Making a calendula oil infusion

In February I planted about 20 calendula plants of different varieties with the goal of making an infused oil or salve. Last week I finally had enough dried flowers to make my first jar of infused oil. I'm following the directions in Mrs. Homegrown's lovely blog post on making calendula oil infusion.

I started by planting calendula on either side of my greenhouse and near the mailbox. The west side of my greenhouse was soon too shady to support flower growth, so I uprooted them and moved them to the mailbox bed, but I lost a few plants in the process. Here's the sunny side of the greenhouse where I've harvested most of the calendula flowers.

In February and March, I harvest about 5 or 7 flowers once a week or so. These days, I'm harvesting about a dozen flowers every other day.

I try to harvest the calendula blossoms when the flowers are completely open when the oils are believed to be at their most potent. The window for picking the perfect calendula flower lasts only about a day or so. Collecting after the morning dew has dried makes drying quicker, but there have been times I harvested during a rain, otherwise the flowers would have started to go to seed. When a plant goes to seed, it's completed its life's mission, so is much less likely to continue to flower. Cutting flowers before seeds form makes the plant try harder, often resulting in more dense flower production.

I cut the stem at the first pair of leaves, which is supposed to stimulate the plant to produce more flowers. It seems to be working. Many of the stems I've cut are branching, with each end producing a new flower. In this photo, the red line marks the flower stem and the dashed line shows where the original flower was cut. Two other branches have formed, one with an open flower and the other with a bud.

There's a variety of calendula growing in my garden, including yellow, white with a red center, orange, and yellow fading into orange.

After harvesting the calendula flower, I lay them on newspaper in a cool dry place in the house and wait. Each sheet of newspaper holds about 120 flowers. So far, I've collected 3 newspaper sheets worth of blossoms.

A single sheet's worth of harvested calendula, or about 120 flowers, is enough to fill a mason jar. After topping it off with grape seed oil, I'll leave it on the window sill for about month to extract the healing goodness from the flowers. Above the jar is yesterday's harvest of calendula -- 18 flowers. Time will tell how much infused oil I'll make.