Michigan Marigolds

Marigolds glow. Their dense, ruffled pom-pom heads open in every shade of a sunset, blazing orange, deep gold, rust, and soft cream, carried on sturdy, well-branched stems bred for the cutting garden rather than the flower bed. For years the plant was dismissed as a humble bedding edging, but the tall cutting varieties have won over florists for the sheer warmth and texture they bring to autumn work. Part of the character is the scent, resinous, earthy, and herbal, a fragrance that is unmistakably marigold and tells you at once the flower is fresh.

Marigolds are not a Michigan wildflower. The genus Tagetes is native to Mexico and Central America, where it has carried deep meaning since Aztec times and still crowns the altars of Dia de los Muertos as the flower of the dead, a history laid out on the Wikipedia page for Tagetes erecta. Here they grow as a tender, heat-loving annual, sown after the last frost and cut by our member farmers from midsummer until the first hard freeze knocks them back, which is why the richest, biggest heads tend to arrive in the warm weeks of September and early October.

That short vase life is exactly why marigolds are worth buying close to home. They do not ship well, and blooms trucked in from far away often arrive tired, with soft heads and faded color. Gathered fresh from our member farmers’ fields, the collective’s marigolds reach you with firm heads and that full spicy fragrance still intact, ready to string into garlands or anchor a warm-toned arrangement. Reserve a DIY bucket for a wedding or harvest event, ask us to fold marigolds into a mixed bucket, or let our floral designers build them into something for you.