A Pot of Calendulas and miniature Marrigolds

He gives us grace and glory.
The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
Psalm 84:11

The three containers I am using today have special significance. The small round pot and the copper egg cup are both from Zimbabwe. The plant pot was from my Summer school students in 2001.

Zimbabwe has 70 known deposits of copper. It is usually found in an oxide or sulphide form and it can be mined using surface or underground methods. In my childhood home we had a few treasured copper items and now in my home I always have on a wall the praying hands. This was given to us as a wedding present on 29 October 1978.

My late Mother brought these to me from home on one of her early visits to our family. I put florist foam in the copper egg cup and then the egg cup into the porrus pot.

Miniature Marigolds in a pot. The detail of the black rim is special.

Marigolds are mostly annuals. These miniature Marigolds are growing in a container in my garden. They keep insects like mosquitoes away if you are in a country like Zimbabwe.I didn’t plant these from seed.

My memory of Marigolds goes back to my aunt’s farm and her very large flower garden.

The farm Queen’s Rest was just outside what was then known as Gwelo in Rhodesia. With the usual cows, sheep and chickens she also had several bee hives.

One year she had the misfortune to have her honey taste bitter and more like a vile medicine. The memory of seeing, smelling and tasting this honey is still with me. According to her the bees hadn’t had enough other flowers and had used the Marigolds as their main source of food.

I am so happy I kept this pot with little messages written to me on it. They were written by my 2001 Summer school class.

I have used Rosemary as the foliage to give fullness to the bunch of Calendula.

The Calendula flowers are longer stemmed now and their flowers seem smaller than at the beginning of the season. I try not to pick buds and always leave plenty for the bees.