I was a totally inexperienced gardener when I planted pot marigolds for the first time. It was my first gardening season and I didn’t have the chance to collect my own seeds yet. So I had to buy them in a store. That was the only way for me to grow these beautiful and valuable garden flowers…
The seeds weren’t expensive at all. They still aren’t. I could afford them every year. However, I soon realized one important thing. The seeds of pot marigold plants are so easy to collect it would be stupid of me to keep buying them year after year!
It’s needless to say that I collect my own pot marigold seeds ever since. It’s easy. It’s quick. You save a couple of euros or dollars. And most importantly, the plants you grow from your own seeds become more adapt to your local climate and growing conditions.
Do you too want to learn how to collect and store the seeds of this garden flower, so you can grow it next year as well? You have come to the right place then. Keep reading…
You can let the pot marigolds to self seed and do all the heavy-lifting for you..
Each year I try to plant as many pot marigolds as I can. It’s because I like the way they brighten up my growing space with their vivid orange as well as yellow colours. They create a truly amazing sight the moment they start flowering!
My garden is usually full of them as a consequence. However, not every one of them actually grows from the seeds I planted. In fact, many of them are so called “volunteers” – plants that have self seeded themselves…
You see, the thing with pot marigolds is you need to pick or harvest them regularly to ensure they keep flowering throughout the whole season. If you don’t, they soon start forming seed heads instead of new flower heads. Obviously, it’s easy to miss a plant or two every know and then when you have a bunch of them growing all over your garden. It happens to me all the time!
It’s these missed plants then that go on and form the seeds and drop them on the ground. Next year these self sown seeds then sprout and develop into new plants…
So the truth is, you don’t have to do anything and still end up with the abundance of pot marigolds in the next season. All you have to do is let the nature go it’s course.
The disadvantage of the self-seeding method is that you can’t always control where “volunteers” are going to show up. But even this is not really a problem. You can always transplant them to other parts of the garden. They don’t mind!
Or you can collect the seeds by yourself…
Now what if you would like to have more control over the location of pot marigolds in your garden without having to transplant them?
Or what if you want to expand your garden next year or move it to a new location? Or what if you would like to create the seedlings or trade the seeds with other gardeners in your area?
Then you may want to collect and store the seeds by yourself so you can plant them whenever and wherever you want. The good news is both collecting and storing the seeds of pot marigolds is rather simple. Here’s how I do it:
The first thing I do is choose a handful of plants from which I would like to get seeds. Three to five plants with multiple flower heads give me more seeds than I need, but you can always go with more…
Next I stop picking (or deadheading if you prefer) the selected plants, so they can start forming the seed heads. I usually do this in September once the plants recover from the summer heat. You can also do it earlier. Or even later if the weather conditions allow you.
Once you let the plants go to seed, you soon notice how their flower heads slowly start to wither and drop off petals. It doesn’t take long before they turn into seed heads. The developing seeds on them are green at first, but as they mature their color changes into dull grey and brown. The seeds vary both in size and shape. To me, they look like little curved, gnarled worms with little bumps on the edges.
The seed head of pot marigold is ready for you to collect it once it is entirely dry and once all the seeds on it are grey or brown. The maturing process takes some time so be patient.
Store the seeds correctly to ensure they stay viable…
Once the seeds are mature, it’s time to collect them. What I do is grab the seed head with my fingers and pull it off the stalk. Then I spread some paper on the ground and crumble the seed head over it so the seeds fall down onto the paper.
I repeat this with other seed heads as well until I have enough seeds for the next season’s plantings.
Now before I store them, I always make sure they are dry enough. So I grab the paper with the seeds on it and place it somewhere dry for a week or so. You can do this outside, if the weather is dry and warm. However, if it’s cool and rainy, it’s better to do it indoors.
The last thing I do is get rid of the chaff, put the seeds in a glass jar and store it in a dry, dark place. I leave them there until the next gardening season starts. Then I simply take them out of the jar and plant them in the garden. This is after I prepare the garden, of course…
And once the plants come out of the ground, I care for them and watch how they grow into beautiful flowers!
However, I don’t just admire them. I also pick or harvest them almost daily so they keep producing new flower heads. And, at one point, I also collect their seeds so I can grow them again in the next season. And that’s how the pot marigold growing cycle is complete!