How to Plant Marigold Flowers

Marigolds are easy to grow, producing flowers from spring until frost.

With their feathery, bright orange, red and yellow blooms, marigolds are some of the most brilliant, long-lasting flowers that can be planted in your garden. Most varieties are both heat and drought tolerant and insect-resistant. They bloom from mid-summer through the first hard frost of fall. Aside from ample water and sunshine, they require little maintenance and can be used as bedding plants and borders and do well in patio pots. Whether you choose to grow marigolds from seed or transplant them from starts purchased at the local garden store, they will flourish in any full-sun location.

Things You'll Need

• Well-rotted manure if needed
• Compost if needed
• Shovel (optional)
• Marigold seeds
• Garden trowel
• Potting soil (optional)
• Clay pot (optional)
• Water jug

Instructions

Planting Marigolds

1. Identify a full- or partial-sun location where your marigolds will thrive. Begin the planting process after the last frost, or you may start plants in containers indoors filled with potting soil prior to the last frost, then transplant them outside later to achieve blooms earlier in the season.

2. Target an area with fertile soil. Add manure or compost and dig it in with a garden shovel or trowel before planting if soil quality is poor. Sow seeds in your garden or clay pots four to six inches apart for miniature marigolds and one to two feet apart for giant marigolds. Cover with a thin layer of soil, using your trowel. Douse the newly covered seeds with water from a water jug or hose.

3. Keep soil moist but not heavily saturated once the seeds germinate, and the plants become established. Consider adding mulch to preserve moisture around the plant and to help control weeds. Water once or twice a week during dry stretches of weather.

4. Deadhead finished blossoms once your plants start producing blooms in mid-summer. This encourages new growth and flowers, and will improve the appearance of your marigolds. Continue periodic watering on a week-to-week basis until after the first hard frost, though some marigolds will live until a prolonged period of subfreezing temperatures.

Tips & Warnings

• With larger varieties of marigolds, be sure to follow directions on plant spacing so as not to crowd the plants as they mature.

• Be sure to observe signs for any wilting, which is a typical indicator that the plant is in distress and needs watering.

• Be on the lookout for slugs, which eat the roots of marigolds. Add slug pellets to the soil at the first sign of any slug infestation, which should take care of the problem.

References

• Garden Hobbies: How to Grow Marigold Plants