jugs I switched. I definitely prefer the milk jugs but the stokesia, globeflower & Echinacea seeds I WS in the foil containers have all sprouted. Planting out is going to be interesting!

I have a small patch of rudibeckia and can get you a small division once spring comes. It should do well in the mail, remind me come spring. I'll see if I have anymore rudibeckia seeds Just one litle thing, no biggie rudibeckia = black eyed susan echinacea = coneflower I guess you can call rudibeckias annual coneflower?

Could be "aster yellows". tj