The Best Edible Flowers to Grow and Eat
Nibble and munch your way around the bright and scented bounty of the flower world
Janet Dunn
7 June 2017
Houzz Australia Contributor. Former NZ House&Garden writer and stylist, and avid interior design enthusiast. Ex-restaurateur and caterer, with a Professional Certificate in Gastronomy, University of Adelaide.
Houzz Australia Contributor. Former NZ House&Garden writer and stylist, and avid... More
Many of us have joined the eat-close-to-home movement by starting an edible produce patch or container garden for herbs, vegetables and fruit. Go a step further and supplement home-grown edibles with easy-to-grow flowers. They give flavour, colour and scent to dishes and offer health benefits too. From peppery and piquant to delicate and fragrant, snack on these beauties – they may already be right under your nose.
Settle, petal
Flowers have appeared in the human diet for eons. It’s unlikely there are many florivores (organisms that derive most of their energy from flowers) outside the animal kingdom, but there are a multitude of flowers we humans can safely add to our diets, thanks to records left by indigenous populations, cooks, physicians, gardeners and herbalists through the ages. Peruse this colourful array for culinary inspiration.
Flowers have appeared in the human diet for eons. It’s unlikely there are many florivores (organisms that derive most of their energy from flowers) outside the animal kingdom, but there are a multitude of flowers we humans can safely add to our diets, thanks to records left by indigenous populations, cooks, physicians, gardeners and herbalists through the ages. Peruse this colourful array for culinary inspiration.
Nasturtiums
Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) have rambling self-reliant habits and can be the despair of tidy gardeners. For time-poor gardeners who love vibrant plants that thrive in poor dry soil, however, the nasturtium is for you. They romp and scramble as a ground and trellis cover, and cascade exuberantly from baskets and pots. They love warm to hot climates, sun to semi-shade, hate frosts, but recover, self-seed and reshoot after a firm prune.
Grow and eat native bush foods
Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) have rambling self-reliant habits and can be the despair of tidy gardeners. For time-poor gardeners who love vibrant plants that thrive in poor dry soil, however, the nasturtium is for you. They romp and scramble as a ground and trellis cover, and cascade exuberantly from baskets and pots. They love warm to hot climates, sun to semi-shade, hate frosts, but recover, self-seed and reshoot after a firm prune.
Grow and eat native bush foods
Every bit of the nasturtium is edible. The flowers add colour to green and fruit salads, can be stuffed with ricotta and herbs or floated in a bowl or jug of punch. Pickled in hot white wine vinegar and stored for a few weeks, the tightly closed buds are caper-like, great in potato salads and tabbouleh. The leaves, especially older ones, add peppery bite to salads, similar to watercress.
Bonus: Nasturtium leaves are high in vitamin C and contain tromalyt, a natural antibiotic.
Bonus: Nasturtium leaves are high in vitamin C and contain tromalyt, a natural antibiotic.
Roses
Roses (Rosa) grown in your garden are a taste treat only if they have fragrance. Otherwise they are a tasteless but pretty decoration. Rose flavours and scents vary from raspberry, liquorice, apple and citrus to clove and cinnamon. The Damask rose (Rosa x Damascena) has an intense perfume.
Tip: To dry petals, pick fully open flowers, free of dew or rain, mid-morning, and tug gently to release loose petals. Shake free of dust, remove white section at petal base and spread on newspaper, kitchen paper or in a flat open-weave basket. Air-dry for a few days and store in a sealed glass jar. You could also use a dehydrator on its lowest setting.
Roses (Rosa) grown in your garden are a taste treat only if they have fragrance. Otherwise they are a tasteless but pretty decoration. Rose flavours and scents vary from raspberry, liquorice, apple and citrus to clove and cinnamon. The Damask rose (Rosa x Damascena) has an intense perfume.
Tip: To dry petals, pick fully open flowers, free of dew or rain, mid-morning, and tug gently to release loose petals. Shake free of dust, remove white section at petal base and spread on newspaper, kitchen paper or in a flat open-weave basket. Air-dry for a few days and store in a sealed glass jar. You could also use a dehydrator on its lowest setting.
Team rose flavours with any dish containing strawberries or raspberries. Rosewater, rose syrup, rose petal jam, Turkish delight, rose custard and panna cotta, rose-scented sponge cake, rosy-hued meringues… where to stop is the problem. Ground rose petals are the secret ingredient in the famous Middle Eastern spice, ras-el-hanout, which is used in tagines and as a roasted meat rub.
