Mexican Marigold

Tagetes lemmonii marigold grows quickly into a loose, rounded shrub. With age, the base often opens up and turns a bit leggy. Its leaves are pinnately divided, meaning that each leaf splits into several narrow, toothed leaflets along a central stalk. This fine texture gives the whole plant a soft, feathery look. The flower heads are small versions of a classic marigold. A ring of golden ray florets, the outer petal-like parts, surrounds a center of tiny disc florets. In mild-winter areas, the shrub stays green through most of the year. It can also flower over a very long season, sometimes for months at a time.

This species comes from the mountain canyons and oak woodlands of southern Arizona and nearby Mexico. It grows there at moderate elevations, not on the hot desert floor. That background explains much about how it behaves in the garden. Once established, it handles heat and dry spells well. But in low, blazing deserts, it does best with a little afternoon shade and an occasional deep soak, mimicking the shelter of a shaded canyon. Its bloom is tied to the shorter days and cooler nights of autumn, which is why the heaviest color arrives in fall, after most summer flowers fade. Those cool-season blooms feed bees and butterflies when little else is open. The pungent foliage, meanwhile, tends to keep deer from browsing.

The plant honors John Gill Lemmon and Sarah Plummer Lemmon, botanists who collected widely in the mountains of the Southwest in the late 1800s. It shares the genus Tagetes with the familiar annual marigolds of vegetable gardens. Even so, this one is a woody perennial that lives for years, not a single season. In the colder parts of its range, a hard freeze can kill the top growth. Established plants usually resprout from the roots once spring returns. The foliage is not considered toxic. Still, its strong aromatic oils can irritate sensitive skin, so it is worth wearing gloves to prune it if you tend to react to fragrant plants.