I wonder if our readers can answer a quick pop quiz. Can you name an annual ornamental plant that:
- Grows in any type of soil with virtually no maintenance needs;
- Stays in bloom from summer until the end of fall;
- Is a reliable companion plant because it attracts beneficial insects, such as ladybugs, parasitic wasps and other pollinators;
- Is very popular world-wide, from Asia to North and South America and Europe?
Did you answer “marigolds”? Because if you did, you’re absolutely right.
Marigolds have been on my mind lately because I’ve been starting to collect their seeds. I was trying to remember recently when was the last time I bought marigold seeds; I genuinely couldn’t recall, so it must have been a while.
Whether you’re growing marigolds for the first time this year, or for the tenth time, you may want to read some of my tips on how to make sure you’re saving and storing marigold seeds right.
Let’s start with a reminder about marigold seeds, shall we?
If you’ve been growing marigolds from saved seeds, you probably know this already. Marigolds are one of those flowers that don’t always come back true to form year on year.
Some of the seeds that you’re saving now and planting next spring won’t necessarily look like the parent plant. There won’t be any wild variations (I wish!), just enough to make it fun and interesting when they start flowering.
For instance, in my garden French marigolds seem to be rotating through different shades of orange and burgundy from one year to the next. It’s so thrilling to see what other hues they can develop all on their own.
I should probably clarify that they won’t all change from year to year. A small majority will – enough to keep it interesting, but not mess with any color schemes you may have designed for your garden.
One thing to do before you collect marigold seeds.
Marigolds, whether we’re talking about African, French, American or signet cultivars, are not the tidiest of ornamentals. They’ve made it to my list of plants that need staking and they will certainly need some deadheading to keep them from looking unkempt.
If you’ve been deadheading them over the past couple of months, make sure you stop this practice while they still have strong enough flower heads for seed saving.
In my garden, marigolds will start going to seed from mid-October to mid-November. But I’m not always in a hurry to collect them; and there have been years when I only got round to it after the first frost. The seeds were still viable the following year.
The most important thing when you collect marigold seeds: Don’t be in a hurry to get it done!
Because most marigold cultivars look scraggly on the best of days, and because it takes them a long time to go from “vibrant” to “definitely dead,” we may be tempted to get it over with and then chop down these annuals to the ground.
So while we can save seeds until late in the year, we shouldn’t risk collecting them too early, when the seeds aren’t fully ripe for picking yet.
Time for another pop quiz. Which of the following flower heads is not yet ready for seed collection?
This was an easy one. The marigold on the right is not ready yet. It looks dead, but it’s not dry enough for the seeds to come off. The left seed head and the middle one are more than ready to go.
If you’re not sure whether the seeds are dry enough for picking, test one with your finger nail. If the seed head feels crumbly to the touch and dry when you open it up, it’s ready for collection. The petals may still be attached. That’s ok, as long as they’re shriveled.
How to collect marigold seeds
Cut off the dried flower heads or simply snap them off the stems.
Then remove the dried up petals. There may not be any petals left if you’re collecting seeds late in the season.
Using your fingers, crack open the dried seed pod (called a calyx) and extract the seeds. The seeds are all bunched up and should come off easily.
Really important! Don’t store the seeds before you dry them.
You really don’t want to miss this step, especially with marigold seeds. Why especially? Because it may take marigold seeds longer to dry than other seeds.
First of all, they’re pretty large seeds, compared to other annuals such as poppies, nigella, zinnia or cosmos, for example. So there’s a larger surface area that needs to dry.
Secondly, they’re very tightly packed in the calyx, so they barely get any airflow while in the pod.
And thirdly, we collect marigold seeds in a really damp season – November is very rainy where I garden – so we need to get rid of all that excess moisture before we store the seeds.
How to store marigolds for planting next year
After I’ve extracted all the seeds from their pods, I spread them on a tray on top of my kitchen cabinets for a couple of weeks; I try to remember to shuffle them a few times to make sure the seeds are dry on all sides.
You can also dry them on a paper towel. I used to dry mine on a cotton cheese cloth because, depending on how damp the seeds are, the paper towel might end up sticking to them.
Whatever you use, keep in mind that if there are any petals left, they will stain fabric.
When the seeds are dry, I place them in a jar and store them until the following spring when they’ll be ready to turn into new plants.
You can also store marigold seeds in a paper envelope or a paper bag, as long as you make sure you keep it in a cool place that doesn’t get too much humidity.
As always, make sure you store seeds in the dark.
Once you have mastered these marigold seed saving tips, I bet you’ll join me in the “can’t remember last time I bought seeds” camp.