Herb. No. 246 · Asteraceae
Mexican Tagetes; a world bedding plant and a kitchen-garden edge.
Native · Mexico & Central America
French marigold
Tagetes patula
Garden flowersFlowersHarvestCompanionsLookalikes
The scent that nematodes are said to hate — a ruffled Tagetes for the tomato edge, not the pot-marigold of the salve.
French marigold is the compact Tagetes of vegetable gardens. The leaf smells of the dye-works. Gardeners plant it with tomato, potato, and bean as a nematode and whitefly story; the evidence is mixed, the scent is not, and hoverflies use the bloom either way. Calendula officinalis is a different plant (the herbal pot marigold). Do not eat handfuls of patula — lemon gem types (T. tenuifolia) are the culinary Tagetes. This plate is a companion and a cut-flower, with a caution not to confuse the two marigolds.
Flavor
Pungent, dye-works, not a salad flower. Lemon gem is the edible cousin.
Parts used
Flower (companion planting) · Leaf (scent)
Helpful
- Easy from seed
- Flowers until frost
- A real insectary even if the nematode story is half-true
Cautions
- Not calendula
- Not the best edible Tagetes
- Can sulk in rich, wet shade