Hi. I live in Canada and I saw some beautiful Black EYed Susan today. I even talked my husband into buying them. Now I find out they are a perennial. My Miracle Grow Book (don't laugh) says I can take them out of the ground after frost and cover them with mulch over the winter. Is this true??? Is there a way to keep them over the winter or do they produce seeds I can plant in the spring.
you can leave them in the ground. well, at least here in zone 6 you can...don't know what zone you're in. they're not true perennials...they grow the first year and bloom the second and that's it. they readily self-seed, so it can seem like it's always the same plant growing each year.
are you talking aobut rudbeckia? they are perennial and come back every year. they also will reseed. I consider them an agressive plant...blooming in mid to late summer through fall.
Don't take them out of the ground or mulch them, they'll be just fine and come up again next year. If you feel compelled to 'tidy them up' after flowering, remove only the flowering stems...cut them off with only 1 or 2 leaves each. That will also solve any possible self seeding & spreading problems.
learn something new every day! there are annual, bi-ennial and perennial black-eyed susans! regardless, you DO want to leave them in the ground...only thing you'd need to do is dead-head after the blooms are done...and you should get another round of flowers if you do that.
if you leave the flower heads on after they're done with, they will turn into seed-heads and you can save the seeds to plant in another spot next year.