The 2023 Perennial Plant of the Year

At the height of summer, ‘American Gold Rush’ black-eyed Susan turns up the volume for a long season of dazzling color right up to autumnal frosts. The bright golden-yellow flowers feature arching rays and a reddish halo surrounding dark chocolate cones. Three-inch flowers blanket the compact plant, only 22-27 inches tall with a broader width to 40 inches if given room to grow.

The green leaves and stems are covered in hairs, giving them a silvery cast — on sunny days, peeking through the blooms to the leaves is a luminous silver-and-gold treat. More than just boosting the ornamental show, the hairy foliage is resistant to Septoria leaf spot — a debilitating fungal disease that causes unsightly black spotting and premature seasonal decline on some black-eyed Susans. Butterflies caper over the blooms and songbirds feast on the plentiful seed long after the flowers have passed, and the seedheads provide winter interest, too. Garden companions are many, including alliums, asters, sages and native grasses such as little bluestem and prairie dropseed.

“I’ve always liked my plant introductions to speak for themselves and this one speaks volumes,” says 'American Gold Rush' breeder Brent Horvath, owner of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens. “From start to finish this plant is generally trouble free and easy to propagate, grow and finish in a container and a breeze to garden with.”

Richard Hawke, director of ornamental plant research at the Chicago Botanic Gardens says, “‘American Gold Rush’ is the black-eyed Susan that made me want to grow them again. It ticks all the boxes for a superior garden plant — bountiful golden flowers, long-blooming, disease-free and a robust habit.”