Every year when I order flower seeds I include some orange marigold cultivars. But once all my flower seedlings are ready to be planted in the garden, the orange marigolds always fall to the bottom of my list.
They perform well with little care, and they are liked by bees and butterflies, but for some reason I’m just not sold whether the orange blooms are big or small. I usually stick a few in out of guilt, but the rest are given away or tucked into a bare spot where some perennial may have met its demise over winter.
Last year the rabbits mowed all my marigolds to the ground, so this year I will be cautious about planting any marigolds—or at least not whole rows of them which could get wiped out and leave gaping holes in my flowerbeds.
I am hoping the rough winter forced the foxes, coyotes and hawks to thin out the out-of-control rabbit population, but I won’t know for sure until it’s planting time.