The Many Benefits of Growing Calendula

Calendulas are beautiful flowers that are extremely easy to grow. The National Garden Bureau picked calendula as the Annual of the Year for 2025, and with good reason, too!

Calendula plants are both edible and medicinal. They have a long history, from as far back as the Ancient Egyptians, of being used for their healing abilities. The plants also work as natural pest controllers and lure aphids away from your valuable crops. They also attract helpful insects like ladybugs and hoverflies.

Gardeners call calendula essential for permaculture and regenerative gardens because it serves multiple ecological functions at once. The plant's ability to provide habitat for butterflies, bees, and beneficial insects helps create a sustainable garden system that mostly takes care of itself.

Calendula Benefits To The Soil

 

The beautiful orange and yellow calendula flowers do more than just brighten your garden. These tough plants build better soil through natural processes and are an important part of a thriving garden ecosystem.

Living mulch

Calendula is an excellent living mulch thanks to its unique growth pattern. These plants spread close to the ground. They have stems that branch out up to two feet, and the plants grow dense to create a protective blanket. Their growth protects bare soil by reducing water evaporation and stopping weeds naturally.

These flowers really shine during cool spring and fall weather. You can plant seeds in mid-summer to shield your soil in fall or sow them in autumn for spring protection.

Adding calendula brings diversity to your garden beds while protecting the soil surface. This means less watering, fewer weeds, and easier maintenance.

Reduces erosion and compaction

Calendula's root system plays a crucial role in soil health. Though the plant stays modest in size above ground, it develops thick, branching roots that reach deep into the soil. This network of roots holds soil particles together and prevents erosion when heavy rain or wind hits.

The roots also break up compacted soil as they spread out. Like other cover crops, calendula improves your soil's structure. This helps water, air, and helpful organisms move through the soil more easily. Gardens with clay or heavily used areas can really benefit from a planting of calendula.

Adds organic matter

Dead calendula plants give back valuable nutrients and organic matter to the soil. The plants pull nutrients from deep within the soil into their tissues, which return to the ground as the plants break down.

You can cut down calendula right where it grows and let it decompose in place. This "chop and drop" method keeps the soil microbiome undisturbed while adding nutrients for the next season. As roots and leaves break down, they increase soil humus, nitrogen, and organic carbon levels. This creates richer soil for future plants.

Calendula As A Natural Pest Deterrent

 

Calendula plants do more than just look pretty and improve your soil. These bright flowers are a great way to fight against harmful pests.

Trap crop

Trap crops are specific plants that pests like better than your valuable vegetables. Aphids, thrips, and other insects stop at the calendula instead of moving on to your tomatoes or lettuce.

Plant calendula flowers every 36 inches around the edge of the garden to create a protective barrier that works. This spacing lets the plants grow properly and catch the most pests. Most trap crops need removal once pests infest them, but calendula stays useful even with pests because it brings in helpful predator insects that keep pest numbers down.

Insect control

Calendula's success in pest control comes from its naturally sticky stems and leaves. The stem is slightly tacky when you touch it—this sticky coating attracts and traps problematic insects.

Garden destroyers like aphids and whiteflies love calendula's sticky surfaces. These pests often get stuck in the resin after landing on calendula, a bit like fly paper. Calendula plants are extra valuable near greenhouses or indoor growing spaces where whiteflies can quickly destroy crops.

Calendula To Attract Beneficial Insects

 

Bright orange and yellow calendula blooms are beacons for key pollinators in the garden. Their colors, sweet scent, and nectar-rich flowers pull in bees and butterflies during the growing season. The plant's abundant nectar and pollen provide essential resources for these pollinators' lifecycle.

Plant calendula near vegetables that need pollinators—such as squash, cucumber, peppers, melon, and tomatoes—to increase fruit production.

Calendula flowers attract more than just pollinators—they pull in helpful predatory insects that control garden pests. The sticky resin from calendula plants attracts aphids, which then bring predators like ladybugs, hoverflies, and lacewings to feast on these garden troublemakers.

These helpful insects don't just visit—they stay to mate and multiply in the garden. Hoverflies love to lay eggs near aphid colonies after they feed on calendula's nectar, so their larvae hatch close to plenty of food. This natural pest control system runs itself once it's a few seasons old.

Calendula Medicinal Properties

 

Calendulas have been used as healing agents since the 12th century. People called them "pot marigold" because medieval cooks used them so often in their cooking pots.

Studies show that calendula extract can block nitric oxide production—a substance that causes inflammation. This makes calendula work really well to treat many skin conditions naturally.

These flowers help regenerate tissue, which makes them valuable for healing wounds. They boost blood and oxygen flow to injured areas and help form new tissue.

Calendula Tea

Steep two teaspoons of dried flowers in hot water for 10 minutes. Strain it and add honey or cinnamon if you like. Drink this tea for internal benefits or use it as a compress on irritated skin.

Eating Calendula

 

Calendula flowers do more than heal—they add a slightly tangy, peppery flavor to food. Fresh petals are excellent for brightening up salads, soups, and soft cheeses with their vibrant color and nutrients. Throughout history, people have used calendula as a natural food coloring and substitute for saffron. Store dried petals in airtight containers to use them year-round.

Favorite Calendula Varieties

Orange Pacific Beauty - Orange double-blooms

Apricot Pacific Beauty - Light apricot colored double-blooms

Dwarf Pacific Beauty -- Orange and yellow flowers, 12" tall

Cream Pacific Beauty - Butter yellow and cream colored bi-color flowers