How to Save Marigold Seeds will give you step-by-step instructions on how to grow your own marigolds year after year without buying new plants. They are one of the easiest flowers to grow.
If you’re looking for more gardening tips, The Best Cottage Flowers to Grow and How to Grow Roses will help you on your journey.
Fun Facts About Marigolds
Heirloom varieties of marigold blooms will produce exact replicas of their parents. Hybrid marigold plants will grow flowers that vary from the parent plants.
Marigolds are edible flowers that look beautiful in salads and on cakes.
The Aztecs believed that marigolds had medicinal powers besides being beautiful flowers.
Plant these beautiful blooms in your vegetable garden as an excellent companion plant to help with garden pests. They also attract beneficial insects. Homesteaders like to plant marigolds around the perimeter of their vegetable gardens.
Marigolds are annual flowers, but when you save the seeds and plant them in your garden beds, you don’t have to repurchase more plants.
For more fun facts about marigolds, check out this article from justfunfacts.com.
Creating a Cozy Life Group
Since you found this article on How to Harvest Marigold Seeds, I’m guessing you love all things cozy living. I created a Facebook group called Creating a Cozy Life with over 120,000 like-minded souls.
It’s a group where we share recipes, pictures of things that leave you in awe, and ideas on how to make your life just a little bit more snug. You can join here to be part of the virtual cozy cottage.
Here’s How to Save Marigold Seeds
How to Harvest Marigold Seeds
Wait until after the first frost to cut off your dead marigold seed heads at the base of each flower with clean shears. October is usually the best time to save your seeds at the end of the season.
How to Dry Marigold Seeds
The best way to dry marigolds is to place them on a paper plate with edged sides and let them dry for at least a week. Keep in mind that moisture is the enemy of seed keepers, so you want to make sure your seeds are throughly dry. The edges on the paper plates is an easy way to keep your seeds in place. You could also another flat surface like a paper towel or brown paper bag to place your seeds on.
Keep the plates of dried marigold heads in a dry place in your home.
How to Harvest Marigold Seeds
After the week is up, place the hulls between your fingers and rub them between your fingers to release the marigold seeds. The seed pods should remove the seeds easily.
What Does a Marigold Seed Look Like?
How to Save Marigold Seeds for Next Year
Save your marigold seeds in a glass jar, paper envelope, seed packet, or a brown paper lunch bag. Add a label to either the glass jar or envelope with the type of seed pod and the date. Place seeds in a dark place like a cool basement.
Giving your family and friends your homemade seed packets as gifts is a wonderful way to spread the beauty of flowers. Create a gift basket with gloves, a gardening book, gardening gloves, and a packet of marigold seeds. They will remember you as the person that encouraged them to grow marigolds and will love you for it!
How to Plant Marigold Seeds
You can start your marigold seeds indoors in starter pots before the first frost. If you prefer to plant your flower seeds in the garden, wait until after the last frost date.
Marigold seeds are best planted at least one inch apart and place seeds no more than one inch deep in the soil. Plant your seeds where they will receive direct sunlight. You’ll soon have a whole new generation of marigolds to greet your visitors next season.
What You Don’t Know About Marigolds – A Garden Superstar!
In Summary
Saving marigold seeds is a simple and rewarding process, whether your working with African marigolds (Tagetes erecta), Signet marigolds (Tagetes tenuifolia), or Pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis). For African marigolds, the large seed heads will form on tall stems, while Signet marigolds produce smaller seed heads.
By saving marigold seeds, you can ensure a bountiful harvest year after year, while also saving money and preserving the unique characteristic of each variety.
We’ve reached the end of How to Save Marigold Seeds for next year. I hope you enjoyed it!
Let me know in the comments below what your favorite type of marigold plant is and how you use the flowers. Once you start to grow marigold flowers, you won’t be able to stop.
Don’t forget to join the Creating a Cozy Life Group. You’re not going to believe how amazing it is!
I created a Harvest Flowers and Store Marigold seeds pin below for you to add to your Pinterest board below so you can refer back to it.
You can follow me here on PINTEREST. If you followed these tips, be sure to tag me on INSTAGRAM.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m so happy you found us!
More Gardening Articles You’ll Love
- Tips on Gardening for Beginners
- 11 Reasons to Start an Herb Garden
- How to Grow a Victory Garden
- How to Create a Tea Garden – The Best Ideas!
- How to Grow Chives
- How to Grow Rosemary
- How to Keep Rabbits Out of Your Garden
- 10 Tips to Growing Violas
- 13 Tips on How to Grow Snapdragons
Bonnie
Friday 15th of September 2023
Can you pull the plant mid sept and hang to dry. Then harvest? Thanks
Kelly
Sunday 17th of September 2023
Hello Bonnie! It depends on your area. I would look at your zone and see when the best time to harvest your marigolds are. - Kelly
K Carlton
Wednesday 23rd of November 2022
An avid marigold seed saver and planter, I read this article and realized that except for one thing, you are the ONLY source I've read who does this almost exactly as I do. This year I had marigolds all over my yard - in every bed and along the sides of my driveway, etc. Have never enjoyed more beautiful annuals, and there were hundreds. I plant mine using an abundance of seeds, and they grow into Marigold Bushes, as I call them. Areas sometimes 2 -3 feet by 2-3 feet. This year I had mixed colors everywhere of my burgundy and burgundy and orange flowers. Everyone who saw them fell in love, even my daughter in NY who has said she would never waste her time on annuals. Your photos of the seed heads were so great and so in keeping with the way I collect mine. I don't purposely wait until they are brown and dried up, cutting them much earlier in the process, as your photos show. I also put mine on paper plates with edges and store them on top of my kitchen cabinets until Spring. The only thing you didn't mention is that I either cut off or pinch off the remainder of the bloom and pull my seeds from the seed heads. Lots of trouble, but a fun winter project over the cold months. I find it very meditative. That way, my seeds are never stuck together - each one is separate. This year we got an early freeze, and I actually cut off some blooms rather than lose them. I'll dry these the same way but have kept them separate just to see if they will germinate after being plucked so early.
Thanks from one marigold lover to another. Kathy C in Hanover County, VA outside of the Richmond area. This is 1/23/22.
Kelly
Wednesday 23rd of November 2022
You're very welcome Kathy! I live near Raleigh now, so we are practically neighbors! I love going to a huge antique mall you have up there. Gorgeous area. - Kelly
35 Best Fairy Garden Plants (& I've tried A LOT of plants!) | Fairy Garden DIY
Monday 27th of June 2022
[…] easy to save seeds from Marigolds also, so you can grow your own year after […]