French Marigold are an easy and rewarding staple for the home garden, with bright cheerful yellow to red blooms. They’re also a great companion plant for the greenhouse, especially next to or under tomatoes, by steering some flies and other insects away with their scent and root secretions. They’re also great for containers and will add brightness to any doorstep, balcony or hanging basket.
Seed Sowing
Sow indoors into modules with heat (21 degrees) from Feb, under cover from March and outdoors from May. Cover seeds with a very fine layer of compost and keep moist (a mister is ideal). If sowing directly outdoors, sow 0.5cm deep in drills 30cm apart and thin to final spacing.
Transplanting
If sowing in modules, transplant outside once seedlings are established, spacing 20cm apart. French Marigolds can also be grown in containers.
Plant Care
Keep the area weed-free and watered during hot spells. You can mulch around the plants to keep in moisture and prevent weeds. Deadhead to prolong flowering. Support may be needed for longer-stemmed varieties, especially in windy growing conditions.
Challenges
French Marigolds are loved by slugs and snails but if grown as a companion plant they work fantastically as a trap crop to protect your precious tomatoes from pests like white and greenfly.
Harvest
Pick the flowers often to encourage more flowers to form, often until the first frosts. As well as being great companion plants, some of our varieties like Burning Embers have longer stem lengths and make wonderful cut flowers. Ideally harvest the flowers in the morning when temperatures are low and plant water content is high. Plants will arrange better if left to sit in water for a few hours after cutting.
Culinary Ideas And Uses
French Marigold petals are edible and make a delightful addition to salads, desserts or ice cubes with their pop of colour and mild citrus flavour.
Seed Saving
Harvest the individual seed heads as they dry or whole plants once most of the flowers on the stem have gone to seed. Lay out on a sheet to dry further and thresh by hand and winnow to clean the seeds.
French Marigolds are cross-pollinated by insects with other varieties of the same species if within ¼ mile of each other.
Store in a cool dark place; seeds should remain viable for around 5 years.
Most popular French Marigold
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French Marigold – Orange (Organic)
£2.34 Add to basketFrench Marigold – Orange (Organic)
Golden orange with red flowers that have a feathery fragrant foliage. Tagetes is a very rewarding plant. It is easy to grow and produces an abundance of stunning yellow to red coloured flowers. It also makes a great companion plant as the scent is disliked by flies and other insects and the roots produce secretions that have insecticidal and nematicidal (against harmful nematodes) effects. It can also be planted in pots or containers and will embellish gardens, doorsteps and balconies.
(Approximate seed count – 400)
£2.34 -
French Marigold – Burning Embers (Organic)
£2.50 Add to basketFrench Marigold – Burning Embers (Organic)
A tall variety with deep orange-red petals and pale outlines. This is a wonderful variety of tagetes which grows taller than the classic French marigold. The petals have a deep colour and almost appear to glow like burning embers.
Plant between tomatoes to ward off pests and add a shock of colour to the patch.
(Approximate seed count – 100)£2.50 -
African Marigold – Crackerjack (Organic) ***NEW FOR 2025***
£2.40 Add to basketAfrican Marigold – Crackerjack (Organic) ***NEW FOR 2025***
A marigold variety that is great for natural dyeing and has gorgeous blooms in orange and yellow. Loved by pollinators for their strong scent, they are a reliable workhorse in the garden producing masses of cheerful blooms on slightly longer stems from July long into September. This variety is often grown as a dye plant, producing a deep and colourfast golden mustard on plant and animal fibres.
(Approximate seed count – 100)£2.40
