Dwarf French marigold

The French marigold is annual and dies with the first frost. You cannot overwinter it. If you want your own plants next year, cut off a few spent, brown heads in autumn, let the seeds dry fully and keep them dry, dark and cool until sowing again from February/March.

You propagate Tagetes patula var. nana exclusively by sowing. It is an annual summer flower and forms neither runners nor daughter plants that you could divide. To start it under cover, sow from February to mid-March on the windowsill or in a greenhouse: scatter the seeds thinly on moist seed compost and cover them only with a whisper of compost or press them in lightly, because French marigold is a light-germinating seed and does not germinate under a thick layer of soil. At 18 to 20 °C the seed germinates after about one to three weeks. Keep the medium evenly moist and stand the tray in a bright place. As soon as the young plants can be handled easily, prick them out singly into pots and stand them bright and rather cool so they do not become leggy (shoots too long and soft). After the Ice Saints, mid-May at the earliest, plant them in the bed or in a pot, because French marigold is not frost-hardy. Harden them off for a few days beforehand. Alternatively, direct sowing outdoors also works from the end of April to May in a sunny spot. The name “nematode marigold” refers to the nematicidal effect of the roots against plant-parasitic nematodes. This property is in the species itself, so you reliably get it through bought nematode seed. You can in principle sow seed you have collected yourself, but with commercial varieties or F1 mixes in particular, the offspring often do not come true to type and may look different from the parent plant.