It’s a devastating feeling when you see open of your favourite flowers wilting, so what do you do if you start to see your calendula wilting? Let’s have a look and find out.
Why Is My Calendula Wilting?
Unfortunately both under-watering and overwatering can cause wilting leaves in calendula. it is likely though that you will know which one of these is your problem if it is indeed watering-related.
If overwatering is the problem then it may not actually be caused by you the gardener but may be down to the weather and poor drainage.
Look for standing water or soggy soil around the base of your calendula. There are very few plants that like wet roots and calendula is not one of them.
Conversely, underwatering should be simple to spot. The soil around your calendula should be very dry, they can survive a little under watering so for it to become a problem the soil has to be bone dry.
And that brings us to our final sup[etc, aphids. These little blighters will sit on the stem of the plant and suck the sap out of it. This causes the leaves to droop and if the infestation is severe enough it can actually kill the plant.
This spray below works well on aphid infestations.
Kills all major insect pests, including whitefly, greenfly, black fly, red spider mite, caterpillars and lily beetle, scale insects and mealy bugs For use on flowers, fruit and vegetables.
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.