Calendula Oopsy Daisy

A dwarf calendula, neat at 25 to 30cm, with creamy-white flowers splashed with tangerine as though someone had flicked a paintbrush at them. No two flowers are marked the same way. The splash lands on the petal tips of one, the bases of another, the middle of a third.

That unpredictability is the charm and also the thing to expect. Some flowers come out barely marked at all, some come close to solid orange, and there is no controlling which. If you want a uniform edging you will not get it here.

The compact habit is genuine rather than the work of a growth regulator, so plants stay neat in a window box or a patio pot instead of flopping over the side by August. That does mean short stems, so it is not a cutting flower and a jam jar posy is about the limit. The petals are edible and the two-tone marking looks far better scattered over a salad or a cake than a plain orange one does. Like all calendula it draws in hoverflies, whose larvae eat aphids, which is reason enough to stand a pot of it beside the beans.