Marigold, <em>Calendula</em>: sowing, planting, cultivation

Description and botany

Calendula, also called marigold, is an annual plant of family Asteraceae, like daisy, chrysanthemum or Osteospermum, cultivated in European gardens since 12th century. Native to Europe, Mediterranean Basin and south-west Asia. Frost-tender, it is most often grown here as an annual.

Genus comprises about 25 species including Calendula officinalis, also called “garden marigold” or “pot marigold”, staple of our gardens and source of many cultivars with very double and semi-double flowers, in fruity shades and even dwarf varieties. Calendula arvensis, “field marigold” or “common marigold”, is its wild cousin, widespread in countryside.

Marigold forms a bushy tuft, erect, slightly spreading, well ramified and often taller than wide. With fairly rapid growth, Calendula height varies by variety from 0.15 m for dwarf marigolds to 0.70 m for tallest types.

Emerging from basal rosette, brittle stems bear deciduous, lanceolate, oblong leaves with undulate margins. Leaves measure 10–15 cm long and are downy, sometimes sticky. They are bright green to dark green, sometimes tending toward blue‑grey and arranged alternately along stems.

Aromatic, leaves give off strong scent when crushed, reputed to repel many insects such as aphids and whiteflies.

This lush green foliage sets off flamboyant hues and radiate forms of marigold flowers.

Calendula officinalis – botanical illustration

Calendula’s blooms are radiantly sunny.

From April to September without interruption, Calendula displays a profusion of daisy-like flowers. From start of summer and abundantly until first frosts, leafy upright stems carry terminal inflorescences in solitary heads 5–12 cm diameter. Flowers are single, semi-double and even double, depending on cultivar. While species Calendula officinalis has single row of petals, some cultivars such as ‘Greenheart Orange’ feature very double centre formed of countless ligules making a more or less flattened pompon. ‘Porcupine‘ resembles a small dahlia with ruffled flowers whose tubular petals lengthen progressively toward outer part of corolla: its unkempt headdress calls to mind a porcupine!

Shape of ligules also varies by variety: flat, tubular, dentate at tip or rolled upwards as in Calendula officinalis ‘Sherbet Fizz’.

All garden marigolds bloom around a sun‑yellow, lemon‑yellow tinged with lime or dark brown, almost black centre.

Originally orange‑yellow, Calendula flowers now come in wide range of shades, from fruity to soft and delicate: lemon, grapefruit, bright orange (‘Ball’s Orange’), cream‑white (Calendula officinalis ‘Snow Princess’), to champagne‑rosé.

Flowers are sometimes bicoloured with tips or undersides of petals contrasting, as in Calendula officinalis ‘Sunny Girl’ and ‘Sherbet Fizz’.

While calendula flowers renew continuously offering nearly six months’ flowering, they have habit of closing each evening at dusk, following sun’s course or when it becomes overcast.

This melliferous flowering attracts pollinators often until winter, notably hoverflies that feed on aphids, an indispensable asset in vegetable garden within context of organic cultivation. As bonus, marigold flowers are edible, their flavour recalls saffron and they garnish salads or sorbets. Buds can be pickled in vinegar.

After flowering, inflorescences transform into small incurved spiny fruits resembling nails, containing marigold seeds that disperse easily by wind and will self‑sow fairly readily wherever they like.

Flowers of marigold

Marigold flowers in warm or subtle colours make excellent long‑lasting cut flowers.

Calendula officinalis or garden marigold is a frost‑sensitive perennial grown in our climate as an annual. Frost‑tender, it dies back during cold season. However it is easy to grow, being indifferent to soil nature. This accommodating annual tolerates all soil types, even slightly calcareous or poor soils. It prefers well‑drained, poor soils and full sun.

With generous, tireless and colourful flowering, Calendula or marigold is inseparable from cottage gardens, naturalistic gardens. It brings vigour and lightness to borders, mixed borders, rockeries and also pots, tubs and window boxes on balconies and terraces. This edible flower also has place in an organic vegetable garden where it attracts aphids while deterring undesired insects from crops.

Long cultivated as medicinal plant, used in cosmetics, pharmacology and homeopathy, Calendula officinalis or pot marigold has many soothing, astringent, depurative, anti‑inflammatory and healing properties. Calendula is used in creams and ointments in cosmetics. Due to its dyeing properties, marigold flowers were once used as food colouring to tint butters and cheeses, hence nickname “false saffron”.

