Rudbeckia hirta Marmelade

The Rudbeckia hirta 'Marmalade' offers elegant semi-double flowers with a black single core and slightly trailing yellow-orange petals on a 60 cm (24in) tall plant. A cultivar with a sleek and classic appearance, featuring a large daisy-like flower in vibrant yellow, beautifully contrasted by a very dark core. The generous display of its flowering lasts throughout the summer, until the first frost, on upright and sturdy plants that impact borders, flower beds, and containers. Indifferent to heat and poor soils, this short-lived perennial plant blooms equally well in sunny or semi-shaded locations.

The Rudbeckia x hirta from the Marmalade selection is a recent cultivar resulting from, among others, the hairy Rudbeckia, a robust wild plant from the Asteraceae family, native to North American meadows. It is a short-lived perennial plant, most often grown annually or biennially. Indeed, it will not last more than 2 to 3 years in the garden, but it readily self-seeds quite easily. Marmalade reaches 60 cm (24in) in height and spreads to about 40 cm (16in).

The flower heads of this rudbeckia are large 'daisies', actually solitary head inflorescences, with a diameter of 7 to 10 cm (3 to 4in), centred on a prominent dark brown, almost black cone. Many flowers succeed each other from July to October on the plants, forming an impressive multicoloured mass. At the end of summer, the petals fade and fall while the flower's core dries and becomes desiccated. The flowers can then be picked and incorporated into a dry bouquet. The foliage consists of a tuft of basal, lanceolate, toothed leaves, dark green in colour, 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4in) long, from which sturdy and branched floral stems rise. The stems bear cauline leaves, narrower and rather ovate.

Rudbeckia 'Marmalade's' stout silhouette allows it to fit into perennial borders, flower beds, and large flowering containers. They can be paired with other varieties or combined with inulas, asters, yarrows, daisies, and echinops. You can also lighten the scene by mixing some ornamental grasses such as Stipa tenuifolia, Muhlenbergia capillaris. Splendid in borders, their rich hues are also beautiful in fresh or dried flower bouquets. Hardy, Rudbeckia hirta enjoys sunny or semi-shaded locations and tolerates dry and poor soils.

An ecological asset: Throughout the summer, the nectar-rich flowers of Rudbeckias attract pollinating insects and butterflies. A good way to improve your garden's ecosystem and promote the production of fruits and vegetables in your garden. In autumn, you can admire the continual ballet of birds that will come to feed on the mature seeds they find in the dried flowers' core.