Calendula
Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) is a cocky little annual with a long flowering habit that brings a sunny face to the garden almost year-round. It grows enthusiastically from seed or seedlings in loamy soil with full sun and is irresistible to bees. It has been used since Roman times for medicinal purposes and is a sacred flower in India, where it is woven into colourful garlands.
Tip: Don’t confuse calendulas with French or Mexican marigolds (Tagetes), which are not edible. Check with your nursery.
Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) is a cocky little annual with a long flowering habit that brings a sunny face to the garden almost year-round. It grows enthusiastically from seed or seedlings in loamy soil with full sun and is irresistible to bees. It has been used since Roman times for medicinal purposes and is a sacred flower in India, where it is woven into colourful garlands.
Tip: Don’t confuse calendulas with French or Mexican marigolds (Tagetes), which are not edible. Check with your nursery.
Calendula’s golden dye traditionally coloured cheese and butter, earning the name ‘poor man’s saffron’. The woody honey-like scent has been likened to fresh spicy rhubarb. Pull petals off the bitter centre disc for scattering on salads, in risottos and soups. Freeze whole flowers in ice cubes for pretty drink garnishes and add dried petals to herb and spice mixes for refreshing and healthy teas.
Bonus: It’s said if you pop a calendula flower under your mattress, your dreams will come true.
Bonus: It’s said if you pop a calendula flower under your mattress, your dreams will come true.
Crocus
Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) could be grown solely for its beauty. For gardeners with plenty of room or even a spacious, sunny balcony, harvesting their exquisite stigmas yields superb unadulterated saffron. With full sun, deep well-drained and composted soil, and cold winters with few frosts, they divide and naturalise well – one bulb can become six after a year.
Tip: The three stigmas at the end of the pistil contain saffron’s colour and flavour. Carefully pluck and air-dry for three to five days.
Browse container garden images
Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) could be grown solely for its beauty. For gardeners with plenty of room or even a spacious, sunny balcony, harvesting their exquisite stigmas yields superb unadulterated saffron. With full sun, deep well-drained and composted soil, and cold winters with few frosts, they divide and naturalise well – one bulb can become six after a year.
Tip: The three stigmas at the end of the pistil contain saffron’s colour and flavour. Carefully pluck and air-dry for three to five days.
Browse container garden images
To yield a tablespoon of pure saffron, you’ll need 50 to 60 stigmas, but a little goes miles. Just two strands give a bowl of soup a rich woody hint and warm hue. Pop one in herbal tea, colour and flavour paellas, risottos, biryani rice, fish stews and bread, and make a luminous golden creme brulee. Stir a few strands into light honey and leave to absorb the delicious subtle taste.
Tip: Very gently toast air-dried strands in a dry pan. Crush and dissolve in a little hot water to release flavour and red-gold dye before adding to dishes.
Tip: Very gently toast air-dried strands in a dry pan. Crush and dissolve in a little hot water to release flavour and red-gold dye before adding to dishes.
Daylilies
Daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) are not true lilies, but grow from a tangle of small tubers, not a bulb – an important way to identify them from non-edible lilies. They tolerate many soil types and conditions and come in deciduous and evergreen varieties. Sun-loving and low care, they create a blaze of colour over a long flowering period.
Bonus: In Chinese lore, sleeping with a daylily under the pillow makes you forget your sorrows.
Daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) are not true lilies, but grow from a tangle of small tubers, not a bulb – an important way to identify them from non-edible lilies. They tolerate many soil types and conditions and come in deciduous and evergreen varieties. Sun-loving and low care, they create a blaze of colour over a long flowering period.
Bonus: In Chinese lore, sleeping with a daylily under the pillow makes you forget your sorrows.
Daylilies provide year-round food, from tubers, spring shoots, flower buds and blooms. Part of Chinese culinary tradition for over a thousand years, the sweet nutty buds are a natural for stir fries, reminiscent of green beans with a tiny bite. The flowers give gelatinous texture to hot-sour soups and, when dried, are called ‘golden needles’.
Hops
Hops are the delicate pale green cone-shaped flowers of the vigorous and decorative hop vine (Humulus lupulus). They aren’t hard to grow, but need six to eight hours of sunlight a day and plenty of water. More correctly a bine – a vine without tendrils – plants must be coaxed up trellises and frames. Expect to wait a year or two for a good harvest.
Read more gardening tips
Hops are the delicate pale green cone-shaped flowers of the vigorous and decorative hop vine (Humulus lupulus). They aren’t hard to grow, but need six to eight hours of sunlight a day and plenty of water. More correctly a bine – a vine without tendrils – plants must be coaxed up trellises and frames. Expect to wait a year or two for a good harvest.
