The best way is the way BT described - simply bury the entire plant/container in the garden, mulch over, and forget it 'til spring, but the garage idea will work perfectly well too - as long as you remember to toss a shovel full of snow on it now & then so it doesn't dry out entirely. Happy (soon to be) birthday!! Where in MI are you, neighbor? Al

get a relevant pic .. i gotta tell you ed... this is the ratty season .... and by this time... i dont really care ... is anything dying???? .. that is my usual line drawn in the sand ... as to when i feel i must take action ... and it rarely comes ... shall i presume.. this has nothing to do with your reforestation of the parents land??? over abundance of green.. vegetative growth ... can be related to too much fert... any history there??? and i do note.. that everything.. due to the horrible winter.. is weeks behind in my MI ... of the things you list.. i really think they are run it over with the truck plants... and a little cosmetic damage.. isnt really going to kill any of them ... so i ... again.. wonder if it is worth spraying for anything ... think about it.. and get us some pix ... ken ps: you arent a real gardener.. until you convince yourself... that next year will be better... lol

I consider the fuzzy one to be rudbeckia hirta. Other ones could be Rudbeckia fulgida or Rudbeckia triloba (two of the more common non-fuzzy ones).

"Rudbeckia hirta", Black Eyed Susan, has always done best for me in a less fertile soil than most plants want. What I have seen over the years is that when grown is soils well amended with organic matter, that may retain too much soil moisture and have too high nutrients, many fungal diseases appear while those planted in much less fertile soils will not have those types of problems. This was once a "wild flower" or a "weed" that has been hybridized but still retains many of the "wild flower" characterisitcs of growing best in less fertiles soils.