4' tall crackerjacks loaded with blooms...



With celosia standing nearby. Turns out that these two grow well together since they are about the same size and flower in about the same time period.

Love the pic! I have been so busy haven't posted new pics, will do so tomorrow.

New pics this morning, the first is one called Mission giant yellow, put out by Burpee, everywhere there is a Burpees rack. The second is called Alaska, an African, ordered from a site called selectseeds.com, great site for marigolds and zinnias.My zinnias, marigolds and cosmos are not in top form this year, I haven't done much work with them. I will do better next year!

Last year I tried crossing yellow African marigolds (shown below) with red French marigolds but all the seeds appeared sterile and none sprouted. My goal was a red African marigold

You just tickled my curiosity bone... now i am thinking about the fact I have never seen a red African... how come a breeder or seed company hasn't come up with this? there are many other African/French crosses out there...

gardenfish said:You just tickled my curiosity bone... now i am thinking about the fact I have never seen a red African... how come a breeder or seed company hasn't come up with this? there are many other African/French crosses out there...

Good question, from my results they were sterile. I'm not sure if the coloring of the red has something to do with a fatal gene or not. I'm hoping other members will try.

@gardenfish Did you order your African marigolds mission giant from burpee? My seed was from Russia and the blooms were absolutely huge for me, and some leaves had a blueish color tint than green, I'm wondering if mine was a different variation and that could have affected the breeding. They were very productive with seed when self pollinated but not crossing with another marigold.

Here's an old photo showing the Blue foliage and giant bloom.

I bought mine right off the Burpees seed rack at Lowe's, or Wal Marts, I don't remember which. I will have to go back to my pics to see if the foliage had a blue tint, but to my recollection, no, it did not. You said your seeds came from Russia, did you order them online? In the meanwhile, I will scan all the seed catalogs I usually order from and look at their crosses. I will get back to this thread soon.

@gardenfish Yes the seeds were online, I have a friend in the UK who ordered them from eBay but the seeds were from Russia, then he sent them to me.
I gave away seed on here from it for 3 years in a row but never heard back from anyone who grew it

I bet it was some kind of variation on the original Burpee seed. I usually don't save marigold seed to replant, but I wish I had saved this one. I didn't plant all of the package, I can send you some if you want, let me know.

gardenfish said:New pics this morning, the first is one called Mission giant yellow, put out by Burpee, everywhere there is a Burpees rack. The second is called Alaska, an African, ordered from a site called selectseeds.com, great site for marigolds and zinnias.My zinnias, marigolds and cosmos are not in top form this year, I haven't done much work with them. I will do better next year!

@gardenfish do you have any more of the whitish ones, those I haven't grown yet and would like to try.

@keithp2012, check your tree Mail! I will send the Alaska, too.

I also grew Mission Giant Yellow this year from Walmart. Looked like the pictures and needed to be staked. I wasn't getting any seeds until I decided to pollinate one myself. I'm not sure if I really got something out of that. Although I got some firm seeds, they seemed weak and pollinators weren't interested in any of the marigolds.


I started a lot of plants but something kept eating them just as they were about to bloom. By the end of the season, I did get a couple of blooms but it was too late to get seeds.
These are from the same plant. I'm not sure which one it is. I bought more than one stripe. It was a nice deep color.

I've tried French Vanilla a few times off the rack from Burpee. The first year I grew it, many years ago, it took a long time to bloom but the plant was beautiful. I never got another nice white plant since then. Plus I get terrible germination from these Burpee packs. But I did run into a nice white marigold in my travels so I guess it's possible.

And I also couldn't resist Strawberry Blonde. Not from seed.

I believe that "Tagetes Mister Majestic" is the name of the one with alternating colors.

Strawberry blond, my first year for it. I grew it in a large pot. My only complaint was that once the plant got a certain size, it seemed to get weak and went floppy. Maybe it will be better in the ground? I will grow it next year, flower colors are georgous!

Beautiful, Lynda! The same thing happened with my Strawberry Blonde and they were pots too. I thought an animal sat on them.
Top, the striped could have been Mr Majestic but maybe Jolly Jester or Harliquinn. I planted all my old expiring marigold seeds and I am not sure which took.

The soft yellow of Alaska is my favorite, but they are all bright and cheerful! Seems like spider mites were a problem when I had some small ones in the past.

I had spider mites on the First Lady this year, but none of the other varieties I grew. I don't know if the mites liked that variety or if it was just random. First spider mites I have had in this location. Hope they aren't here to stay. Had a huge infestation where I used to live. They were on everything, including my tomatoes and roses!

I've never brought marigolds so I'm unsure of the variety but I've always had them. They self seed so freely they are actually somewhat weedy in my garden but I don't mind.
How do I keep them from laying over?

UncleWill said:
How do I keep them from laying over?

I put up some bamboo poles and ran some green twine from pole to pole, basically roping them in. A storm with high winds still toppled several of them.

However, this coming year, I plan on spacing them a bit further apart; much of the laying over was caused by plants getting pushed over by stronger or better placed plants.