My First African Marigold Is Still Standing

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

A pretty garden isn't built overnight.  I really have a lot of respect for those of you who have a blooming and beautiful garden.  I can barely keep my couple of plants alive.  For weeks, I've gone out to my patio to obsessively check on my Marigolds, looking for leaves eating insects to squash!  Of course I never found any insect during my countless garden inspections.  One time, I did get 3 ugly snugs (yes, just 3) in a bowl of beer I put out overnight.  There are so many holes on the leaves of my Marigolds that I have no idea what creature is feeding on them.  As of now, I just give up.  Instead of obsessively checking the plant countless times on a daily basis, I'm now only spending a couple minutes every other day, on watering and inspection;  and for once every 4 days, I spray the 100% all natural insecticide on the soil.  I don't spray on the leaves anymore because I have been burning them.

I've stopped fussing over my Marigolds because my investment of time on them didn't generate the numerous flowers that I had been expecting.  Many of the buds just died without ever blooming.  It's not lacking of buds. There are always numerous buds forming, but they always die as the buds.  I have no idea if it was due to the all natural insecticide that I had been spraying on them, or it was due to some mysterious diseases or insects.  Whatever it is that's been killing the buds of my Marigolds, it's still able to maintain 3 flowers at all time, and never more than 3.  When one of the 3 flowers died, another bloomed to make up for the dead one I pinched off.  But 3 is where my single plant of African Marigold plateaus.  Compared to how the plant looked back in April, it's not looking much worse now.  I should be glad that this $1.00 Marigold plant is still standing.  As of now, I have given up my futile battles against nature (like insects or god knows what organisms that eat my plant)  to fight for the life all the flower buds.  As long as there are still 3 flowers, I am content.  I've learnt to chill now, through my lessons with gardening.

Saving My French Marigolds From Leaves Eating Bugs

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Gardening teaches me a lesson in not trusting everything I read or see on the internet  or any media at face value.  I spent my $1.00 to buy a dainty little French Marigold plant after learning from the internet that French Marigolds are pest-resistant, heat tolerant and low-maintenance.  After buying my little pot, I dreamt of it growing big in the container and producing lots of bright orange flowers.   But like all dreams, dreams are always just dreams.  Dreaming to have a blooming Marigold plant doesn't actually make it happen.  My French Marigold was literally wilting under the sun.

After I solved the wilting-in-the-heat problem in my last post, I started to see holes on the leaves of my French Marigolds.  Some bugs, and I don't know what in particular, have been munching on my marigolds!  So I went on Amazon.com to look for something that can kill bugs organically. After reading a dozen ingredient lists, I bought Mantis MPP003 Botanical Insecticide/Miticide ($19.95 for 32 fl oz).  I bought this spray among all the brands because this one has 100% all natural listed ingredients, while others, even though branded as organic; have 30% of unlisted ingredients which I don't want to take a chance with.  I just don't want to expose myself to more chemical in addition to all the chemical lawn sprays and god knows what other sprays the landscaping company contracted by my landlord's HOA has been spraying all the time on a weekly basis.  

Eager to kill whatever bugs that have been chewing on my plant, I mistakenly sprayed this 100% organic insecticide in the strong afternoon sun without reading the product direction first, so I burnt the tips of some leaves.....

Aside from the burning mistakes I made, my French Marigold seems to be surviving as of now, with new flowers showing up.... 

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

Potted Marigolds Don't Do Well Under The Full Southern California Sun?

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Over the weekend, I planted my first French Marigold into the ground next to my African Marigold. When I purchased the potted single-flower French Mariglold plant at $1.00 from the grocery store, I was intending to keep the plant in its pot because I like the idea of easily moving the plant to anywhere around the home when I feel like it.  After a couple weeks sitting in the pot in the patio under the cool nice spring weather, the plant seemed to do well and actually produced 2 more flowers. I even deadheaded the oldest original flower, as demonstrated in the gardening video; in an attempt to encourage more bloom.

All went pretty good until a few days ago, the weather sort of changed to become hotter with a stronger sun. I went into a panic when I saw my potted marigolds go  limp. (See photo below.)  I was scared that the supposedly easy-to-grow, and heat-resistant marigolds would die on me.  The fact that my thumb could be so black that I couldn't even handle the supposedly hardy marigolds was just too humiliating to even think about.

I still can't believe that the full sun (morning or noon or any hour)  here in Southern California actually can  wilt a potted French Marigold plant in just a couple hours, despite the regular watering.  (No wonder humans actually get skin cancer from just hanging out by the beach.)  After seeing that the African Marigolds in the ground seem to do a little better under the sun, I planted the French Marigolds into the ground too.   It became perky again after the strong sun subsided. (See the first photo on the very top.)  I don't know why every gardening video is saying that Marigolds love full sun, because my potted one doesn't seem to like it that much.  I wonder if the full-sun advice only applies to Marigolds that are planted into the ground?

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

My First African Marigold

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

I'm never a patient person, and growing flowers from seeds takes too much patience.  While waiting for my Mexican sunflowers to sprout from seeds, I became restless and wanted to see some flowers in my ugly weedy patio.  I had wished that the dandelions would take over the patio and crowd out those grassy flowerless ugly weeds. But it just isn't happening. There were only a few dainty dandelions and they didn't seem to be spreading. They flowered, they died and then nothing.  I have no idea why many people hate dandelions so much and often take extreme measures to use chemical to kill them.   I will never want any chemical in my patio, even though it's only my rental.  I had made a pact with my landlord to not send his gardeners to my place. I rather have a patio filled with weeds than having a barren toxic and chemical soaked patio right outside my living room.   Besides, I kind of like the dandelion's dainty and delicate yellow flowers.  I would love to see them blooming all over the patio.

After watching the video on how Marigolds are the easiest plants to grow for spring, summer and fall, I picked up one wilting African Marigold plant that had only one yellow pom-pom flower for $1.00 when I was shopping for grocery.  I guess it was $1.00 because it wasn't looking too good and the grocery store just wanted to get rid of it.

I brought it home and I just put it in the the same hole where I dug out the dead dandelion plant. That was over a week ago. I have been watering it every other day (without using fertilizer). Now  I am seeing a couple new flowers starting to bloom....  Not bad for $1.00.

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.

The Beauty of Marigolds