Calendula Flowers Offer Wellness Benefits

Calendula Flowers Offer Wellness Benefits With its bright blooms, calendula brings more than cheerful color to the garden. Also known as pot marigold, this easy-to-grow flower has long been valued by home herbalists for teas, tinctures and topical remedies. Calendula comes in an array of cultivars, with flowers ranging from yellow and gold to orange. It thrives in cool weather and readily self-sows from its seed heads. Because it blooms prolifically for months, even a small plot can yield plenty of flowers to harvest. Remove spent blooms to encourage continued flowering, but leave some flowers to mature and produce seeds if you want the plants to self-sow. To grow your own, sow calendula seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost date, covered with 1/4 to 1/2 in. of soil. Starter fertilizer can encourage root growth as the plants establish. Once hardened, the seedlings can be transplanted to individual pots or spaced 12 in. apart. The flowers do best in full sun; partial sun results in fewer blooms overall. Regular applications of organic fertilizer will help once the plant starts producing buds. Harvesting calendula can leave your hands sticky. The resin comes from the bracts around the flower heads and indicates the plant contains the compounds that home herbalists seek. If soap and water don’t remove it, rub your hands with a little olive oil, then wash again. After harvest, you can dry calendula flowers in a single layer in a well-ventilated area. Because the flowers are dense, expect them to take a couple of weeks to dry through the middle. Regular turning will speed this process. This sunny flower offers many health benefits. Calendula reportedly helps protect against E. coli and staph by stimulating white blood cells. When taken internally, calendula remedies can support digestion. However, these benefits occur only when the resinous constituents are extracted into teas or tinctures, which requires a few extra preparation steps compared with other herbs.  To make tea, first grind the calendula flower heads and green bracts into a powder. Simmer one teaspoon of the powder in 10 oz of water for 10 min, then turn off the heat and let the plant material steep for 40 min. The resulting tea will taste bitter but pairs well with other flavors.  Calendula tinctures offer a more effective way to work with the plant because the resinous constituents are soluble in alcohol. Commercial calendula tinctures are usually made with high-alcohol concentrations, but you can make one with 100-proof vodka. Start by chopping dried flowers into fine pieces and placing them in a sanitized glass jar. Cover with your tincturing alcohol, ensuring the plant material is covered by an extra inch of alcohol. Next, secure the lid and set it in a cool, dark place for 4 to 6 weeks. Consider shaking it every few days. After the time has elapsed, strain the plant material from the alcohol. The tincture is ready to use. A standard adult dose is one dropperful, two to three times a day. For topical remedies, chop calendula flowers and bracts into small pieces, then place them in a sanitized glass jar with enough carrier oil to cover the plant material by a full inch. Raw, organic sunflower seed oil works well, as do almond or olive oils. Avoid mineral oil, a petroleum product.  Secure the lid and place the jar in a cool, dark place for 4 to 6 weeks. Next, place the jar in the bottom of a slow cooker with a couple of inches of water. Turn the heat to low and let the jar sit in the water for a day, taking care not to let it get hot enough to cook the plant material. This should coax out the last of the plant resins. Remove the jar once it’s cool to the touch, strain out the plant material, and use as desired. If you prefer a stronger oil, add a second batch of calendula to the same oil and reinfuse for another 4 to 6 weeks. The result works well for wound care in a variety of forms, including an oil, compress, liniment, herbal wash and hydrosol. Calendula compresses can also help with sore nipples from nursing.  When growing calendula for medicinal use, choose cultivars with a high concentration of resinous constituents. Popular varieties include Calendula officinalis, which has resinous constituents and distinctive bright, cheerful orange flowers. If medicinal benefits are a lower priority, dried calendula flowers can add summer cheer to tea blends, especially during the fall and winter. Despite its nickname, calendula and marigold are not the same species and shouldn’t be used interchangeably in medicine. Calendula is in the daisy family, so it may trigger an allergic reaction in anyone sensitive to dandelions or chrysanthemums. Still, calendula remains among the top-recommended herbs for home apothecaries despite sourcing challenges. Growing your own ensures a steady supply of potent plant material.

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