Yellow Calendula – Seed Packet
ABOUT: The cottage garden “pot marigold” with its sunny yellow daisies (don’t confuse it with the more common French kind) was in constant use by Elizabethan times and familiar in every garden . The plant has wonderful medicinal properties for skin and is often used in salves for bee stings or soothing lotions. Flowers are edible and can be used in place of saffron in rice and other dishes, and cut stems also go well in bouquets. Deadhead plants often for continual blooms.
HOW TO GROW: Direct sow outside in April, planting 4 seeds every 12”, later thinning to 1 plant per 12”. Or start indoors 4-6 weeks before the last frost date and plant out. Seed depth: 1/4-1/2”. This plant is a hardy annual and readily reseeds once introduced.
FUN FACTS: Chaucer in the 1400s refers to calendula as “yellow Goldes”. The name Marigold actually derives from joining two old English words Mary and gold (in reference to its golden flowers) which poor people presented to the Virgin Mary instead of gold coins. Shakespeare illustrates in this line from “A Winter’s Tale” how the calendula’s flowers close at dusk only to reopen again at daybreak:
“The marigold, that goes to bed with’ the sun And with him rises weeping.”
