Marigold Garlands

The heavy smoke over head has felt a little bit like winter with the gray, overcast feeling. Fortunately, compared to actual winter—we still have flowers blooming! The flowers and the bright colors in our garden have seemed to pop even more against the smoky skies. I wanted to save some of this cheery color for the winter time, so the community gardens team made marigold garlands. If you want to try out this fun project yourself, here’s what you need to know.

Materials

Marigolds! Any variety will do. Next year, I plan to shop seed catalogs for the perfect variety for this project. I’ve got my eye on these fluffier ones from Johnny’s Seeds...
Garden snips or shears for cutting marigolds.
A bowl or bag to gather marigold heads.
Needle - a long one is ideal. I used a sashiko needle for this.
Thread or thread like material. For this project, I used waxed floss. It’s hardier than sewing thread, and the wax had the bonus of catching the marigolds (and keeping them in place) better. Embroidery floss would be good too.

Instructions — It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Gather marigolds
I preferred to snip pretty close to the base of the flower, without leaving much stem, so my flowers would be snug on the garland.
Thread marigolds
Here’s where you can get creative. You can thread from bottom to top of the flower to create a stacked appearance, or thread from left to right so all the flowers face downwards. Or, so many other things!
Hang and display!
You’ll need to leave room at the top and the bottom to tie knots in the thread material, then you’re ready to display. The marigolds will start to dry out and change shape. Flowers will usually dry in 2 - 3 weeks. The best place to hang any dried flower is out of direct sunlight in order to keep the color longer.

Considerations:

I suspect the most beautiful garlands are products of flowers that were picked at their peak bloom or just before. This is hard to do in a small patch of flowers unless it becomes an on-going project. Next summer, I might leave my string up and add a few marigolds to the garland each week. As an added bonus—this means you’re continuously dead-heading your flowers, which will be great for new blooms.

Special Note:

Marigold’s have a deep and interesting history of human use. Garlands are used in Day of the Dead celebrations, specifically. We use this art with respect and gratitude to those cultures.