How to Grow Calendula & Use Its Medicine

A close-up of a calendula flower and a visitor.

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Every herb gardener wants to know how to grow calendula. Its flowers are sunshine incarnate and a staple in the home apothecary.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis, Asteraceae) is one of the easiest herbs to grow and a highly versatile medicinal plant—naturally, it finds its way into the hearts and gardens of all herb lovers. It has been used internally and topically for centuries to heal wounds, burns, and rashes. The sunshiny flowers are a traditional remedy for supporting the immune system and lifting the spirits. If that weren’t enough, the edible ray florets of the flower heads (which look like yellow or orange petals) are bursting with antioxidant compounds. In this article, we’ll share how to grow calendula, gather it throughout the summer, and use it for medicine.

Calendula’s name derives from the Latin calendae, referring to its long blooming season—in certain locales, it is said to bloom nearly every month of the calendar year. The species name, officinalis, refers to its historical use in apothecaries and pharmacopeias as the official medicinal species of its genus.

Calendula is also called marigold and pot marigold, leading to confusion with members of the genus Tagetes, which have the same common name. The marigolds that you’ve seen as common garden ornamentals are in the Tagetes genus, which is in the same family as Calendula—the Asteraceae, or sunflower family—but they are not medicinally interchangeable.

Garden marigold (Tagetes sp.)—pictured here—is not the same plant as pot marigold (Calendula officinalis)

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As I mentioned before, calendula’s “petals” are actually ray florets, which are miniature flowers unto themselves (this is a classic trait of the Asteraceae family). Look closely at the picture below, and you can see tiny flower buds in the center, soon to open into individual florets. I will simply refer to the ray florets as petals from here on out—please forgive my botanical transgression, which is perpetrated solely for the sake of easy reading.

The tiny flower buds in the center of this calendula blossom will soon open into individual florets

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For all medicinal preparations, be sure that you use the whole dried flowers, as the medicinal oils are found mostly in the resinous green bases of the flower heads (these are called involucres, botanically speaking). Also take care that the dried petals are bright yellow or orange, which indicates quality and freshness. Sometimes calendula is sold as petals only, but this is a weaker medicine.

How to Grow Calendula

Growing calendula from seed is easy-peasy, even for the brownest of thumbs. Sow the prehistoric-looking seeds directly in the ground in mid-spring; germination takes five to fourteen days. Thin to 12 inches (0.3 m) apart. Alternately, if your spring weather is chilly, plant seeds out in trays and transplant the starts when the days warm up.

Be sure to plant viable seeds from a reputable seed supplier. Check out our list of Herbal Seed Suppliers and Nurseries for recommendations. I regularly purchase calendula seeds from Strictly Medicinal Seeds and Johnny’s Seeds.

Calendula will thrive in just about any soil, but like most plants, it prefers to have soil that is not overly dry or wet (non-draining). It’s typically grown as an annual but can be cultivated as a short-lived perennial in warmer climes (Zones 8-10). It will flower more profusely in full sun but can tolerate a little shade. If you’re curious how to grow calendula in the subtropics or tropics, try planting it in part shade, or plant it in the fall (it will thrive throughout the winter in warm climates). 

Here in the southern Appalachians, I plant my calendula when I start my salad and cooking greens. The greens grow more quickly and fill in the bed, and by the time the calendula matures and begins to flower, the greens have been harvested, and the calendula has more room to flourish.

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There are countless varieties of calendula, in many shades of sunset: orange, yellow, and russet. There are multi-petaled varieties for extra garden bling (and edible petals) and varieties with increased resin, purported to be more medicinally active. One of my current favorites is ‘alpha,’ a variety with plenty of resin and mixed double yellow and orange petals. You can use any of the Calendula officinalis cultivars as food or medicine, although the yellow and orange varieties are more common in medicinal preparations. Let the aroma and stickiness of the flowers guide you in finding your personal favorite types of calendula.

Once you learn how to grow calendula, you’ll need to know the proper way to gather its blooms for a long growing season and bountiful harvest.

