They reseed, but in my opinion...Rudbeckias and Monarda are so easy to control. If mine get to close to other plants, they are so easy to pull up. Monarda just rips right out of the ground for me.

I have not found them moving anywhere. The plants themselves can get big I suppose so that may lead some to think of them as invasive. Besides if it were a problem you could just toss a couple of slugs their way and they would be eaten to the dirt in no time.
I guess I'm still bitter. LOL

They will be invasive only if you let them seed, and they will seed vigorously.

Reseeding is what they're good at, but the are fairly easy to control. I have a couple growing in a bed next to my lawn beside my hose, and I just mow over the little buggers. Otherwise, pulling them out isn't too tough at all.

Easy to pull out if they seed where you don't like. I like mine for the pop of color in the hot months plus they're no work at all.

They do reseed vigorously as someone above said. Too vigorously for me. I found them difficult to pull because there are soooo many of them and once they get any size to them they're tough to get out. Love the color and the look of the plant but I will not let it back in my garden.

Thanks Everyone!

Does one have to deadhead each individual flower immediately after the flower dies to keep them from spreading seed vigorously or will deadheading them all at once when they all die in the fall take care of most of it?

Ken

Mine reseed a lot but I like that about them. I just move them if they pop up in a bad place.

Gosh, I am surprised that no one has a problem with Rudbeckia. I wonder which Rudbeckia you all have? I had Rudbeckia hirta and had it planted in a 15 x15 foot bed with many other vigorous sun plants and it over ran everything and I pulled it all three years later, which was quite a job and I thought the root system was thick and matted. I threw it all in the rubbish because I would hate to give someone else this problem. Rudbeckia 'Indian Summer' on the other hand was lovely. Reseeds gently and does not travel.

My Rudbeckia Goldsturm isn't invasive at all either, of course I tend to keep the dead blooms trimmed off.

Wow... at first I was psyched to put them in my garden, guess all it takes is one horror story to override a lot of positives. :c(

The tag on my black eye susan's does say 'Goldsturm' (rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii)

I am hoping it is better than Hirta. I don't want to hurta when I have to pull them out between all the other flowers in that garden. :c)

ONE MORe question about them. I do have coneflowers in this same 10 by 30 foot raised garden. I don't find them unmanageable. Do the black eyes seed heavier than the coneflowers? I have 3 kinds in my garden. The regular purple, white and double deckers.

I do like the black eye susans,If they won't work mixed in close to other flowers I would still consider a different spot in my yard just for them.

Thanks!

i found that goldsturm does spread nicely, not invasively, but if they are let go to seed, they can be a little nasty, the flowers revert to a parent plant, i guess, nothing like the original goldsturm.

I don't think rudbeckia or monarda are invasive. Its certain you can't expect either to remain the same size for years;) If they threaten their neighbor they meet Mr Hoe. Just lopping off the seed heads after bloom on Goldstrum and making sure they don't fall on the ground should stop most of the reseeding problem. Good luck.

For me Goldsturm was a good spreader, but not invasive. I never had a seedling problem or found any plants in other parts of the yard. Over a period of 6-7 years my original 3 plants made a 6-8 foot circle of solidly packed, but very erect stems.

I never had any flopping or dying out in the center and they continued to bloom profusely without being thinned or shovel pruned since I had plenty of room for them to grow.

However, the patch of Goldsturn did eventually (around the 5 year mark) develop some sort of black fungus problem. The stems would turn completely black right at bloom time. I very seldom have any kind of a mildew problem in my garden. I blamed this problem on overspray from my neighbor's excessive lawn waterings. Probably crowding was the real issue.

Flowering was not impacted by the fungus, nor did the plants flop, just looked really ugly. I had always left the plants up over winter to feed the birds but the black fungus made me start cutting them back immediately after blooming.

The fungus started developing earlier each year and I eventually got mad & removed them all about a month after bloomtime - on a windy day.

The next year I had a few Black-eyed Susans here and there. Now some years later I have them everywhere. They are a bit of a problem, but fortunately the biggest patch colonized an area where nothing else would grow (on a small rise with very compacted unimproved clay). The other seedlings I pull out when necessary (not easy by the time I usually spot them growing through something else.)

These seedling plants are not exactly the same as the original Goldsturms, with a slightly smaller bloom and wilder look, but very cheerful & so far have never had any mold problem, probably cause I am always ripping some of them out.

I doubt that you will have any real trouble with Goldsturm BES if you do a little maintenance - something I never bothered with.

Howdy All!

Well... I "just" made a decision to not take a chance and plant them where I was going to, which was basically in a 2 foot diameter "gap" in my main raised garden. I do dead head my other flowers in a timely manner, but I don't want to take a chance with such a small area.

I will however look for another spot in my yard where I would not mind them spreading out. I do like them a lot.

Thanks for everyones help!

Ken

They are native plants, so technically they are not invasive.

But man, do they spread. About the only place they won't grow is my flower bed!

But having them pop up all over my lawn gives me (another) excuse not to mow it!

Black-eyed susans are in that category of plants whose reseeding I do not mind at all, because progeny are easy to pull or hoe out. I wish that BESs would self-sow more in my garden.

By the way, natives can be every bit as invasive/agressive in the garden as "exotics". A lot of plants are programmed to take over a space, and it doesn't matter where they originally came form.