We love Calendula, the English Marigold. Orange beauty, it brightens the veggie patch, flower gardens and other corners. We show it off in many guided garden tours and our guests often get some seeds. So here is how to cultivate it (easy) and use it (many ways).
Culture
Annual, rustic plant. Reach 30 to 60 cm high.
Large yellow to orange flowers. Will flower early spring from October to frosts. Seed in autumn or spring in full sun or partially shadowed. Seeds itself easily. Can be replanted. It will grow anywhere, even in poor soil, even in our dry and frosty climate.
Companion plant
Flowering early spring til late autumn, calendula attracts and feeds insects when no other flowers are available thereby are enhancing biodiversity.
They attracts natural predators to aphids (ladybirds, hoverflies…);
Their roots hold good nematodes for a healthy soil.
Cultivate calendula in the veggie garden, one plant in each raised bed, around tomatoes and at the end of the lines to attract favourable insects.
Comestible plant, you can add petals to salads to brighten them up.
Medicinal uses
Its Latin name is calendula officinalis and for good reason.
Depurative, blood-cleansing, purifying, stimulating for blood, antiseptic. Also the plant of the skin, wonderful for wound healing.
Drink two cups per day of calendula herbal tea to help cure jaundice, wounds, digestive illnesses, intestine or liver or stomach pain, colitis, dropsy, and hematuria. Calendula herbal tea is ideal to help with all viral and bacterial infections. Also effective vermifuge and laxative. Calendula herbal tea applied on eyes helps vision.
Some recent study show good results with cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, stomach and ulcers. In this case, fresh plant juice is more effective.
In cream or oil ointment, calendula is wonderful for skin. From post-chirurgical wounds to fungus, blues, strains, scars, piles and varicose veins, sunburns, dryness, age pigmentation, also purulent or swelling wounds.
Calendula TM is a powerful antiseptic and helps skin recovery. It can be used on any wounds and post-natal or postoperative situations: infant umbilicus, lesions, sore…
(Source: Maria Treben’s Cures. Steyr: Ennsthaler, 2000)
Recipes
Find a nice crop and harvest in full sun with a karakia/acknowledgment/prayer. Remove all damaged parts and chop leaves, flowers and stems.
Herbal tea: Leave to dry and then keep in glass jar, away from light. Use one large spoon for a ¼ litre of boiling water. Leave to infuse 6 minutes, then strain and drink. Drink 2 cups per day during 4 to 8 days, until symptoms ease.
Calendula oil: Press into a glass jar. Add olive oil, grapeseed or other organic oil to cover the plants. Put the lid upside down to protect from insects but not seal.
Leave in the sun for 10 days to two weeks. Then strain through linen into a tainted glass jar (to keep longer) and keep away from the sun. You can add a few drops of lavender and/or neroli and/or lemon essential oil.
Use to massage stiffness or aching, red and itchy skin, dry skin, or to prevent wrinkles.
Calendula TM: Fill in a jar and add vodka or vinegar or any strong alcohol to top. Close lid. Add a label on the jar mentioning the plant name and part, the alcohol used and the date. The next days, add alcohol to fill the jar. After 6 weeks, strain through linen. The tincture is ready to use to disinfect wounds and help healing. Can keep two years.
Any other useful information you would like to share about the beautiful Calendula?
Guided Garden Tours 