The flowers must be picked every two to three days to promote and prolong the flowering season. If you let the plants go to seed, they will stop making new flowers. This is important to note when you learn how to grow calendula! As you’re picking, be sure to deadhead the flowers that have started to go to seed. These overripe blooms have petals sticking up at odd angles or petals that have already fallen off the plant, and the green seeds will be developing. I return these far-gone flowers to the earth, forgoing them as medicine.

Picking calendula flowers in the garden

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Pick the flowers in the heat of the day when the dew has evaporated and the flowers are looking perky. When you pick calendula, your fingers will be sticky from the resinous bracts, which form the green base of the flower heads. Dry on screens or airy baskets in a well-ventilated, warm area. “Schluffle” the flowers often (my invented, Yiddish-inspired term for gently tussling drying herbs).

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Calendula being readied for drying on a metal screen covered with a lightweight breathable cotton cloth

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Be sure the entire flower head is dry before you put up your harvest. The petals will be completely dried and crunchy and the green base of the flower head will be pliable when you break it open, but it shouldn’t be overly moist. Err on the side of overdrying. Depending on your climate and drying setup, it may take a week to ten days to properly dry calendula.

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Edible Flowers: Calendula In the Kitchen

Soon after giving birth to my daughter—in the middle of winter—I received a meal from an herbalist friend—a nourishing quiche crafted from homegrown veggies, speckled with the orange and yellow of calendula petals. Such a small touch made a large impression: I felt the warmth and sunshine of summer in every bite. 

To prepare calendula for eating, the petals are plucked from the medicinal-tasting green flower base and can be eaten raw or cooked. Try calendula petals in salads, salsas, scrambled eggs, quiche, and frittatas. The yellow and orange confetti adds merriment and festivity to any dish. Add the petals to herbal compound butters with other edible blooms, such as chives.

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Calendula and wild bergamot herbal ice cubes

Schisandra ice cubes with edible calendula and wild bergamot flowers

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In the summertime, whole flower heads can be frozen in ice cube trays, creating decorative ice cubes fit for the finest herbal libation. You can fancy things up even more by freezing the flowers in trays filled with colorful herbal tea. For one of my favorite recipes, see my article on Herbal Ice Cubes. Harvest flowers with longer stems intact for adorning iced herbal teas and botanical cocktails, and add a sprig of mint for contrast.

Edible flowers are food-as-medicine. Calendula’s petals are a beautiful and antioxidant-rich addition to any meal.

Calendula’s petals are more than a fetching culinary adornment. Like other edible blooms, they are loaded with antioxidant compounds. The colorful petals are high in carotenoids, such as flavoxanthin and auroxanthin.

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Dishes made with calendula flowers. Clockwise from the top left: scrambled eggs with nopalitos (fresh cactus pads), wild-greens saag paneer (garnished with calendula), salad with edible flowers (daylily, calendula, and viola) and cherry nopalitos salsa

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The whole flowers can also be dried and added to soups and stews as a winter immune tonic. This traditional folk use heralds from medieval Europe, where the flowers were likewise added to bread, syrups, and conserves. In the classic 1863 text The Complete Herbal, Nicholas Culpepper wrote, “The flowers, either green or dried, are much used in possets, broths, and drink, as a comforter of the heart and spirits, and to expel any malignant or pestilential quality which might annoy them.”¹

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Calendula’s immune-boosting and uplifting properties make it a staple ingredient in herbal bone broths.

Every winter, I make a strong medicinal and mineral-rich bone broth of calendula flowers, turkey tail (Trametes versicolor), astragalus (Astragalus propinquus), stinging nettles (Urtica dioica), seaweed, organic beef bones, and shiitake (Lentinula edodes) mushrooms. I simmer it in a big pot all day, concentrating the brew with evaporation by leaving the lid off. After straining and cooling, I freeze the broth in small portions and subsequently add it to soup, stew, marinara, and chili all throughout the winter months. This herbal broth is an excellent way to sneak extra minerals into our diets, and also doubles as an immune tonic, helping to keep colds and flu at bay. My daughter has an exceptionally discerning palette (a euphemism for picky-as-all-get-out) and doesn’t notice this extra herbal addition to her meals.

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Sun tea with apple mint, bee balm, and calendula flowers