Rudbeckia and echinacea in acid soil?

General Gardening
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I am trying to establish a large area of Black-eyed Susan, echinacea, and possibly a couple of other native wildflower type plants. Is there any reason to believe that they wouldn’t be happy in native soil with a pH around 5.0? Or should I lime it?

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Black-eyed Susan’s are the state flower of Maryland but the internet says they like a fairly natural soil so you would need to raise it. If I had native soil around 5 pH I would be planting blue berries.

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Both those flowers love alkaline soil and grow wild here in Kansas so my experience has taught me grow things where they like it. As @lordkiwi said save that spot for things we cant grow eg. Blueberries. Have you considered kleims hardy Gardenia (https://www.gardenia.net/plant/Gardenia-jasminoides-Kleims-Hardy) and a little more information Kleim's Hardy Gardenia - Fragrant Plants - Almost Eden, Azalea, Camellia, Rhododendron etc.?

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Thing is, pretty much all of Maryland except for a few areas in the far west has pretty acidic soil.

There are some areas in the mountains over limestone outcroppings that have a more neutral soil, but that’s it.

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Azaleas, blueberries do grow fantastically in this soil.

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I have acid red clay soil in Georgia and rudbeckia & echinachea do fine here.

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Mine is a sandy loam, but we do see wild black eyed Susan’s on the roadside here.

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BE Susans are more or less weeds in my garden beds…they come up everywhere (even in the lawn). I’ve had them growing between cracks in the sidewalks. My soil is very sandy…dig down 2 feet and its Mississippi River beach sand… pH i have no idea but my well water is very hard/basic. my purple coneflowers also do fine in this and have come back year after year.

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We have alkaline soils and both of those grow very well here also. Since they are both pretty hardy flowers they may grow good for you there, It depends on what you want lime is pretty cheap and easy to get as well as these flower heads so you could try it without lime if you like but it may be safer to lime your flower area. Maybe you could mix in some other native flowers in case they don’t take off.

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My soil is about pH 5.3 to 5.5 and both do great for me.

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