Growing calendula

[Patchouli]

@goshengirl your comment in peanut's book recommendations made me wonder about calendula. Almost every year I try to find calendula plants (also known as pot marigold for those who don't know), or I try to grow it myself. Once I grew ONE PLANT of calendula.
I love it and buy products that contain it. Tom's of Maine Calendula deodorant, or soap...
Is it really that easy for you to grow? And do you have any of your own calendula garden photos to share?

 

[goshengirl]

@Patchouli, the calendula I'm using now I got (dried) from Mountain Rose Herbs. Part of my problem with getting started with herbs was feeling like I had to grow them first! But with the course I'm working on, I finally said to myself '#*&% it, just order what you need already.'

That said, I have a calendula seeds going in the ground this afternoon. ☺ It's a little late to be planting, but we've had such an odd spring weather-wise - whatever will grow, will grow.

Are you thinking about trying to grow it again?

 

[Patchouli]

Dried lavender I bought from MRH also. Great minds think alike, lol.
I love to grow flowers and herbs but mostly 90% failure where I live the past decade. I used to live east of WVdragonlady.
So, you're also an herbalist? I studied the School of Natural Healing master herbalist course, then life got too busy and I haven't picked it back up. What course and school are you using?

 

[Weedygarden]

@goshengirl your comment in peanut's book recommendations made me wonder about calendula. Almost every year I try to find calendula plants (also known as pot marigold for those who don't know), or I try to grow it myself. Once I grew ONE PLANT of calendula.
I love it and buy products that contain it. Tom's of Maine Calendula deodorant, or soap...
Is it really that easy for you to grow? And do you have any of your own calendula garden photos to share?

I tried many times to grow calendula in my yard, maybe more than two decades of trying. Then one year, I got one plant during teacher appreciation week and it took and now it has self seeded in my yard every year since. It is in bloom right now. I need to harvest some flowers and use them. I have been adding a few to bouquets which I cut and make for friends and family when my flowers are in bloom. The larkspur in the photo (mostly purple, but a few pink) were seeded around 28 years ago on the other side of the house and have self seeded ever since. The pink flowers to the left are showy evening primroses which I planted close to 20 years ago and have also self seeded in many places in my yard. I just keep watering and making bouquets.

 

[Patchouli]

Love purple and yellow shades together, along with the orange and pink.

 

[goshengirl]

@Patchouli, I definitely wouldn't call myself an herbalist. But maybe one day.

I'm taking an intro course from The Herbal Academy. Along with coursework, there's a FB page for students. The FB page was great - students asking questions or sharing experiences. But in the past week or so it's suddenly become, how should I say it, a current events page. No herbalism anywhere.

 

[Weedygarden]

Question about calendula: Is it the flowers that are used in medicinals? Should I pick the flowers and allow them to dry out?

 

[Patchouli]

I think it is dried flowers but I haven't made hardly a thing for the skin from herbs, I'm a cup of tea and swallow herbs in capsules kind of herbalist.
@goshengirl knows how, I'll bet

 

[goshengirl]

Question about calendula: Is it the flowers that are used in medicinals? Should I pick the flowers and allow them to dry out?

I haven't seen anything about using leaves, stems, or roots of calendula - but I'm also not an expert, lol.

I would definitely dry out the flowers! A lot of salve recipes I see call for calendula whether it's a skin 'care' recipe, or a skin 'first aid' recipe. Since there is a thickness to the flower head, the trick will be allowing it it to dry out long enough so that it's completely dry.

Here's an article on calendula from the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. I like how they explain the parts of the flower head - and they stress that it's important to include the green base of the flower head and not just collect the petals.
Grow, Gather & Prepare Calendula as Food & Medicine

This article is about conditioning dehydrated foods before putting them in storage. The same principle applies to dried herbs.
How to Condition Dehydrated Foods

 

[Weedygarden]

Thank you, @goshengirl, I will look at those articles.