Main species and varieties

Most popular

Our favourites

Calendula officinalis Seeds - Pot Marigold

This annual marigold is a must-have for gardens. Suited to borders and containers, whether planted singly or in groups.

• Flowering time July to October
• Height at maturity 45 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Fiesta Gitana Seeds - Dwarf Pot Marigold

Pompon-shaped flowers in range of colours: lemon yellow, pale yellow, orange, yellow-orange. A dwarf variety perfect for borders and containers.

• Flowering time July to November
• Height at maturity 30 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Indian Prince Seeds - Pot Marigold

Excellent cut flower with abundant summer flowering of dark orange with mahogany reverse. Perfect for borders, beds, rockeries and planters.

• Flowering time July to October
• Height at maturity 60 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Pink Surprise Seeds - Pot Marigold

A large marigold covering full range of oranges through to yellow and salmon-pink. Perfect in beds, pots and containers for around home and patio.

• Flowering time June to October
• Height at maturity 60 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Orange Gitana Seeds - Dwarf Pot Marigold

A marigold notable for its small size. This variety is perfect for front of beds, edges or pots on patio and makes an excellent cut flower.

• Flowering time July to November
• Height at maturity 30 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Fruit Twist Seeds - Dwarf Pot Marigold

A very vibrant mix for this annual composed of single, semi-double and double flowers. This dwarf variety is ideal for beginners and children.

• Flowering time June to October
• Height at maturity 15 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Citrus Cocktail Seeds - Dwarf Pot Marigold

A real vitamin cocktail for this easy-to-grow dwarf annual! It will brighten beds and balcony planters all summer!

• Flowering time June to October
• Height at maturity 20 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Ball’s Orange Seeds - Pot Marigold

This Calendula will find its place at back of border. Also an excellent cut flower with good vase life.

• Flowering time July to October
• Height at maturity 60 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Sherbet Fizz Seeds - Pot Marigold

A semi-double variety with bicoloured flowers in chamois to rose-champagne shades. Particularly soft for romantic arrangements. It will bring warmth and softness to borders and containers.

• Flowering time June to October
• Height at maturity 45 cm

See the product sheet

Calendula officinalis Porcupine Seeds - Pot Marigold

This unique variety is named after the porcupine because its flowers give it a tousled-animal appearance. Size of this Calendula allows it to slip into borders and pair with many summer annuals. It also thrives in containers.

• Flowering time June to October
• Height at maturity 45 cm

See the product sheet

Planting

Where to plant garden marigold or Calendula

Calendula is a perennial very sensitive to cold that cannot tolerate frost and is most often grown as an annual in our gardens. It tolerates being grown by the seaside.

Undemanding and very accommodating, garden marigold thrives in any well‑drained soil, even poor and dry, in full sun. Soil that is too fertile would favour foliage at the expense of flowers. It needs full sun to flower well, and a situation sheltered from strong winds that can break its rather fragile stems. It will tolerate partial shade in the warmest regions.

Its simple, colourful flowers are at home in all natural gardens, in a country garden or a wild garden where they quickly create bucolic scenes, in meadow‑style beds, enlivening borders, mixed borders or very sunny rockeries. With its upright habit, marigold brings lightness to summer displays and helps fill gaps in perennial beds or among other annual plants to keep displays in flower until early autumn.

Dwarf varieties are reserved for window boxes and pots on a sunny terrace or balcony.

Marigold is one of the best melliferous plants; it is indispensable in vegetable gardens, because its scent repels nematodes and its flowers attract a constant ballet of pollinating insects, it is a plant that actively contributes to biodiversity. Plant it alongside other edible flowers: marigold produces very pretty cut flowers that will dress up salads!

When to plant Calendula or garden marigold?

Planting Calendula or marigold is done in spring in April–May, from March in mild regions, avoiding frost periods.

When and how to sow garden marigold or Calendula?

Direct sowing

Calendula seeds are sown directly outdoors from March until June to stagger flowering, when temperatures approach 20°C. An autumn sowing of marigold in bucket allows earlier flowering: keep your sowings under cover throughout winter and transplant your young plants in spring, after frosts, and consult our advice sheet « How to plant annuals ».

