Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

These marigolds are in my window box in front of my kitchen. I noticed something fluttering around the window today and realised I needed to get my camera quickly. The monarch was really enjoying the marigold but was not so keen on me getting too close, so thankfully I had my large lens handy. 

I’ve not planted marigolds before, but I decided to have a go this summer and have been rewarded with lots of cheerful blooms. I’ve now started propagating them from seed and have found them remarkably easy to propagate. I grabbed the dried flower heads, pulled the seeds out and sprinkled them on some loose dirt. And up they popped in a couple of days. I did further research and saw some growers recommending the seeds be planted vertically with the white tip at the top. That seems to have worked even better! I suspect I’ll be having to give away marigolds at some point in the future.