Calendula is a very pretty and popular flower. It is also edible and medicinal. You can find its usage on many websites so I skip mentionig it. I wanted to use them for tea and skin. You can also find a variety of calendula cream/oil on the market.
Calendula vs. French marigold
Calendula is often confused by the name of marigold. It is differentiated from French marigold and has the name "pot marigold" or "English marigold." Calendula likes cool weather and French marigold like hot weather. While French marigold die after frost, calendula is actually much tougher to cold weather than I thought, it survived 25F in my garden this year - though, it didn't survive this winter since we had lower temperatures like 11F~15F.
(French marigold)
Many garden websites say both marigolds are a "must" to have in your garden so that you can attract pollinators from early spring to late fall. Also, they are very easy to grow and become bushes without a care in my garden. They are effective to control harmful nematodes to plants. I often prune them during the season and pile them in compost.
When I started to plant French marigold in my garden, I thought it is edible confused with calendula. French marigold was the only marigold seeds available at local stores. Since it smells so good, I thought this has to be the edible one. I am not sure if it causes any damage to the body when ingested but nothing happened to R and me. (I am sorry, R!) I was lucky to soon find out French marigold is not edible. So, I bought some seeds of real edible marigold, calendula, from an online shop.
(The seeds are the 3rd generation of the original
that was bought from the online shop.)
Calendua for Tea
I planted probably about 80 plants. They were convenient to fill the gaps in my garden. Since I planted them more for me than for pollinators (french marigolds were for pollinators but actually calendula was more popular to insects due to the flower shape. The open flower is easier for insect to land on), I kept picking the flowers every other day until intensive hot weather kicked in.
Then, I removed the petals from the sepals, then dried. I wanted to use the petals for tea, and other parts for making infused oil.
Since the removing petals process is so time-consuming, also the whole calendula plant is sticky, I got lazy and thought the whole flower can be OK for tea.
It turned out the other parts than petals are bitter and not taste good. I understood why so many web pages that talk about calendula tea only use petals. Apparently, whole calendula plants have medicinal value, but the flowers contain useful ingredients for humans stronger than other parts. So I figured it's efficient to use only flowers.
Calendula Oil
I have been suffering from summer rashes for years, and finally last year, it worsened as bad as I may want to see a dermatologist. My primary physician confirmed my rashes are from internal causes. I will probably need to take some allergen tests if I see a dermatologist. I am afraid to be told that the rashes are atopic dermatitis caused by "stress" (convenient word when the cause is undetectable) and just receive a steroid cream. So, I didn't see a dermatologist after all because I felt calendula has a high potential for me to treat the rashes.
The cream I love is from Weleda, R's favorite company. R has very dry skin and he had long years experience of searching for a good cream. It saved me a lot of time and money.
(The picture is from the WELEDA website.)
The Calendula Intensive Skin Recovery cream works to treat my rashes. I apply it where the rashes start to appear, and they don't get worse. Having this cream always with me is more convenient than applying handmade calendula oil so I will probably continue using it. I can use the oil anywhere on my body as I make my own skin toner mixed with oil. So, I marinated the dry flowers in extra virgin olive oil.
I saw on online articles that unrefined & unfiltered coconut oil is recommended as the best carrier oil but it is often not available at grocery stores. Olive oil is also a good choice, so I anyway got it (mine is not unrefined & unfiltered).
Six months later, I squeezed the flower to get the infused oil out of the flower.
The flowers I used were the leftovers that the petals were removed. I thought flowers without petals wouldn't transfer nice yellow color to the oil, especially olive oil itself has a light yellow color, but the color was deepened than I thought.
Also, I expected that about 1/3 amount of the olive oil would be absorbed into the dried flower and not retrieved when squeezed, but most of it came back.
Now I can use the calendula oil as base oil, and I can add other essential oil to it such as tea tree and eucalyptus.
I like my oil because it is absorbed into my skin quicker than store-bought lotion. I don't like the sliminess of the lotion and the necessity of reapplying it every time after using water. I don't have to worry about it much with oil. Since I make it by myself, it is really cost-effective, and no concerns about additives as well.
The oil is mixed with my skin toner in a spray bottle. I use it all over my body -- from the toe to face. It smells good :)