Many gardeners consider marigolds too garish for their flowerbeds. To each his own, but I can’t turn my back on something that’s so easy to grow. Marigolds are the only plant that I can count on to give me a 100% germination rate when I sprout them from seed. And they don’t succumb to diseases in late summer like so many of the other annuals.
For the last few years I’ve grown very few marigolds because the Japanese Beetles love them, and I felt the plants were just attracting more of the pests to my yard. The beetles don’t bother with the small-flowering marigolds so I continued to grow those, but then we had several wet springs and the earwigs arrived en masse to ruin the fun. They can decimate a row of marigolds overnight. If you sponsored an essay contest called “Why I Adore Marigolds”, the Japanese Beetles and earwigs would trip all over themselves trying to be the first to enter.
I plan to grow some of the smaller cultivars again next spring. Yes, it’s easy to sit in my easy chair in November and bluster that the earwigs are no match for me. I’m sure I’ll be sorry, but I miss having the guaranteed color in the front of my borders.
One of my favorite small marigold cultivars is Bonanza ‘Bolero’. It’s a 1999 AAS winner that grows 10 to 12 inches tall with cheery red and gold flowers:
