Rudbeckia hirta ‘Marmalade’ brings a bright, sunny pop of color to beds, borders, and cutting gardens—with cheerful, daisy-like blooms that look like summer in flower form. Early-maturing and wonderfully prolific, this variety produces loads of vibrant orange petals surrounding a dramatic, jet-black center for that classic black-eyed Susan look (with extra “wow”). The sturdy plants stay nicely compact for easy garden design, yet still deliver armfuls of 3–4.5″ blossoms that keep coming when you keep cutting and deadheading.
Variety Details
Botanical name:Rudbeckia hirta
Plant type: Annual
Growth habit: Upright
Crop category: Flower seed
Flower character: Rudbeckia hirta ‘Marmalade’ brings a bright, sunny pop of color to beds, borders, and cutting gardens—with cheerful, daisy-like blooms that look like summer in flower form.
Product format: Seed packet
Sowing & Growing
Light: Full Sun
Planting season: Spring
Starting location: Direct Sow
Recorded soil pH: 6.0 – 6.8
Prepare a weed-reduced seedbed for Marmalade Rudbeckia and use the recorded planting season, depth, and light requirements. Press shallow-sown seed into good soil contact and keep the seed zone from drying during establishment. Thin or transplant only when the growth habit and spacing call for it. Leave enough room for mature width and air movement. Bloom timing and final height can shift with sowing date, climate, soil, moisture, and competition, so use listed figures as planning ranges.
Place Marmalade Rudbeckia where its recorded height and growth habit fit the surrounding planting. Shorter companions can be positioned toward bed edges, while taller stems need room where they will not shade small seedlings too early. If cutting flowers, harvest with clean tools at the stage appropriate to the bloom form. If leaving flowers in place, observe how bloom sequence changes through the season and record which sowing date performed best at the site.
