Plant Encyclopedia

Ornamental Features

African Sunset Black-Eyed Susan features bold peach tubular flowers with red overtones and brown throats along the stems from early summer to mid fall. Its serrated oval leaves remain green in color throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

African Sunset Black-Eyed Susan is an herbaceous annual with a ground-hugging habit of growth. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep, and can be pruned at anytime. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

African Sunset Black-Eyed Susan is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting
• Hanging Baskets

Planting & Growing

African Sunset Black-Eyed Susan will grow to be about 4 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 12 inches. As a climbing vine, it should either be planted near a fence, trellis or other landscape structure where it can be trained to grow upwards on it, or allowed to trail off a retaining wall or slope. Although it's not a true annual, this fast-growing plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America. It can be propagated by cuttings; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

African Sunset Black-Eyed Susan is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor containers and hanging baskets. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.