Anyone grown calendula seedlings?

[trytoignoreit]

I had grown quite a few, my first attempt alongside some violas, but they are still very tiny and I have lost loads over the last two weeks separating them out. I have them outside covered in makeshift plastic which I opened in the day, but just shifted them out to by the fence. I hope no slugs and snails are around So my question is, is one tiny four leaf plant enough to plant out? I'm just worried they will grow big. They are in those card pots.

I had a bit of a mishap with some different seeds last year, I planted out loads and ended up with whole beds of the same thing joined together.

I have pricked out my tiny ones into lager pots, this has helped them mature and they’re now just in the ground.
However, there are some self sown ones that are tiny and just this week popping through. This is their more natural way of growing and they should be fine.
When I put the first few out from the green house, I made little cloches from halve of 2L water bottles, it gave them some protection.

Depends where you are I think? We could still have a late frost up here so I've put about a third of my calendulas in the ground, another third in a polytunnel and the rest are still in the conservatory. No harm in covering your bases!

I imagine the self-sown ones that Beebumble2 mentioned were from last year's flowering.
I sowed some into tiny plus in my greenhouse a few weeks ago. They are now looking healthy with just a few leaves, less than 2 inches in height so have potted them on. I think they are too small to go in the ground yet.
I may direct sow some when the weather warms up, and would expect them to flower late summer/early autumn.

@TrojaninTroy @TiddleTaddleTat @Beebumble2

What do you think ?

Do I plant just one? Will get massive and over take smaller bedding plants?

No won't get massive . Just little plants. Monty Don was planting his out on friday's gardeners world.

@trytoignoreit
Mine are just that bigger. But I won't be planting mine out yet as I live on chalk, and marigolds are very vulnerable to slugs & snails. Monty doesn't seem to have that much of a problem with them at Long Meadow. So as to whether you plant them out might depend very much on conditions where you live.

Posting 2 pics, bigger one started off in the greenhouse, the second shows two self sown seedlings from last years seed.

@Beebumble2 yours look much more robust, I'll give these a few weeks to hopefully fill out before planting out. No frost here now, I'm down south, not exposed. I just feel I've been growing these for so long and they are still so tiny, I don't have a greenhouse so they were on my windowsill, then been outside since start of may. Looking forward to some nice flowers.

I’m sure they’ll romp away now their outside.

They’re *

Mine do get pretty big and tend to flop all over the place later in the season.