What it is
Mexican Mint Marigold (Tagetes lucida) is in the Asteraceae (Daisy) family. Texas's tarragon substitute — anise-flavored leaves that shrug off heat, plus yellow fall flowers for pollinators.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it low, and give it well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.5. Space plants about 18 in apart. Expect roughly Cut as needed. Tender perennial; loves heat.
How it's used
Mexican Mint Marigold is used: fresh, tea; like tarragon.
🔎 How to identify it
- Narrow glossy leaves, anise scent
- Bushy upright habit
- Small yellow flowers in fall
Edibility
How to grow & propagate mexican mint marigold
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate mexican mint marigold
The daisy family is a seed family — those flower heads are seed factories, and most members come up fast and willing from direct sowing. The perennial members (coneflower, black-eyed Susan, the native sunflowers) also clump up over a few years and can be lifted and split in fall or early spring to make free plants and keep the center from dying out.
Growing mexican mint marigold in Texas
Give it full sun and well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This one thrives in heat that flattens other plants, so it earns its space through a Texas summer. Get it established before the worst of July, keep water steady, and it'll produce when little else will.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly cut as needed before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting. The part you're after: leaves and flowers.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.