(syn: R. ‘Quilled Form’) I first saw this amazing drought-tolerant selection at Larry Lowman’s Ridgecrest Garden in Arkansas. This selection of the prairie streambank native is from a population in Montgomery Co., Illinois. Rudbeckia ‘Henry Eilers’ makes a 4′ clump of fragrant (vanilla) foliage, topped in early August with long flower spikes. Instead of the typical flat, yellow-gold flowers, each petal looks as though it has been plugged into a light socket. The unusual “rolled” petals create the look of a quill. Mother Nature must have gotten a real kick watching botanists trying to make this fit into one of their taxonomic keys. You’re just going to have to get one and see for yourself.
