Native wildflower cutleaf coneflower makes an exceptional addition to your flower garden

If you are looking for something a little bit different, the beautiful native plant, cutleaf coneflower, can make an attractive addition to your flower garden. This yellow daisy-like flower is as much at home in a cultivated garden as it is in a wildflower garden.

Rudbeckia laciniata is its official name but it also has several common names, the most popular include cut leaf coneflower, cutleaf rudbeckia, green-headed coneflower and tall coneflower. They are a different species from the more common garden flower Rudbeckia hirta.

It’s an appealing plant due to the stages it goes through on its way to developing flowers, and what it has to offer after the petals fall. It is a perennial plant, meaning once it is established, it will come up again year after year.

At the beginning of the growing season, the leaves are present, low to the ground. There’s no mistaking the somewhat waxy-looking leaves once you become familiar with the plant. Most other Rudbeckia species such as R. hirta have very rough-feeling leaves.

When conditions in the spring are right, the plant begins growing upward into a tall, upright configuration. Its height ranges from 3 or 4 feet to nearly 10 feet tall depending on the growing conditions. The ones in my garden are around 5 or 6 feet tall this year.

Once the plants get some height, they quickly grow fairly long stalks, called peduncles, from which an individual blossom grows. Technically, what we call the flower is made of many tiny flowers growing together into one structure, very much like how a sunflower grows.

In August, the first stage of the young flower head are the buds which are a very attractive shiny, greenish-yellowish color, the inner and outer flowers develop shortly afterward. The inner ones make up the cone, while the outer ones have showy yellow petals.

The combination of their drooping petals and cone are about 2 1/2 to 3 inches or more across; it makes for a quirky looking flower that you can’t help smiling at. Bees, butterflies and other pollinators love the flowers, too.

With their long stems, they make excellent cut flowers.

In September, the petals drop off and just the cones are left but they are quite attractive on their own as they wave in the breeze on top of their long peduncles.

Eventually, in early October, seeds that were developing inside the flowers begin to ripen causing the cones to turn brown. Each tiny floret in the head produces one seed creating a cluster of a couple of hundred seeds that small birds prefer. Goldfinches, chickadees and assorted sparrow species are among the birds you will see feeding on the seeds. The goldfinches that are still around our garden have been pecking on the seed heads checking to see if the seeds are ready yet. The seeds are still green so, the birds will have to wait just a little bit longer for the seeds to ripen.

Out in the wild, cutleaf coneflower prefers moist soil, which is why you’ll usually find them along streams or drainage ditches. So keep that hint in mind and plant them in the dampest area of your garden.

Another valuable attribute of this plant is the fact that deer tend to avoid them. I have never seen deer damage on this plant even under conditions of heavy deer browsing pressure.

Curiously, cutleaf coneflowers are among the most sensitive plants to ozone. During periods of high ozone, symptoms will show up on the oldest leaves as areas of reddish discoloration on the upper surface of the leaves. The area may die and turn brown often causing the entire leaf to die. Scientists are studying the plant to see if it can be used as sort of a biological indicator of ozone pollution.

Cutleaf coneflower plants are sometimes offered for sale at plant nurseries that sell perennials. They also may be started from seed.

Once established in your garden, you’ll be able to enjoy them for many years to come.