Pretty Orange Marigolds Sunny Flowers Cheerful Coffee Mug

Beautiful golden orange marigold flowers, bright blossoms in a sunny garden. In this detail enlargement you have a butterfly's eye view of these gorgeous flowers. Not surprisingly they attract butterflies and are often planted as part of a butterfly garden. Orange is one of the truly wonderful colours of the world. In colour theory it's associated with happiness, harmony, celebration, pleasure, friendship, the Sun and solar power; in Buddhism this colour is associated with higher spritual awareness. Like red, orange stimulates the appetite, great when you're entertaining dinner guests, family and friends or just spending quiet time alone with some comfort food. Orange is a Fire colour, thus attuned to positive motion, and it's less aggressive than red. It likes to kick back and relax once in a while. The colour orange is cheerful and pleasantly stimulating to the mind, perfect for cup of tea on a rainy day. Marigolds come in many shapes and sizes, and are generally yellow, gold, orange and occasionally with deep red petals and bright highlights. Some species are known for their ability to repel insect pests such as earwigs and that guy who keeps bugging you at the water cooler ... well, these colourful flora in the Tagetes group are known to protect against several garden insect pests, and make good companion plants for tomato, potato, eggplant and chilli peppers. Marigolds appear in the myth and history of many lands, including Mexico, where these brilliant flowers are used to decorate parade floats, buildings and people for the Day of the Dead, an important festival; these pretty flowers are also popular in Nepalese culture. People wear garlands of bright marigolds and also use them for religious rites or spiritual purposes. India and Thailand are the world's greatest producers of these pretty flowers. Associated with natural health, the flower of the marigold has medicinal benefits for skin problems such as burns, diaper rash, bug bites and eczema, and can also be taken as a tea made from the crushed flowers, an herbal treatment for digestive problems; these benefits are especially associated with marigolds of the Calendula group, while Tagetes marigolds, like those in this image, are better at repelling insects and have a powerful scent which is used, in small amounts, in some French perfumes. Many marigold species are edible. Marigolds are related to daisies and sunflowers (Asteraceae). These gorgeous plants are easy to grow in containers or in the garden, where they flourish under the rays of the sun and produce big showy blossoms all season long. Original floral photography by M Sylvia Chaume, Canada. Happy blessings!