Growing Licorice Marigold: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 20, 2026
This plant is sold as Black Licorice Herb, which tells you what it tastes like and nothing about what it is. It is a marigold: Tagetes filifolia, cultivar Dropshot, bred by Hem Genetics.
A marigold you eat
The genus is the surprise. The marigolds most people know are ornamental bedding plants, and nobody puts those on a plate. This one is grown for the leaves, which are fine and thread-like rather than the usual marigold foliage, and which carry a strong licorice or anise flavour. The breeder lists it for teas, soups, salads and seafood, and notes it works well as a microgreen.
If you were trying to place the flavour, it sits near anise hyssop and tarragon, neither of which it is related to.
Small, round, and stays that way
The breeder gives a garden height and spread of eight to ten inches with a well-branched, globe-shaped habit. That makes it one of the few herbs here that stays inside its square: no sprawl, no flopping, no shading its neighbours. It suits a front row, a container, or the edge of a bed where you will brush against it.
Our spacing places two per square foot, and it produces from spring through fall from a direct sowing once frost has passed.
Not the same as our other marigolds
Worth telling apart from the two other marigolds on this site. The ornamental marigold is a different Tagetes grown for flowers, and desert marigold is Baileya, not a Tagetes at all despite the name.
Source: Hem Genetics, Dropshot (Tagetes filifolia).
Companion planting guide for Licorice Marigold · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 6-10 in
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
When to plant licorice marigold, by zone
Every zone licorice marigold grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a & 3b | Not usually | May 30–Jun 6 | Jul 29–Aug 5 |
| 4a & 4b | Not usually | May 15–May 22 | Jul 14–Jul 21 |
| 5a & 5b | Not usually | May 10–May 17 | Jul 9–Jul 16 |
| 6a & 6b | Not usually | Apr 25–May 2 | Jun 24–Jul 1 |
| 7a & 7b | Not usually | Apr 10–Apr 17 | Jun 9–Jun 16 |
| 8a & 8b | Not usually | Mar 25–Apr 1 | May 24–May 31 |
| 9a & 9b | Not usually | Feb 15–Feb 22 | Apr 16–Apr 23 |
| 10a & 10b | Not usually | Jan 30–Feb 6 | Mar 31–Apr 7 |
| 11a & 11b | Not usually | Jan 1–Jan 8 | Mar 2–Mar 9 |
Harvest dates are about 60 days after the sow or plant-out date.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Licorice Marigold plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 2 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 6-10 in.
Where to buy licorice marigold seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries licorice marigold seeds right now. A local garden center or a specialty seed house is the place to look.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing licorice marigold" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Licorice Marigold: A culinary marigold under ten inches tall with feathery leaves that taste of anise, sold under a name that mentions neither.
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