Daily Botanical: Calendula officinalis
Calendula had been self-seeding itself in my community garden plot in abundance, until last year when I put in a lot of soil amenders. I think the seeds got buried too deeply underneath all that extra compost. No matter, some are still coming up and in manageable quantities. The borage continue to self-seed with no noticeable change in population.
The flowers in this picture are not from my community garden. Those flowers are yellow, and try as I might I can’t get a bright orange variety to come up. No matter, this year I started some unusual varieties from seed and transplanted them into the garden. I’ll post pictures when they start to bloom.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:45 am
They look so happy! I’m so 101 in allthingsplanting–would love to know what fleurs I might plant (and when) that might self spread over the next several years. Any good candidates for Westchester, v. moist soil? THanks for inspiring!
everydayfooddeb via twitter
July 7th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I love calendula and borage too. You have to love plants that will boom so prettily each year as volunteers. :)
July 7th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Deb: The only thing you need to watch with the self-seeders is having too much of a good thing. Calendula, borage, violas, pansies, poppies self seed like mad, feverfew comes up in my garden every year, nigella, cleome, columbine (a personal fave), bachelor’s buttons (aka cornflower), cosmos (tend to prefer dry), nicotiana, anise-hyssop (another fave)…
July 7th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I love these! They remind me of the orange “Victoria Sunset” calendulas I planted from Veseys’ a few years ago. Sadly, they did not self-seed as far as I’m aware (I could have mistaken them for weeds as I was such a gardening rookie)
July 7th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Obviously I am still a rookie. Calendula pluralized does not have an ’s’, no?
July 9th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
calendula is one of the very first flowers i ever grew from seed. i had the blooming here in NL on Halloween!