black eyed susans

seedcorn

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We have a good plant. So when/how do you seperate it to start new plants from it?
 

injunjoe

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hard to say with so little info. what zone are you in?
Do you have a place to winter them over?
Just hard to say not knowing your growing conditions.
 

seedcorn

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OK, so what are the seeds located? Is it the flower like zinnia's???
 

injunjoe

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seedcorn said:
OK, so what are the seeds located? Is it the flower like zinnia's???
Well yes like almost all flowers.
The seeds are tiny. Just deadhead the flowers, remove most of the outer petals and leaf and let dry. Next spring you can just crunch them up over your garden and work them into the soil.
 

Greensage45

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Hi,

This topic is a bit of mystery on behalf of humans and plants alike.

The name Black-eyed Susans could refer to Rudbeckia the Annual (Gloriosa Daisy), Rudbeckia the Perennial (Goldstrum), or it could mean Thunbergia (Black-eyed Susan Vine).

With the Annual variety you would wait for the seed heads to dry on the plant and then take them and put them into a container where you can shake them, or you can break them up manually. The seeds will be tiny black dashes; and tiny is being nice, I mean very tiny, like as if you took a pen and made a tiny little dashmark like this - - - - -

The Goldstrum will be quite the same as the annual for seeds; little tiny black dashes - - - - - - However, the Goldstrum makes lots of tiny babies along the base of the plant and as the years progress you will have a rather nice large clump of them form. Simply take a spade shovel and cut right through them just as you would other clumping perennials. Separate and replant the clumps or what is referred to as 'dividing'.

The Thunbergia is an annual vine. Simply let the seedpods dry and collect the seeds. They will remind you of a morning glory seeds; hard and black. I think most can be lost to a deep freeze and should be pulled in for the next season's crop; this will ensure more success.

Wishing you luck,

Ron
 

seedcorn

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thanks for the thoughts. On another site, it said to do this in september. they are blooming nicely now so I really don't want to divide them now. Will spring work? or actually late winter before things start to green up but the ground isn't frozen?
 

lesa

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I am in zone 4- and grow all of the aforementioned types of black eyed susans. I have never had any luck with seed collecting, on any of these. I will try the annual, thunbergia again (because it is my fav). It has been my experience that you cannot kill a black eyed susan. I have dug them up all year, right up till late fall and transplanted with complete success! They might look dead for a little while, but fear not, they will survive! Once I added 6 inches of dirt on top of a bed that formally had them in- oh yes, they grew up through 6 inches of dirt. No need to baby these things! I have hundreds of them spread all over -and they all came from 3 little plants I dug up from a friends garden! You can wait until they stop flowering-enjoy the flowers and then move. They will also spread like crazy on their own...
 

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