Now and again, a plant strikes me as having so many attractive characteristics that it’s a must grow – hardy, easy to maintain, vibrant colour, a long flowering period, attractive to pollinators and generally unfussy about where it lives. For me, rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’, awarded an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) by the RHS, is one such plant; however one thing is essential – you must be partial to a bright yellow flower!

With it’s tall habit, tempting chocolate button like pistils and golden petals, rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ is fabulous grown in bold sweeping swathes. It’s perfectly suited to a prairie style planting scheme and combines well with rustling grasses and many other late flowering perennials. Robust in habit, this vivacious plant has the added advantage of requiring very little support.

A fully hardy perennial, rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ grows to a height and spread of 60 x 50 cm in any moist but well drained soil. It thrives in sun, but will tolerate semi-shade and has a long flowering period from August until October – keeping the garden well and true alive well into autumn.

It’s a plant you can propagate easily by division between autumn and spring, but if you’re wanting to produce a lot of plants, seeds can be obtained from the Mr Fothergills RHS collection, to sow February – June. It just keeps on giving!

Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ is not particularly affected by pests or disease, but joy oh joy, it is a magnet for pollinators – on a sunny day, you will find it covered in butterflies and bees!

An absolute gem of a plant – happy growing!