Gardening
Plant portrait
African marigolds
Val Bourne admires the mis-named Mexican beauties - and reveals why they make a very useful companion plant for fruits and vegetables
African marigolds actually come from sunny Mexico despite their name and (as you would expect) these half hardy annuals enjoy warm, bright conditions.
April is the perfect month to sow the seeds. Once they germinate, prick them out into trays and plant them outside from mid-May onwards - after the fear of frost has passed. Alternatively you can buy ready-grown trays from garden centres.
African marigolds (Tagetes patula) make excellent companion plants for vegetables and fruit because their flowers are adored by hoverflies. Although adult hoverflies only drink nectar and feed on pollen their larvae are aphid-eating predators. Hoverflies obligingly lay their eggs close to colonies. Once the larvae emerge they eat hundreds of aphids and they keep your cabbages, lettuces, fruit and beans free of pests.
My favourite short varieties are' Naughty Marietta' and 'Honeycomb' (from Mr Fothergill's), 'Solan' (from Thompson & Morgan) and 'Queen Sophia' (from Suttons) and these are perfect among loose-leaf lettuces.
I also like to use taller varieties and the frilly mixture of doubles and singles in 'Bo Jangle' (only available from Sutton's) is my all-time favourite. Mix that with the single maroon and yellow 'Striped Marvel' (from Thompson & Morgan) to create summer razzle-dazzle.
Mr Fothergills - www.mr-fothergills.co.uk
Thompson & Morgan - www.thompson-morgan.com
