Growing Flowers and Seeds for Eating

Edible Garden Flowers and other Seeds. Beauty You Can Eat

A garden can be more than a place of colour and fragrance—it can also provide ingredients for the kitchen. The traditional Potage Garden would contain many of these. Many familiar garden flowers are edible, adding attractive colours, delicate flavours and interesting textures to salads, desserts, drinks and savoury dishes. From cheerful nasturtiums to sunny calendulas and the spectacular sunflower,  edible flowers and seeds can turn an ordinary meal into something special.

However, not every flower is safe to eat. Flowers should only be consumed when they have been correctly identified and grown without pesticides or other chemicals that are unsuitable for food.

Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums are among the easiest and most rewarding edible flowers to grow. Their vivid orange, yellow and red flowers bring a peppery, slightly watercress-like flavour to salads. Both the flowers and leaves can be eaten, while the young seed pods can be pickled as a traditional substitute for capers.

The flowers are particularly attractive scattered over green salads, used as a garnish for savoury dishes or stuffed with soft cheese. Because their colours are so bright, nasturtiums are also a favourite for decorating summer plates.

Wild Poppies

The delicate red flowers of the common poppy are a familiar sight in the British countryside. Poppy species can be confusing, however, and not all poppies or their parts should be treated as edible. The seeds of the common poppy (Papaver rhoeas) have culinary uses, but identification is important and flowers should never be gathered from roadsides or areas that may have been treated with chemicals.

Calendula

Calendula, sometimes called pot marigold, is one of the most useful edible flowers for the kitchen. Its golden-yellow and orange petals have a mild, slightly peppery flavour and can add colour to salads, soups, rice dishes and savoury recipes.

Calendula petals have also traditionally been used to give foods a golden colour, earning the flower the nickname "poor man's saffron." The petals can be separated from the flower head and sprinkled over food for a splash of colour.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are best known for their seeds, which are nutritious and versatile. Young sunflower buds can also be cooked in ways similar to an artichoke. 

Once the flower heads mature, the familiar seeds can be harvested and eaten raw or roasted. They can also be added to bread, granola, salads and other dishes. Growing sunflowers therefore provides both ornamental value and a useful edible crop.

Violets

Sweet violets provide tiny purple, blue or white flowers with a gentle floral flavour. They can be scattered over salads and desserts, added to drinks or crystallised with sugar to create attractive cake decorations.

Violets are particularly useful for adding colour without overwhelming the flavour of a dish.

Borage

Borage produces star-shaped blue flowers that make an eye-catching addition to summer food. The flowers have a fresh flavour often compared with cucumber and can be used in salads, cold drinks and desserts.

They are especially attractive floating in a glass of lemonade or frozen into ice cubes for summer drinks.

Chive Flowers

Chives are usually grown for their leaves, but their round purple flower heads are edible too. Individual flowers can be separated and sprinkled over salads, potatoes, eggs and savoury dishes. They have the familiar mild onion flavour of chives, making them one of the easiest edible flowers to incorporate into everyday cooking.

Lavender

Lavender is valued for its fragrance, but culinary varieties can also be used in small quantities in cooking. Its strongly aromatic flowers can flavour biscuits, cakes, sugar, syrups and drinks.

A little goes a long way, as too much lavender can give food a bitter or overly perfumed taste.

Other Edible Garden Flowers

There are many other flowers that can add variety to an edible garden. Depending on the species and variety, these can include ramsons garlic, chamomile for teas, pansies and violas

Edible flowers can be used fresh, dried, crystallised, frozen into ice cubes or incorporated into syrups and preserves. Their greatest appeal, however, is often visual: a scattering of colourful petals can make a simple meal look remarkably sophisticated.

Growing Flowers for the Kitchen

If you plan to eat flowers from your garden, grow them specifically for culinary use. Avoid plants that have been treated with ornamental pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals not approved for food crops. Flowers from florists, garden centres or roadsides should not automatically be assumed to be edible.

It is also important to identify every plant correctly. Some attractive garden flowers are poisonous, and common names can vary from one region to another. When in doubt, don't eat it.

A Garden Full of Colour and Flavour

Edible flowers offer a wonderful way to combine ornamental gardening with food production. Nasturtiums bring peppery colour to salads, calendulas brighten savoury dishes, sunflowers provide seeds, and roses and violets add fragrance to sweet treats.

With careful plant selection and safe growing practices, an edible flower garden can provide much more than visual beauty. It can become a source of fresh ingredients, seasonal inspiration and a little extra colour on the plate.