200 Giant Marigold Seeds (FREE SHIPPING IN SA)

Transform your garden this spring with 200 Giant Marigold Seeds. These seeds will grow into very hardy knee-high plants that will flower through the summer and are suited to the hot South African summers.

FREE SHIPPING THROUGHOUT SOUTH AFRICA

Flats of shin-high yellow and orange marigolds carpet most garden centers in the spring, but you don't have to settle for ordinary marigolds in your garden. A quick look through a seed catalogue -- online or on paper -- shows marigolds in diverse sizes, colours and flower forms. "Giant Yellow" marigold (Tagetes erecta "Giant Yellow"), an African marigold cultivar, produces sunny yellow chrysanthemum-like blooms 3 inches in diameter atop 2 1/2- to 3-foot stems. An excellent choice for summer-long colour at the back of a border, the plant is unlikely to be available as a nursery transplant. Start it from seed indoors six to eight weeks before last projected frost.

Planting Instructions:

• Fill a planting flat with moistened seed-starting mixture.
  
• Sow "Giant Yellow" marigold seeds 1/4 inch deep and 1/2 inch apart, firming the seed-starting mix over the brush-like seeds.
  
• Place the tray on a waterproof seed-starting heat mat or in another area where the temperature is between 70 and 75 degrees F. Cover with the tray's plastic dome cover or with plastic wrap.
  
• Keep the tray moist, but not soggy until the seeds germinate. African marigold seeds germinate in seven to 14 days.
  
• Remove the dome or plastic when the seedlings emerge. Continue to keep the developing plants moist, but not wet.
  
• Move seedlings to bright, indirect natural light, or under fluorescent light with the light about 6 inches above the plants as they grow.
  
• Fertilize the seedlings with diluted liquid fertilizer every two weeks to make up for the low fertility of the seed-starting mix.
  
• Separate plants into individual pots when they have four to six true leaves.
  
• Move seedlings to a sheltered place outdoors when all danger of frost has passed. Over the course of a week, expose the plants to direct sunlight and outdoor temperatures for a few hours each day until they are outside for a full 24 hours with no wilting or other signs of stress.
  
• Plant "Giant Yellow" marigold seedlings 12 to 18 inches apart in full sun -- at least six hours per day -- in an area with good drainage. Water in well. The plants are drought tolerant once they're established.

Actual pictures from a Johannesburg Garden