Read more gardening tips
Attention home brewers! With the craft beer boom in full swing, how satisfying would it be to serve your own beer? Hops contribute all the things we love about an icy ‘cold one’: bitterness, piney aromas, grassy floral hints on the palate. As a bonus, they are a natural preservative.
Tip: Hops belong in the cannabis family and shouldn’t be fed to dogs.
Tip: Hops belong in the cannabis family and shouldn’t be fed to dogs.
Flowering herbs
Don’t ignore the flowers from culinary herbs – the flavour is milder than the leaf and many are beautifully decorative. Here are some ideas:
Don’t ignore the flowers from culinary herbs – the flavour is milder than the leaf and many are beautifully decorative. Here are some ideas:
- Chop chive flowers and add to mashed potato, scrambled eggs or dip in tempura batter and deep fry.
- Bluer-than-blue borage flowers with their cucumber tang make a killer gin cocktail.
- Finely chop a mix of herb flowers – basil, rosemary, thyme and marjoram flowers are a good combo. Shake in a jar with olive oil and wine vinegar for a herbaceous salad dressing. Refrigerate and top up with oil and vinegar as you use it – it will last a week or so.
- Strew pineapple sage flowers on fruit salads or whiz up in a banana smoothie.
Elderflowers
Elder (Sambucus nigra) is a perennial bush that grows well in many parts of Australia. Its frothy fragrant flowers have a long history as a medicinal, cosmetic and culinary plant. In the UK, it’s harvested wild from hedgerows, where it grows vigorously.
Caution: Use only the flowers. The leaves and stems have been reported as toxic, but not deadly, and the berries are toxic until cooked.
Elder (Sambucus nigra) is a perennial bush that grows well in many parts of Australia. Its frothy fragrant flowers have a long history as a medicinal, cosmetic and culinary plant. In the UK, it’s harvested wild from hedgerows, where it grows vigorously.
Caution: Use only the flowers. The leaves and stems have been reported as toxic, but not deadly, and the berries are toxic until cooked.
Concentrated elderflower syrup, floral and a little heady, makes a cooling spritzer when topped with soda, white wine or Champagne. Use it in jellies, sorbets, creamy desserts and for marinating fruit.
Elderflower syrup
Makes around 1 litre
Ingredients
Method
Elderflower syrup
Makes around 1 litre
Ingredients
- 1 kilo sugar
- 2 lemons
- 1 tablespoon citric acid powder
- 40-50 fresh elderflowers, rinsed well
Method
- Dissolve sugar slowly in 2 litres of water with sliced lemons and powder.
- Bring to boil and boil until reduced by half. Remove from heat.
- Add flowers, stir and leave to steep overnight.
- Strain through damp muslin and store in sterilised bottles in the fridge.
Stay on the safe side
Like all home-grown garden produce, ensure blooms are free from insects, dirt and chemicals. Avoid roadside plants exposed to traffic fumes and bought flowers that might be chemically treated. Like all foods, allergies can occur, so start with small amounts.
Some flowers are just pretty faces. Avoid tulips, oleander, sweetpeas, daffodils, jonquils, azaleas, rhododendrons, iris, hyacinth, buttercups, hydrangeas, calla lilies, delphiniums and daphne. This is not a complete list, so if in doubt, log on to the Australian Government’s National Herbarium portfolio site.
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Like all home-grown garden produce, ensure blooms are free from insects, dirt and chemicals. Avoid roadside plants exposed to traffic fumes and bought flowers that might be chemically treated. Like all foods, allergies can occur, so start with small amounts.
Some flowers are just pretty faces. Avoid tulips, oleander, sweetpeas, daffodils, jonquils, azaleas, rhododendrons, iris, hyacinth, buttercups, hydrangeas, calla lilies, delphiniums and daphne. This is not a complete list, so if in doubt, log on to the Australian Government’s National Herbarium portfolio site.
Tell us
If you enjoyed this story, like it, bookmark it, save the photos and share your thoughts below. Join the conversation!
More
Read more stories about growing your own food
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I love to eat what's edible from the garden or even fruit trees etc in parks and public places when I'm out walking. There is food everywhere. We walk past it all the time but are conditioned to think that the food comes from the supermarket. Foraged food, along with what I grow myself, really improves my diet and helps me eat healthier and natural.
Thanks for this article!
Hello folks any ideas what food plants survive on a terrace that is sunny all day?