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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.... 

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Garden Inspiration: Small Colorful Flower Bed

The small corner of a patio can make a big beautiful impact when  packed with heat tolerant plants.

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Garden Inspiration: Flower Garden Design For A Small Patio

This is a great example to show that a beautiful flower garden can happen even in small townhome patios.

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When One Plant Dies, Another Is Brought Home Alive

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Growing flowers from seeds isn't as easy as I thought.  Many gardening websites and blogs just make it sound so easy; as if all I have to do is to just toss the seeds in my patio, pat them down in the soil and flowers will just grow.  It is under this fantasy that I planted Mexican sunflowers from seeds.  The seeds germinated well and they had a strong start in sprouting. Then for reasons I still don't know (probably due to my lack of gardening skills),  most of my Mexican sunflowers seedlings just died off.  As of now,  I have two Mexican sunflowers seedlings left that are barely alive.  I have no high hope for these two because they look so frail.   

It's kind of heart breaking to see the death of  something that I had been tenderly nurturing.  I can't imagine how  parents who lost their children to illness, murders, accidents, disasters cope, when I feel so sad just over the loss of one dozen plus of my seedlings.  To fill such void in my heart and to help myself recover from my loss, I just had to go to Trader Joe's to bring a pot of big bloom home.  I have no idea how to care for Godetia, I had never heard of these flowers before but I brought the plant home anyway because the bloom is cheap for its size at $5.99.

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.