If you are planning on over-wintering your calendula for an early start next year then you will need to know what to do with it over winter, will calendula survive winter? Is there anything special you need to do to help it? Let’s have a look and find out.
Will Calendula Survive Winter
While calendula can stand a little frost it really isn’t made for winter life in the UK. Our winters are just too cold for this warmth-loving plant.
Here in the UK? No. Calendula will not survive our cold winters unless it is brought inside or brought into a heated greenhouse.
In the USA and other warm countries, it is possible for calendula to survive over winter. It only does this in the warmest states though like California, Texas, New Mexico etc.
They cannot stand heavy frost and they just don’t survive being left out in the ground over winter. They wouldn’t even survive in my unheated greenhouse and would need to be moved into a heated greenhouse or indoors to survive.
What To Do With Calendula In Winter
I would move the plants into the greenhouse and try and protect them over winter but for me, this just isn’t worth it. Calendula is a really good self-seeder and chances are it will self-seed in place and grow again next year.
Even if it doesn’t manage to successfully self-seed I will just be able to grow some new plants from saved seeds if I wanted to.
For all of these reasons above it isn’t worth taking up the space for me and trying to save calendula, there are many other plants I would try to protect first or crops I would prefer to grow it their place.
So what should you do?
Collect Some Seeds
This is why it is always a good idea to collect and store some calendula seeds in autumn from your plants.
I like to collect some seeds and also scatter some of the seeds around. This is just a bit of an insurance policy for me. If the calendula that I scattered doesn’t self-seed and grow next year then I have some collected seeds I can sow in trays in spring.
So, Can Calendula Survive Winter?
Here in the UK, you are better off letting your calendula die over winter. It is simply not worth the effort of trying to keep it alive over winter.
Let the plants die back and new plants should emerge next year that have self-seeded. It is always a good idea to harvest and keep some of the seeds over winter so that you can grow fresh plants from seed if your self-seeded plants never appear!
