Tagetes erecta Lemon Mum Seeds - Marigold

Tagetes erecta Lemon Mum is a particularly heavy blooming and cheerful variety of Marigold or African Marigold, whose large, lemon-yellow, pompom-like flowers brighten up the garden or terrace from summer until the first frosts. These very double inflorescences are as curly as the Chrysanthemums sold on All Saints' Day and stand out beautifully against its pretty olive green foliage. This vigorous variety combines well with brighter or softer-coloured blooms in window boxes, borders and flower beds.

Tagetes erecta, better known as Marigold or African Marigold, is a plant of the family Asteraceae, native to Mexico, Central America and Western South America. This species of tender perennial has given rise to many varieties and hybrids, including 'Lemon Mum', a recent variety bred by the English seed company Thompson & Morgan. Within a few months' time, this annual plant forms vigorous bushy clumps measuring 65-75 cm high and 40-45 cm wide. Its branched stems are covered with deeply cut, pinnate, dark olive green foliage, which carries a distinct, slightly acrid fragrance, which can even be considered as unpleasant. It is a remarkably generous and long-flowering bloomer : its yellow, slightly twisted flowers are grouped into very double, globular, slightly flattened pseudanthia that measure 8-10 cm in diameter. The centre of the inflorescences are coloured yellow-green.

Marigolds are excellent summer bed plants. Although some may dislike them for their garish colours, their pungent scent or their excessively neat appearance, their truly accommodating nature and their incredible cheerfulness must not be so easily put aside. The abundant blooms and long-flowering period of the 'Lemon Mum' variety allow for an infinite number of combinations in summer and autumn beds. It can be easily be combined with blue, purple, violet, pink or red asters and sage, or with annual poppies, producing scenes that never lack in taste. They also perform very well in pots, making it possible to decorate the terrace or balcony in a very short time.

The smell of the marigold's foliage and the substances secreted by their roots repel certain insects that are harmful to crops, which is why these plants are often planted between vegetables in the garden. A food colouring called zeaxanthin or E151h, a natural pigment safe for human consumption, is extracted from the marigold.