Sunny Calendula

I just realized I never posted any pictures of the Calendula plants I grew in summer 2008. They were lovely! I direct sowed heirloom Oktoberfest seeds in late spring, but it took them until fall to really explode. I only just read a book recently that told me they are actually fall plants, so this is normal. Guess that's why they call them Oktoberfest! They made wonderful fall bouquets, and we ate a couple in salads. I dried the rest to use as flavoring (supposedly they are the poor woman's saffron, though I still haven't tried it) and also used them to make bath salts along with Lavender as described in another post. Above you can see a picture of the whole plant, which was pretty wild looking, I guess because it was heirloom. Below is a collage of the individual blooms.