Wild flower photos

I've had some like that, JJB. Fun, aren't they?
There is a name for that behaviour but I can't remember what.
Hope you're going to replant it somewhere peaceful.

Not a chance - not even compost - green bin, when Paul has finished cleaning them out .   Sorry.  I don't want marigolds coming up everywhere just because I put them in the compost.  I did cut the flowers and they're in a vase indoors looking very pretty.  I don'tont know whether they make good cut flowers, I expect I'll find out.

You'll have a laugh.  Having dug out marigold I measured out spacing for my block of sweetcorn.   I have 45 plants so 9 x 5.  It all started to go downhill when I thought ' it looks a bit squint'.  Couldn't figure it out.  DUH!  I had 9 down one side and 10 down the other.  There's no hope . Luckily I had only dug the holes to receive the sweetcorn, so no sweetcorn  were harmed in the making of this saga.  Now, if I followed your random method, I wouldn't have had a problem.

Is the name you're looking for fasciation?