Marigold, French Marigold 'Jolly Jester'

Bought Livingston seeds and expected shakey results from them as always, but the Jolly Jester colors lured me in. I also had to have Mari...Read Moregolds for the heirloom tomatoes to repel nematodes. Lanky growth structure but nice deep green foliage. Had to water often in ground and container. Very easily disturbed by rain and wind. They kind of have a tendency to vine and will grow roots up the length of the plant. Had to train a few as they were choking my peppers with their awkward growth. Most flowers were underdeveloped and lacked the maroon uniform striping. Had under a dozen that actually bloomed like the picture. However I will collect seeds and repeat next year as I did enjoy the blooms that did produce beautifully. Major attractor for butterflies. Gorgeous Gem Marigold if it will cooperate for you.

What a disappointment Jolly Jester was. The Tagetes patula seeds came from a Livingston packet. They had a high germination rate and gr...Read Moreew reliably, but the small, one inch flowers were only vaguely like the picture printed on the package. A flower with regular, alternating dark and light petals was very rare. Most of the blossoms just showed an irregular checkering of dark petals. I would not grow them again.

The good news was that more than half of the plants turned out to be a version of double French marigold with mixed color combinations. These were bushy and attractive plants; blooming heavily and lasting until frost.

Well, I bought this from SSE and it says 24 to 30 inches tall when I bought the seeds. This spec sheet on dave's garden says 12 inches. <...Read Morebr />
Well, mine are over 5 foot tall and very late to bloom. I started them early in the spring. I'll get images together and upload.

The entire plant is VERY strong smelling of "Marigold", more than others that I have grown, which I love the smell of them.

They are suppose to be great to control nematodes.

The only complaint I have is the size of it. Because I try to plant by the larger of the size that they give on the package. So, I had to bend them backwards so my peppers and tomatoes would get some sun light!

They are very full in leaves!