French Marigold
Tagetes patula
A cheerful, compact annual with single or double blooms in reds, oranges and yellows from spring into fall if deadheaded, great in beds and pots, and deer leave it alone. Its scented leaves and flowers are often planted among vegetables to deter pests. Give it sun and soil that drains; humid heat invites mildew.
- Mature size
- 10 in × 1 ft
- 0.3 × 0.3 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 2a–11a
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- Jun–Oct
French Marigold at its mature size
A mature French Marigold grows 6 to 12 inches tall and 6 to 18 inches wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What French Marigold looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Nov–Apr
Not in the ground: planted after the last frost, pulled after the first.
In leaf · May–Oct
Bushy mound of divided leaves covered in orange and yellow pompom flowers.
Growing French Marigold
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Drought tolerant and deer resistant
- Native to
- Mexico and Central America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For French Marigold, that’s about 1 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See French Marigold in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.