Marigold

We grow our Tagetes marigold on the sundrenched valleys and hillsides of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, where the orange-gold blooms flourish in the region’s warm and semi-arid climate. The flowers are hand-harvested at the height of their bloom, when their aroma is at its peak. The petals, stems and leaves are then steam-distilled onsite, just hours after harvest.

The marigold owes its name - Mary’s gold - to early Christian lore. It is said that, in place of coins, devotees laid marigold blossoms at the feet of St Mary, Jesus’ mother, believing she had once used the flowers as currency. Tagetes is Latin, deriving from Tages, a prophet in Etruscan mythology who sprang out of a deeply-ploughed furrow - it’s thought that the flowers were named for this legend, for they too spring up out of ploughed earth.