When and How to Plant Marigold Seeds

Ah, the pungent smell of marigolds – their distinctive fragrance tells me that summer has most definitely arrived.

And once summer is at full tilt, I love seeing their happy yellow, orange, and red flowers brightening up my garden.

If you’re a fan of marigolds too, you probably purchase a flat or two every year to add to your own vegetable garden, or arrange in your flower beds or planters.

But once you cross the line from fan to fanatic like I have, you may want to start growing these annuals from seed.

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This opens up your options to enjoy exciting new cultivars, and saves quite a bit of money in your gardening budget, to boot.

Deciding whether to sow your marigolds directly in the garden or start them indoors will require you to take a few factors into consideration: the length of your growing season, the type of cultivar you’re planting, and how impatient you are for these annuals to fill your garden with flowers.

I’ll go over each of these different factors, so you can decide which method will work best for you.

The three main species of marigolds found in US gardens are the Mexican (sometimes called African) marigold, Tagetes erecta, the French T. patula, and the signet marigold, T. tenuifolia.

Another member of the Asteraceae family, Calendula officinalis is known as the pot or English marigold.

In this guide, I’ll go over how to start the three Tagetes species from seed.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

Sowing seeds outdoors is more straightforward than starting them indoors. There are fewer steps involved, fewer materials required, and you avoid the risk of transplant