Marigolds are simple flowers often looked down upon by more serious gardeners. Yet with complex origins and significance across cultures, there is a lot to recommend them. They are symbolic in rituals surrounding death in both India and Mexico. This is paradoxical, since marigolds are survivors, deterring deer and cold and coming back year after year when the seedpods are left among the leaf litter at the end of the growing season.
Robert Gardner’s “Forest of Bliss,” his stunning 1985 documentary about daily life in Varanasi, India’s most holy city, was what raised marigolds in my eyes from their usual role edging walkways. There, on the Manikarnika Ghat, marigold sellers provide flowers to mourners readying to cremate the dead. The flowers have wide meaning in Hindu thought, representing purity, strength, and new beginnings.
To varying degrees, I have had marigolds on my mind since seeing the film’s New York premiere at the American Museum of Natural History when it was first released. But none of the ones I planted from seed in the years following matched what I thought I remembered. More recently, a packet of Red Cherry French seeds from the esteemed distributor Geo Seeds has come closest; my straggler near the outdoor shower is a second or third-generation descendant. Over time, these rubies have back-evolved to a nearly all-yellow flower with red stripes.
It is remarkable that marigolds originated here in this hemisphere, in Mexico. They are said to have been used in Aztec funerary rituals. They figure heavily in Dia de los Muertos celebrations, their pungency intended to help guide lost souls.