RUDBECKIA CHERRY BRANDY

The first ever red Rudbeckia with outstanding garden performance. Robust plants brings a rich splash of velvety cherry red to the summer border, with blooms glowing like ripe berries in the sun.

Free flowering and wonderfully resilient, it thrives in ordinary soil and keeps producing stems for cutting right through to the first frosts. A favourite with bees and butterflies, it adds depth, warmth and a touch of cottage garden romance wherever planted.

Rudbeckia, or Black-Eyed Susan, is a classic Indian Summer plant, flowering from July and continuing to provide glowing colour into October and even November. The beautiful daisy like flowers, produced on tall erect stems with dark strongly contrasting centres, last well as cut flowers and look stunning planted in en-masse in a border.

Sow indoors, in trays, covering with ¼ of an inch of compost between February and April for best results. Germination usually takes 14 to 21 days at 15-20°C (60-68°F)

Once the seedlings are about 2 to 3 inches tall, transplant them into individual 4 inch pots.  Always hold and handle by a leaf, never by the stem. Grow on in cooler, but not cold conditions. Gradually acclimatise the young plants to outside conditions, avoiding frost, before planting out into well-drained soil towards the end of May or early June, spacing around 30cm (12") apart.

Dead-head regularly