Perhaps you should consider adding some nutritional support for you plants. Annuals can be heavy feeders, requiring plenty of available dissolved elements for flowering, cell division, sturdy stems, strong cell walls, and much more. Another factor in this situation could be the amount of sunlight that your marigolds receive. Anything less than many hours of full sun could result in weakened, spindly stems. It should go without saying that few plants will withstand torrential rains and extremely strong winds, especially soft topheavy plants such as marigolds.

If emailing and telephoning doesn't work, I would send him a snail mail stating all the facts and requesting replacement. Hopefully, you are making sure that the plant is being thoroughly watered on a proper schedule.

Sorry about the damage to your son's tree. Not fun. I have to say, I am not a big fan of 'Desert Museum' palo verde trees. I know they are the "in" and trendy tree right now and are being planted everywhere, in commercial settings especially, but I think they are awfully lanky and gangly and subject to a lot of wind damage. They're popular because they grow very quickly, and low litter and generally thornless, but that quick growth makes their branches shoot up and look boring and weak (to me). I know, I know, a ton of people have them and love them, and I think the best ones are ones that get regular pruning and not too much water. I'm not saying I'd never try one if I ever moved to a new garden, but I would expect to have to prune it a lot to keep it looking nice and to keep it from getting storm damage and honestly, I just don't think a lot of plant sellers are telling people that part. Your son can prune his to try to create a shape he likes and that's a decent approach. I've seen some very nice ones around town, but again, they're getting regular pruning to thin them out and to make interesting branches. If he replaces it, I'd suggest getting a non-hybrid native Palo Verde if possible. In any case, he can defitely give it a good haircut and see how it progresses. Thinning out and removing a lot of the thin branches will help its appearance for sure. Good luck to him. Let's see what our other members say too. Take care, Grant

Looks normal to me. The one on the left is just a little leggy or top-heavy. Maybe also with the ones you circled in red. I plant my seedlings in cups that are filled to within a half-inch of the rim. Then when the plants come up, I mound soil around their stems to prop them up better. For tomatoes, which root from the stem, that works exceptionally well. Not clear that you have that option in those little bags. But when you plant out, just plant them deeply enough that the stem can be straight up. Not sure where you are, but if in 5b, it may be a long time until you plant out. In that case, just pot up deeply.