Black-eyed Susan Vine

This showy tender perennial vine is native to tropical Africa and India and was introduced to Britain in 1823.¹ It was often listed as an evergreen climber for hot houses in early 19th-century catalogs. Joseph Breck described yellow, white, and orange flowered varieties by mid-century and Peter Henderson and William Robinson both recommended it as a half-hardy annual climber for short trellises, or against walls.

The vine is included in a charming book, The Parlor Garden, which Jefferson's granddaughter Cornelia Jefferson Randolph translated and edited from French in English and published in 1861. The book notes: "The Thunbergia lays hold of any thing that is within its reach, without ever rising very high. It becomes covered with charming flowers, of a fine nankeen yellow, set off with a black spot in the middle. You find it, as well as the passion-flower and the Mandevilles, at all the greenhouses."

Black-eyed Susan Vine prefers moist but well-drained, fertile soil and full sun to part shade. Requires a trellis or some support of the tendrils; prefers morning sun and afternoon shade and does not like intense heat. Can be used in planters and hanging baskets, boxes, urns, and rock work.²

In Bloom at Monticello is made possible by support from The Richard D. and Carolyn W. Jacques Foundation.

Further Sources

• Dutton, Joan Parry. Plants of Colonial Williamsburg Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg, 1979
• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants