PlantFiles: Cut Leaf Coneflower
Rudbeckia laciniata

This is a vigorous tall plant, often taller than I am (at 5 feet 11 inches) It have suprising shade tolerant but prefer part shade at woodland edge. It blooms rather heavily, even when you cut it back. It is one of the last flowers to bloom, just before some variety of asters. It multiply like crazy, but I have not seen any seedlings. It have a tight group of basal leaves then suddenly send up stems sparely laced with leaves up to six to eight feet before blooming. May dislike dry soil. Bees seem to loves it, but so does a kind of aphid that often infects asters and other coneflowers. The aphids is bold red in color and there seem to be no predators willing to eat them. Often my hands are stained red after crushing them!

This is not a plant that I would move into the perennial bed -- it's quite tall, and the blossoms are more acid-yellow than I like for blending. However, for the edges of the woods, they are nice -- before they bloom, the foliage isn't really gangly as you might expect, and the blossoms are plentiful and small in relation to the plant's height. Mine were a gift from another MG, and I'm hoping they multiply quickly (as they are said to reseed readily) -- I could use 50 more!!