Starting Seeds: Marigolds

Marigolds are one of my favourite annuals. They seemed pretty hard to kill in my garden last year, and bloomed from the time I planted them until the frost finally killed them in November. Deadheading, a little water, and a little food are all these little beauties need to thrive. The internet told me not to feed them at all. My mother suggested that I ought to feed them a little. Mom was right.

Small marigolds handled periodic rain quite well.

The smaller orange flowers above seemed to fare well in my coastal garden. On the other hand, the large, puffy, yellow flowers of the "Aztec Gold" variety held onto rain water, stayed damp, and went moldy very quickly. Since these marigolds have to live in a temperate rainforest (albeit with some decent sunny stretches in summer), I chose to skip the seeds of large, fully double flowers in favour of the more modest Brocade mix.

Aztec Gold on sunny days, but Aztec Mold after rain.

The seeds were planted in seed starting mix on March 25, and started coming up after a couple of days. Instead of using fancy grow lights, I just put these babies at my south facing living room window. The pack said germination takes four to fourteen days, but many started sprouting earlier! Just advanced, I guess. After learning from my sweet pea mistakes, I planted two per cell. I initially kept the dome on to keep them toasty, but some seeds started to go moldy. The dome was then propped open with chopsticks, which seemed to help keep the moisture levels in check. One day the toddler decided to play with the chopsticks, so the dome was ditched altogether. The warm conditions inside the dome really seemed to accelerate seedling growth, as newer sprouts have developed more slowly. Watering from the bottom was much appreciated by the little sprouts, but a very dilute application of fertilizer when the true leaves started to appear was not. After wondering for several days whether the seedlings were killed by the application of fertilizer, most resumed growth. At that point, I figured that if half of them made it, it would count as a good first attempt.

New seedlings showing off their cotyledons (seed leaves.)

Heart moms find hearts in everything they do.

Growing some true leaves.

These seeds grew a lot mold, especially when compared to the other species that I started this year. Even when I let the soil dry out, it was STILL moldy on top, so I resorted to just scooping off most of the fuzz when it got particularly bad and hoping for the best. I was almost tempted to add a thin layer of vermiculite to the surface to help dry it out, but I was also lazy and didn't want to go all the way back to Canadian Tire to buy some. Decisions were made. Mold scooping isn't so bad, anyway.


The cells in my seed starting tray seemed a little small after a few weeks, so I transplanted them into some old six packs with fresh potting mix. The leaves started going black around the edges, and I was sure that the little seedlings were done for. However, most of them resumed growing after a few days, and soon they were huge! Tiny buds, only a couple of mm across, nestled in the lush foliage. Next time, I will transplant into six packs as soon as they have two sets of leaves. The seeds love the seed starting mix, but the seedlings love potting mix.

Immediately after transplanting the seedlings into six packs.

After a few weeks in the six packs.

After a few weeks in the potting mix, the little plants were ready to move outdoors. I hardened them off on the patio over a week, starting with an hour or two the first day and gradually increasing to full time.

Some were more bigger and stronger than others, and I thought it was just random. Once they bloomed, I observed that all of the aggressive ones were bright orange! The dark red ones came along next, and the yellows were the slowest. I had selected the most vigorous plants because I thought the others were probably too sick to make it, but the slowpokes were probably just more of the yellows. As a result, my marigold "mix" is more of an orange marigold parade with a few yellows and dark reds thrown in. Much like my child, some marigolds just need a patient gardian to let them bloom at their own pace.

I had originally planted 36 cells with two seeds per cell. I wound up with around 30 seedlings to transfer into six packs. A few of those did not survive the transfer, but about 25 did. Of those I planted 22, and all of the plants that made it to the garden or planters have done very well. At first I was disappointed with my success rate, up until I struggled to find enough planting sites for many of the plants.

One interesting note: some of the seedlings were very tall and leggy, and the stems were falling over from the weight of the foliage and flowers. I was concerned that the stems would break. This was not a problem. New roots began to grow from the point where the fallen stem made contact with the soil, and the plant just bent the foliage toward the sun and carried on. Talk about resilience!

Now these beauties are huge! For the nervous newbie who is thinking about planting annuals from seed, I highly recommend marigolds. They are resilient, forgiving, very easy to grow, require little attention once established, and bloom right up until frost. Last year, mine were going until November here in the Pacific Northwest. PLUS they add such a happy burst of orange, yellow, and red to a garden or planter. Look at them now!