It’s been 2 or 3 years since I’ve planted these varieties of marigold in the garden. I usually plant the standard French marigold because I’ve been told the French marigold is the most beneficial to companion plant, that other kinds of marigolds don’t have the same capabilities. The varieties in the photos are the African White Marigold and the Orange Crackjack Marigold. I’ll let you decide which is which.
According to the articles I’ve read, companion French marigolds with tomatoes will drive the hornworm away as well as battle the dreaded root-knot nemetode. I’ve never encountered neither of these, so perhaps the marigolds are doing its job.
This year, I decided to plant these varieties because I wanted more flowers in the garden. I needed flowers to lure bad bugs away from my vegetables and I needed flowers to bring some colors and beauty to the garden. When I was seed-starting this year, I believe I was 60% flowers and 40% vegetables. I don’t know about you but growing flowers are much harder than growing vegetables. Some flowers took forever to germinate and when they’re at the seedling stage, they really want you to baby it. I remember whenever I went into my grow-room, I could hear the flower seedlings screaming, “water me now!”
Once they get past the seedling stage though, there’s no stopping them. So I will have to remind myself to not start the summer annual flowers so soon.
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