If you want to grow your own rudbeckia, but you are not sure when to sow rudbeckia seeds, let me help you out and share some of my knowledge, gathered over years of growing these delightful flowers.
When To Sow Rudbeckia Seeds?
The traditional time to sow rudbeckia seeds is in the spring, usually in the months of March and April. However, you do not need to be this strict with your schedule and you can actually sow this adaptable plant much later into the year.
If you look at other guides online they are always really strict on the dates they give to sow plants. Most will say you must sow Rudbeckia seeds in March or April, and this simply isn’t true.
While I will admit that these are probably the optimal months in which to sow rudbeckia they are not the only months you can do it, you can, in fact, sow rudbeckia much later in the year and still enjoy a fine display.
So if you have missed this deadline and feel like it is already too late, I say sow them anyway and give it a go. I have sown Rudbeckia myself well into summer, and yes the flowering time is delayed and therefore much shorter, but you still get to enjoy a great show.
Sowing In Summer
As I have just said, most people will tell you to sow rudbeckia in early spring and then act like this is the only time of year that you can sow them, and that’s simply not true.
How do I know? Well, I was very late in sowing my rudbeckia seeds this year and didn’t get them sown until July! Most people wouldn’t have bothered sowing them at that time but I thought why not, let’s see what happens.
You can see the young seedlings at the bottom of this photo, which was taken on August 10th. And what happened to these summer plants? Well, they grew incredibly quickly due to the optimal summer conditions and are now flowering as I type this, in early October.
The flowering on them was definitely very delayed and this is an extreme example, but they are flowering and providing some wonderful autumn colour on my allotment.
I guess what I am trying to say is that there aren’t too many cut-and-dry rules when it comes to gardening. If the weather is good plants will grow, so don’t be put off by people telling you that you have left it too late or missed your chance for this year, just give it a go!
Conclusion
People will say that you can only sow rudbeckia in spring, but I have found you can sow it even in the middle of summer if you wish. Just be aware that the later you sow it, the later it will flower and therefore it won’t flower for as long.