Copper Canyon Daisy

Tagetes lemonii

Characteristics

Culture

As one might expect from its natural habitat, this marigold shrub is drought tolerant, grows in thin soils, and is generally a tough plant. Once Copper Canyon Daisy takes hold in the garden, it requires little water and no fertilizer. An additional virtue is the strong aroma of the foliage deters deer.  Copper Canyon Daisy grows into a perennial shrub up to about 3 feet high, and it may spread to about 5 or 6 feet wide. The 4-inch-long leaves are compound with thin leaflets, giving the foliage a sort of feathery or airy aspect. 

Commonly, Copper Canyon Daisy blooms in both spring and fall. The main flowering period, however, is in late fall. The inch-wide flowers can be so dense that they hide the foliage, producing an eye-catching mound of solid golden-yellow.  Some people enjoy the pungent aroma of this plant, likened to the scent of marigold mixed with lemon and mint, others find the smell quite unpleasant.  Its small, golden yellow flowers attract bees and butterflies.

Noteworthy Characteristics

John and Sara Lemmon, husband and wife and well known field botanists in the 19th century, discovered this species of Tagetes growing in Arizona at elevations from 5000 to 8000 feet, while camping there on their honeymoon in 1880. They sent a cutting to Asa Gray, the renowned botanist at Harvard, to identify. He named it after them. They were passionate about discovering plants as they travelled in the western states, and brought this species of marigold back to their garden in Oakland. From there it was eventually introduced to the nursery trade. Its native range extends from Arizona to the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora. Its natural habitat in the wild is moist canyon grasslands and woodlands, sometimes near streams. 

Other common names used for Tagetes lemmonii are Copper Canyon Marigold, Mountain Marigold and Mexican Marigold. When Cortez conquered the Aztec nation in 1552, the Spaniards plundered the magnificent gardens of Montezuma, and took many strange new plants back to Spain to establish in their monastery gardens. Hundreds of hybrids of Tagetes were developed and spread worldwide over the centuries

Problems

No serious insect or disease problems.

Uses

Accent shrub, sensory gardens, xeriscape, background, low screen, butterfly garden.