Marigolds have become some of the most popular bedding flowers, and for good reason. They require little care and bloom continuously throughout summer and fall, adding warm, bright colors to your garden.
Marigold / © TSN
Since they bloom so frequently, you may be unsure what to do with spent marigold blooms when you find them on healthy plants.
To help answer this question, The Spruce spoke with gardening experts about how to handle spent marigold flowers.
Should You Deadhead Marigolds When Flowers Die
Spent blooms from healthy marigold plants can be collected and composted, though what you do with the plant depends on what variety you have in your garden. You can either snip off faded blooms as they finish flowering or allow them to bloom in waves, cutting back the entire plant at once to remove spent flowers. This will encourage the plant to produce a new flush of blooms simultaneously.
Sometimes, marigold flowers die due to improper watering or weather conditions. The problem usually lies with the conditions—too much water, not enough water, too much heat, cold snaps, etc. They are rarely eaten by animals or insects and are not prone to diseases.
In other cases, the flowers have simply finished their life cycle. Pollination is a good sign that your flowers are in the final stages. At this point, the petals will fade and fall off, having served their purpose of attracting pollinators and directing their resources toward maturing seeds that are developing in that flower head.
While marigold plants often have flowers in several stages of development, leaving spent blooms in place can lead to fewer blooms in the long run.
Marigolds will continue to bloom without deadheading, but they will produce fewer flowers overall and finish blooming earlier in the season if spent blooms are not removed.
How to Deadhead Marigolds
Spent blooms can be cut with scissors, shears, pruners, or your fingers, depending on what you have handy. The standard technique for removing spent blooms is to cut back to a leaf or a branching stem.
How far down the stem you cut the flower is a matter of personal preference.
If you are short on time or don’t have gardening equipment on hand, don’t worry—it’s not an exact science. Marigolds are quite vigorous and resilient, and although cutting back to a standard technique is considered best practice, they can also be cut or pinched off just above the flower head without any negative consequences.
When Your Marigolds Will Bloom Again
Typically, new marigold blooms will appear about a week or two after spent blooms are removed. If you deadhead marigolds regularly, they will continue to produce flowers until the first frost.
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