Flowers for the garden
Marsh marigold
Сaltha palustris
Name comes from the Old Russian word "kaluzha", i.e. a puddle or marsh. Because of its affinity for water it is popularly called frog-plant or water snake.
The genus includes about 40 species occurring in the temperate zone of both hemispheres. Perennial plants with branched stems and rounded smooth leaves with a cordate base. Flowers yellow.
Increased interest in the picturesque style of gardens, so characteristic of Russian landscape and park art, has led gardeners to turn their attention to ornamental plants that are hardy, easy to propagate and uncommon in cultivation. Marsh marigold proved to be such a plant: its exceptional ornamental value, the wide range of some species, pronounced intraspecific variability, early and prolonged flowering period make it especially interesting for decorating scenic areas of shoreline zones of water bodies.
Marsh marigold (Cáltha palústris) — a herbaceous perennial, a species of the genus Caltha in the family Ranunculaceae.
It is widespread throughout the temperate climate zone: in Europe (except for the southernmost part), in North America (including Alaska and Yukon), in the Transcaucasus and Kazakhstan, in Mongolia and Japan, in northern and western China, and also in the mountainous regions of the Indian subcontinent (northern India, Bhutan and Nepal). It grows in slow-flowing or standing water around springs and along rivers and streams, in lakes, in marshes and waterlogged areas in forests and meadows, and along wet ditches. In the mountains it rises to an altitude of up to 4,000 m above sea level.
Stem succulent, erect (or ascending and slightly rising), less often prostrate (in which case it easily roots at the nodes), leafy, glabrous. Plant height from 3 to 40 cm and more. Roots cord-like, gathered in a cluster. Leaves alternate, entire, kidney-shaped or cordate, margin crenate or crenately toothed, dark green, glabrous, glossy. Flowers up to 7 in number are borne on long peduncles in the axils of the upper leaves. The perianth is simple, bright yellow, orange or golden, up to half a centimeter in diameter; the corolla consists of 5 segments, each up to 25 mm long. Many stamens, pistils from 2 to 12. In Ukraine it blooms in April–May.
Fruit — an aggregate of follicles. The number of follicles corresponds to the number of pistils in the flower. The follicles have a beak at the tip. A follicle contains up to 10 black shiny seeds (up to 2.5 mm in size), which fall out as they mature (in May–June).
Location: requires open sites with sufficient moisture. In such conditions they flower most abundantly. However, they tolerate shade to partial shade if the shade is created by deciduous trees and the site receives sun during the flowering period.
Soil: since Caltha in nature are plants of wet places, they need rich, well-moistened soil. With constant watering they can also grow in drier spots.
Propagation: by seed and vegetatively. The most common method of propagating marsh marigold is division of the clump. Division is best carried out in early spring or in September. Division is, in principle, possible during the height of the growing season; however, the plant immediately begins to wilt and shed leaves, although it does not die. The larger the division, the sooner it will bloom and the more abundant the flowering. Very small divisions may bloom only in the second year.