Plant · P-127

Calendula

Calendula officinalis

Calendula is a cool-season flower best sown in autumn where winters are mild, giving a bloom that can run from around Thanksgiving through Memorial Day and covering months when few other flowers are open. Its real headline is medicine: it is one of the best-known herbs in Western herbal tradition, used on cuts, bites, stings and varicose veins, with formal approval for treating mouth and throat inflammation and for healing wounds and burns. The petals are also edible, working as a saffron substitute for coloring rice and soups, and the flowers draw hoverflies and bees. It goes dormant through summer heat, and like many flowering annuals it blooms best in poor soil rather than rich ground.