Myth, Magic and Marigolds

Slip into a glow of orange petals leading to an altar of blooms.

While the marigold is a common flower, it’s anything but ordinary—a flicker of magic found in traditions around the world. The Aztecs believed its blooms could split the veil, glowing on both sides of life and death. During Día de los Muertos in Mexico, bright orange blossoms spill across altars and wind over graves, beckoning spirits with their scent—a thick, sharp sweetness, like smoke and citrus together.

Centuries ago, Spanish and Portuguese traders brought marigolds to India, where they found new soil and purpose. Today, garlands of saffron, tangerine and deep rust petals color festivals like Diwali in vibrant hues. During Bathukamma in Telangana, women gather marigolds, celosia, senna and pumpkin flowers, stacking them into cone-shaped towers around which they sing and dance—a tribute to earth’s abundance.

In this edition of Arrangements, we kneel at the altar of the marigold—a bloom that reaches across cultures and centuries, inviting us to linger in its warm, golden light.

1. Artist and designer Juan Renteria’s altar captures the spirit of Mexican tradition through marigolds, candles and symbolic offerings. Renteria, born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles, weaves his heritage into each project, using a blend of textures and colors to tell a story. 

2. Larissa Lockshin’s “Love Sick” channels the radiance of marigolds—not only through the floral forms but in the bronze tones that flood the satin surface. The fabric shimmers like petals in sunlight, each stroke blurring the line between abstraction and nature. 

3. In Molly Greene’s “Armed Response,” orange flowers blaze against braided brown hair, merging human and plant in a surreal reimagining of familiar materials. It invites us to reconsider the connections between body, nature and where they meet.

4. Joe Rudko’s "Marigold Double" layers found photographs into a mosaic, like marigold fields in full bloom. Interlaced patterns and bursts of yellow, gold and brown evoke petal upon petal, capturing the flower’s brilliance and depth.

5. Catherine Howe’s “Marigold” delves into the power of paint, using acrylic and mica to create swirling, textured surfaces. The shimmering play of metallic and matte blurs the line between the real and ethereal.

6. Pia Riverola’s Flechazo is a love letter to Mexico, where marigolds spill from markets into everyday scenes: a truck brims with bright blooms, a figure drifts through a cloud of just-picked flowers. Blending documentary and artistry, Riverola captures Mexico’s bond with nature in vivid, fleeting glimpses.

7. Rhea’s floral installation in Bali frames a waterfall with cascading marigold strands. The burnished blooms hang like curtains, their hues striking against the lush green backdrop and rushing water.

8. This ceramic candlestick holder by Nymph Squad glows in clementine, with delicate petals and a curling stem, like a flower just unfurling.

9. Mexico City–based perfumery Xinú, inspired by the botany of the Americas, captures the spirit of its landscapes. OroNardo—a fragrance of Mexican tuberose, marigold spice and orange blossom—feels like sunlight filtering through petals, a bouquet freshly plucked.

10. Marigolds aren’t just for gardens; their citrusy, peppery blossoms bring brightness to food. At Noma, they’re transformed into crisp, fried flowers—golden and delicate—served with egg yolk and whisky sauce, each petal crackling with a flavor both familiar and entirely new.

11. Aimee France’s olive oil cake, layered with lemon cardamom fig jam and brown butter crème fraîche buttercream, is topped with marigolds, chamomile and a single fig plucked from her backyard. France’s style is whimsical and textured—a floral explosion, as if freshly gathered from the garden.

12. Mari Gold, a Mexico City restaurant led by husband-and-wife chefs Norma Listman and Saqib Keval, blends their Mexican and South Asian roots. “When I first came to Mexico, I remember when Norma took me to the flower market for the first time, and just seeing these massive garlands of marigolds,” Saqib reflects, “I was like, I can never leave here. This is it.”

13. Catalan author Mercè Rodoreda’s Garden by the Sea is a quiet, poetic novel told through the eyes of a gardener. Its cover shows a figure dissolving into marigolds, as if vanishing into the blooms—a nod to the solitude and observation woven through its pages.

14. Finally, I leave you with Alex Isley’s Marigold—an album inspired by the flower’s symbolism of joy and celebration.

A pair stands before the Oaxacan landscape, crowned in marigolds, orchids and anthuriums. Photo by Giana Maris.