The Marigolds and Mallow of the Cottage Garden

The marigolds of the cottage garden are not the marigolds of the bedding plant trade. The bold characters of even stature with strange smelling leaves and garish blossoms that appear in every nursery, garden centre and greengrocers shop in the land at the beginning of summer are all members of the tagetes family. The marigold of the cottage garden and folk songs is the pot marigold or calendula. In fact the true English or pot marigold is Calendula officinalis. While this species is rarely grown on its own account now, there are many suitable cultivars around that can provide the same visual effect as the species, without the old mildew problems. Selection of cultivars needs to be careful though, for some of those derived from Japanese forms are so even and unreal as to be totally out of context with the informal comfortable atmosphere that we desire. Therefore modern cultivars like the uniform bright orange ‘Geisha Girl’ and soft yellow ‘Lemon Queen’ must be thoughtfully placed, although good mix­tures such as the modern ‘Family Circle’ are easy to accommodate. Given an open sunny situation these colourful annuals will flour­ish, tolerating soil that is dry or damp, acid or alkaline with equal indifference.

I think that they are possibly the best colonizers of builders’ rubbish that there are. If faced with uncompromising clay sub-soil, then make pot marigolds a priority. They are large seeded, easily handled, and can be sown in their final positions quite readily. Their only disadvantage is that unless great care is taken over the removal of fading blossoms, large quantities of viable seed will be scattered and you will be troubled with young plants for the foreseeable future. In the informality of a mixed border this can usually be tolerated, unless the progeny are from the seed produced by an Fj hybrid. In this case it will almost certainly be very poor. Another reason to select older open pollinated strains of marigolds rather than brash modern hybrids.

Modern cultivars of the mallow, Lavatera trimestris, need treating with a similar re­serve. They are perfectly acceptable if the old plants are to be cleared and volunteer seeding is not to be allowed. Where cottage garden traditions are more strictly adhered to and chance seedlings are allowed to prosper, then it is important that from the outset only open pollinated non-F, hybrids are grown. These reproduce themselves more or less to type and, while without selection will tend to slowly deteriorate, produce quite tolerable plants even if allowed to regenerate for eight or ten years. All the mallows have bold mounds of glossy green leaves and spires of open cup or saucer-shaped blossoms. The species itself is pink and, although occasionally grown, was long since superseded by that old cot­tage garden favourite ‘Loveliness’. In general garden terms the Fleuroselect award winning varieties ‘Silver Cup’ and ‘Mount Blanc’, which are pink and white flowered respectively, recently ousted ‘Loveliness’ from many seed catalogues. It is still avail­able though, and I believe should be the mallow of our cottage garden. The seed of mallows is quite large and can be sown where the plants are intended to flower. If you have an excess of seedlings, then these are one of the few hardy annual types that will respond to transplanting.