Marigold likes light soils: improve drainage in heavy soils with a little coarse sand. It can be used in large drifts; depending on size, allow 5 to 9 plants per m² for a good effect.

• In well‑tilled soil, sow Calendula seeds thinly by hand. Cover with 1 or 2 cm of compost without burying them deeply
• Water with a fine spray then regularly to keep soil moist during germination, which generally takes 5 to 10 days
• Thin out, keeping only the most vigorous plants every 15 to 20 cm

How to sow seeds directly in the ground?

In pots

Dwarf marigolds are well suited to growing in pots or window boxes: you can mix 2 or 3 varieties, taking their eventual growth into account.

• Lay a good draining layer at the bottom of the container
• Sow a few seeds thinly in a mix of compost and river sand
• Water

Watch our video for all our tips to sow annual seeds successfully!

Marigold flowers are melliferous

Care and maintenance of Calendula

Marigold or Calendula is ideal for low-maintenance gardens! Very drought-tolerant, it requires little watering: water only during very hot weather.

Water more regularly but sparingly, allowing the soil to dry out between waterings, as potted marigolds dry out more quickly.

Remove faded flowers to encourage new flowers and extend flowering period.

At the start of winter, when foliage is withered, scorched by first frosts, pull up the clumps of this frost-tender flower. By letting seeds form, you give your marigolds the chance to self-seed!

Potential diseases and pests

At end of summer, your young marigold plants can be susceptible to powdery mildew, which appears as a white coating on the foliage. As a preventive measure: water at the base without wetting leaves and spray decoctions of horsetail, nettle manure or Bordeaux mixture. And follow our advice in our dedicated factsheet on powdery mildew!

If aphids infest them: simply spray with water mixed with black soap. That said, it is a trap crop, very useful in the vegetable garden for deterring unwanted pests!

Propagation of calendula

Calendula or marigold self-seeds readily in the garden if you allow flowers to set seed. Spring sowing of marigolds makes it easy to renew your young plants from one year to the next. Find all steps to make your sowing a success in our “When and how to sow Calendula seeds” section.

Companion planting with calendula in the garden

With its sunlit flowers, the Marigold is unrivalled for creating floriferous summer scenes. Its simple, radiant flowering brings colour and lightness to natural gardens and country gardens, and to cottage gardens where it has been grown for centuries, freely reseeding on the breeze.

Its many varieties allow a wide range of flamboyant colour combinations, from bold to soft, perfect for a romantic garden.

In a naturalistic mixed border, marigold flowers will happily mingle with other daisy-flowered annuals such as Anthemis, Osteospermum, bidens or with summer-flowering perennials such as echinaceas, achilleas and salvias.

A flowery meadow ambience: Salvia horminum, Calendula officinalis, Lychnis flos-cuculi ‘White Robin’, Centaurea cyanus and Papaver rhoeas

Dwarf marigolds form flowering cushions that dress the base of roses, Buddleia or hibiscus.

In a border, paired with Helichrysum petiolare or Stachys, it creates a leafy setting for slightly taller summer plants such as cosmos, verbenas, scabious, hollyhocks, Cannas and daylilies.

In a lush summer scene reminiscent of old-fashioned gardens, Calendula’s flowering accompanies that of cottage garden perennials such as columbines, asters, lupins, Coreopsis, gaillardias or snapdragons.

Calendula brings colour to the garden at a time of year that is rather less floriferous; it brightens compositions abandoned by summer flowering. In a composition with spicy tones, in the spirit of a Catalan bed, it pairs well with late perennials such as Helianthus, Heleniums, rudbeckias, asters and immortelles, which it will accompany through to autumn.

In a sunny rockery, it is the perfect companion for other low-growing plants like lantanas and succulents such as sedums.

Marigold is a staple of flowery vegetable gardens where it is very useful to pair with other edible flowers such as nasturtium, French marigold (Tagetes), Dahlias or Monarda. Planted at the base of strawberries and tomatoes, its scent also repels nematodes and aphids.

In a small border, fire-coloured varieties marry perfectly with red balcony geraniums, gaillardias, diascias, Lobelias, Zinnias, Surfinias, Million Bells petunias or a scented geranium.

In a pot, pair it with tagetes, zinnias, dwarf dahlias.

In a more contemporary composition, lighten its silhouette with graphic, airy grasses such as Pennisetum.