What Does Calendula Smell Like?
If you are looking for flowers with traditional aromas for a fragrance garden, don't plant calendula (Calendula officinalis), commonly known as pot marigold. That annual sprouts fast and lasts all summer. Its flowers don't carry a lusciously honeyed scent but rather have an aroma similar to that of tree sap.
Fragrant Leaves and Blossoms
Calendula is an Old World potherb, popular in William Shakespeare's England. Its flowers and lance-shaped leaves are edible, offering a slight bitter flavor to soups and salads. The leaves are fragrant, and the flowers have a sweet, resinlike aroma. When calendula is planted in a vegetable garden, it reportedly deters insect pests.
Bright, Simple-Care Plant
The same paint used to color a sunset can be used for the flowers of calendula. The small plant blooms from May to June and grows in clumps that can become 2 feet high and spread 2 feet wide. Calendula grows in direct sunlight or partial shade, blooms generously and has no serious diseases or pests.
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Writer Bio
Teo Spengler is a docent with the San Francisco Botanical Garden and a staff writer with Gardening Know How. She has written hundreds of gardening and plant articles for sites like eHow Gardening, Gardening Know How and Hunker. She holds a JD in law from U.C. Berkeley, an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing.
