
How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Marigolds
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The flowers of Tagetes marigolds are NOT edible, but those of Calendula are. The bright petals of Calendula add color and a spicy tang to salads and other summer dishes.
- The flower petals are sometimes cooked with rice to impart the color (but, unfortunately, not the flavor) of saffron.
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Good to know about watering,I always had problems with these beautiful flowers!! Love,love them! 🙏❤️🌼
I have some marigolds from a fried's father's funeral and all i can say is that they grow so well in all sorts of conditions and every time i go out to my front yard i am amazed by how they are flourishing!!! They look so pretty alongside all our yard plants. I love marigolds!!!
Here in New Zealand, I sow marigolds (French) in the autumn and have had no trouble with them surviving through the winter to give a great show right through the season and beyond (into winter). I took the cue by observing what happened when my marigolds were left to self seed, and noticed that the seedlings germinated naturally in the autumn. The transplanted seedlings (from in between the flagstones) have always done well over winter without any special care apart from a little liquid fertiliser when transplanted...
I have been growing these for years. They have a lot of different colors and look so pretty in the garden. Mine grow like weeds. I let them die in the fall and then harvest the seeds. I try to harvest by color. I put them on a paper plate indoors to dry completely. Before harvesting the seeds, I write the color on the plate. When dry, I put them in a ziplock bag and plant when the weather starts warming. I over seed so I have masses of flowers. The marigolds planted by seed are very hardy. I planted from a nursery once before and they were eaten so fast and died that I never did that again. I've never had problems with them around vegetables. I've planted by broccoli, kale tomatoes, etc. If some get eaten, it's not noticeable because I plant so many. I just scatter the seed on ground that I've scratched with a hand rake and just cover with a little soil and sprinkle with water. They sprout within a few weeks and grow pretty fast. I've grown in sun and part sun and both do fine. I have lots of trees so there's not really very many full sun places. They look pretty with vegetable plants. So don't give up.
I've pretty much given up on marigolds. The earwigs strip the plants so all I have left are stems. I always used to plant them with my tomatoes. I miss them.
That’s what happened to mine too. Does that mean it was earwigs? I didn’t know what had happened to them.
Marigolds are trap plants. They're supposed to attract pests so the pests won't get on your tomatoes.
The pests could be anything. A lot of times, it's slugs or snails. You can always use the beer method!
Place a shallow container near the area of your plants. Bury it to the rim and pour a small amount of regular beer in the container and the slugs go for a drink and drown. They like the yeast.
Marigolds are meant to be a ‘trap plant’ so they’re actually doing their job. Without the marigolds, the earwigs move onto other plants at night. You can go out with a bucket of hot soapy water and knock the gathered masses into it to help reduce the overall population.
I always take an opportunity to spread the word about calendula, which seem to be under-represented in gardens, at least near me! I didn't know much about them myself until a few years ago. At a gas station in late October, I saw flowers still blooming along a divider strip. I yanked a few out of the ground, took them to my yard, shoved them in the soil, watered daily. They perked up, grew until the first freeze, set seed, all in about 3 weeks, at the very end of the season. When spring arrived, I had new plants coming in like crazy mid-April. They started to bloom early June and they go until frost. They are, in fact, the very last bloom in my garden every year now. I had to thin them out as they spread so easily but they come right out and are easy to control. They are also easy to move fully established plants - pull up, get the roots, water for a week every day and they will take. Of course, you can also just sprinkle seeds anytime during the season and they'll sprout almost immediately. No burying needed, just toss them where you want them. I know have multiple patches from those three late season impulse yanks! I think it's five years now. You may want to put in a few 18" garden fences in your calendula area - they get 24" tall and high winds in thunderstorms can knock them down. Dollar stores have these little fences. Just get them in as the new growth is coming up and they'll stay upright. They don't smell like marigolds, they look like daisies and they never stop blooming. It takes a few minutes a week to remove seeds if you want. They look nicer cleaned up and you can use the seeds anywhere but you'll have so many you can give them to friends or just toss them. A real gem of a flower. Oh, and while they don't last long in a vase, you do get about 3 days if you want to bring some inside. Pick a newly opened flower and it will open and close indoors for a few days, sleeping at night and waking up in the day. Very cool.
Hi! In the How To Grow section you mention "pinch off the tops of the plants to encourage them to grow bushier." Can you provide more detail of what to pinch off, and how much to do so? It feels counterintuitive to remove new growth of a plant.
Thanks!
Lucy
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