Saving and planting marigold seeds

Marigolds are one of the more popular garden annuals. Like most annuals, they only bloom for a single season, but they bloom like crazy because they don't need to save any energy for growing again the next year. As a result, marigolds will fill your garden with an explosion of color. But if you let the flower heads dry out on the plants when they are finished and die off, you can collect the marigold seeds and plant them again for the next year. Saving and planting marigold seeds is a great way to get lots of annual flower color for free.

When the flowers turn brown, leave them in place on the plant. In many areas you can even leave these seed heads on all winter so long as they are protected from rain and hard frost. Once the petals fall off you will notice little, long dried brown tubes or baskets will remain. Many petals will dry on the top but if you brush off dead petals and split open the elongated dried base, you will find it filled with long flat thin seeds that are black on the lower half. Rub open the seed capsule and you'll have a small handful of seeds just ripe and ready to plant.

Seeds can be planted just under the surface of the soil in pots, seed trays or directly in the garden once the danger of hard frosts has passed. Most saved marigold seeds will not be damaged by light frosts.

 

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