Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 1 JuneMarigold foliage on 5 June, not a bud anywhere in it — leaflets narrow and sharply saw-toothed with tiny translucent glands beaded along their margins, and a line of bright orange and yellow and blue pots staged on the drive behind.Week of 29 JuneMarigolds on 1 July, brighter yellow-green than anything around them, one head arching out on a long swollen stalk with its crowded florets only just crumpling out of the top of the tube, clover in white flower underfoot in hard sun.Week of 29 JuneA marigold on 1 July shot from underneath against a cloudless blue, its head held out on a long sinuous stalk that swells straight into a smooth green tube, the florets crumpled and only just pushing out of the top of it.Week of 3 AugustA marigold on 5 August doubled right to the middle, no disc and no stamens showing, its broad rays frilled at the outer edge and folded in on themselves, a few narrow twisted ones still standing up unopened, water sitting clear on every petal.Week of 10 AugustMarigolds on 12 August after rain, five dense doubles of ruffled incurved rays each sitting in a smooth green cup, one open far enough to show the ring of small tubular florets at its middle and three more already dried to rust-brown seed tufts.Week of 24 AugustMarigolds on 26 August, tight double pompoms in two colors at once — bright yellow in the pot at the front, deep orange in the one behind it — packed above finely cut pinnate leaves, with tomato foliage leaning in over them from above.Week of 31 AugustMarigolds from directly above on 3 September, a dozen and more dense pompom heads in deep orange with a few come up pale lemon among them, packed over finely divided dark foliage and standing on wet grass.Week of 7 SeptemberA cut bouquet of six marigolds on a blond wood table on 11 September, three deep golden orange and three lemon yellow set alternately, each a dense ball of ruffled, crinkled florets — a harvest spread blurred on a white cloth behind, in warm indoor light.Week of 28 SeptemberMarigolds on 29 September, roughly eight crested heads open from deep orange through apricot to one clear yellow at lower right, several ray petals flecked brown and creased. A green tomato hangs in at top right under flat overcast light.
