Calendula Wintersun

A calendula bred to flower in winter. Sown in late summer or early autumn, the plants bulk up while there is still warmth in the ground and then produce golden flowers through November, December, January and February, which is an unlikely thing to have in a British garden.

The sowing window is everything. Sow it in spring and you have an ordinary summer pot marigold. Miss the late-summer sowing and the whole point of the variety is lost. Get it in by early September and you have flowers when nothing else is doing anything at all.

Be realistic about what winter flowering means. The blooms are smaller than a summer calendula, around 5cm, and they come in flushes rather than continuously. A hard frost will knock them flat and they pick up again in the next mild spell. What matters is that there is something gold in the garden in January, and that bumblebee queens emerging on a mild winter day have somewhere to feed, which is genuinely scarce at that time of year. It cuts well too, and lasts a surprisingly long time in a cold room.