When Does Calendula Flower

When Does Calendula Flower?

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Excitedly waiting for the first flowers to appear on your calendula and wondering when they flower? then this article is for you!

When Does Calendula Flower
When Does Calendula Flower

When Does Calendula Flower?

There are two times of the year when you can sow calendula, either in the spring or in the autumn. Calendula sown in the autumn can then be grown on over winter before flowering the following spring.

Spring sown calendula will flower around June or July and then flower well into autumn.

So as you can see, calendula can actually be flowering for the majority of the year. The only time you won’t see calendula in bloom is in winter and early spring.

This is one of the things that makes it such a popular plant to grow ornamentally, it just flowers for such a large portion of the year.

If you arent growing calendula ornamentally and are instead growing it to harvest then this is another massive advantage. If you want to know when to harvest calendula, then the answer is almost all year!

Pinching out calendula will also encourage bushier growth and more flowers, so maybe give it a try.

Calendula Officinalis (pot marigold)

Calendula is an annual herb that is edible and is commonly used in herbal remedies for all kinds of afflictions.

While being an annual it does have a strong self-seeding habit so grows almost as if it was a perennial. Plant some in a garden bed and expect them to readily self-seed and come back year after year.

They are really easy to grow and not too fussy at all. Provide them with a nice sunny spot in good, well-draining soil and they will reward you with ample bright orange blooms.

Benifits of Calendula

Calendula is edible and was commonly known as poor man’s saffron. This is because they can be used to colour food dishes in much the same way as saffron is, although they do not taste like saffron. The flower petals can be added to salads for a splash of colour.

Beyond being edible calendula flowers have been used for many hundreds of years as a herbal remedy.

It has antibacterial, antifungal and antiseptic properties and is used in all sorts of things from topical creams to lip balms.

What is Calendula’s common name?

Calendula is commonly known as pot marigold. Despite this, they are not marigolds but the name stems from them looking very similar to marigolds and either commonly being used in pot-cooked food dishes or the fact that they grow well in pots, depending on who you ask.

How to tell Calendulas and French Marigolds apart

There are a few easy ways to differentiate between the two plants.

French Marigold

The more common marigold is grown as an attractive flower and is not usually considered edible, although some varieties are. This is a whole other topic which is hotly debated and I’m not going to get into it here, for the sake of simplicity I will say they are not edible.

They are grown for their flowers and also as a pest preventive. Marigolds are commonly used in companion planting as they are believed to deter certain pests.

To Summarise

Calendula and Marigolds are from the same family of plants (Asteraceae) but are from different genera. French marigolds are from the Tagetes genus whilst pot marigolds are from the Calendula genus.

They have both been simply referred to as marigolds in the past but now pot marigold is the common name for calendula. To avoid any confusion though I think it is simply best to refer to them as calendula.

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