My Black-Eyed Susan plant has not bloomed yet

by Sandra
(Nanaimo, B.C., Canada)

I put my new black-eyed susan transplant in this spring and in August it hasn't bloomed yet. It has lots of nice green leaves and looks very healthy but - no blooms at all. Could you please tell me why?

Doug says there are several things to consider. If it's an annual, then yes, you're doing something wrong.

You don't say the where (full hot sun) and how of how you're growing it so I can't be specific in terms of what you're doing right or wrong. :-(

If it's a perennial (the same paragraph above holds true) and without knowing what you're doing - I can't tell you what you're doing wrong. The growing instructions are in the article so if you're doing all those things - then...

You may have started the seed this spring (or the nursery did) and most of the time a seed-started perennial will not bloom in its first year. It blooms from year two onwards. So from a very young plant this year, you'll see blooms next year in perennials.

And as long as it is healthy and growing well, I wouldn't worry. The plant will bloom when it's strong enough and large enough. It knows - even if we don't. ;-)

Blackeyed susans did not grow this year.

This would be the 5th summer for our blackeyed susans since being planted. We mulched the flower bed in May and everything else in the bed grew very well. The blackeyed susans barely got a leaf or two out of the ground. The previous summers/falls have produced and reproduced beautiful flowers. What could have happened?

Doug says it's a fact of life that no plant lasts forever. Just because a perennial lives more than a single season (the definition of a perennial) is no guarantee it will live for more than that. Some are long-lived (peonies) some are short lived and some somewhere in between. The Rudbeckia is somewhere between.

It could have been eased out with a late fall and wet winter (root rot) or any number of climate or growing conditions.

I'd simply be speculating and the causes of plant death range into the hundreds.

But bottom line, it was either at it's time or it was weak doing into the winter or the winter freeze/thaw cycle did it in - or all of the above.

growing time for BLACK EYED SUSAN

by Kelly Russell
(Kennebunk, Me)

I would like to grow some Black Eyed Susans for my daughter's Sept wedding and would like to know approx how long from seed to bloom or how far into the growing season should I pinch back the plant before I let it go to bloom?

Doug says - good luck with this - I normally tell folks to not even try to do this because the timing is really critical for the wedding and you really don't need the hassle. But generally speaking, a seed started in January is going to bloom in August-September for most plants. Some of the annual forms can get away with an April sowing for September blooms.

Existing plants can be topped off (cut about 4-inches off tops of all growing tips) when they're about 12-inches tall to force them to bush up and produce blooms for September

Good luck - I suspect you're too late to sow seed now (end May) to get a September bloom but if you've already started them and ready to plant them, you should be fine.

NOT COMMING UP BY NOW

I HAVE HAD MY BLACK EYE SUSAN FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS DOING FINE/THEY HAVE YET TO START TO COME UP OUT OF THE GROUND IN SOME AREAS USUALLY BY THIS TIME THEY ARE HAVE UP AND FULL/ DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHY?

Doug says that if they're usually up by now and they're not - then either one of two things has happened. Either the spring has been colder than normal so your plants are delayed. Or, the plants are dead. Some brown-eyed-Susans are biennials meaning they do flower and die after flowering. Not knowing what kind you have or where you're gardening - I'm not able to tell you anything more helpful.

p.s. all caps on the Internet is considered shouting. ;-)