Edible Flowers – The Perfect Solution

Nasturtiums and borage flowers are easy to grow, flower over a long period and are wonderful to use in preparing food.  You can decorate the plates or put them in salads.

 

What could be more perfect for an edible landscape, than flowers that you can eat! Borage is also a wonderful plant for honey bees.  It blooms early in the season and is excellent for the health of the hive.

 

Another flower that I love is the delicate viola. In addition to using as decoration it can be crystallized with sugar. This site, called Baking 911 gives excellent directions on how to make candied flowers.  They also tell you which ones to use and which ones to avoid.

Roses have always been used in the classic landscape design, but we can use them too in our edible landscape.  Middle eastern recipes often call for Rose water. Putting a few drops in a fruit salad is simply divine. Not only can you use petals in your food presentation, but Rose hips are filled with Vitamin C and make an excellent tea.  You can see that there are probably many more traditional plants than you would have imagined that your new garden can happily include, without feeling guilty.

With the old fashioned Honeysuckle, we have a flower that provides incredible fragrance to the garden in addition to it’s flower.  I remember growing up and taking the honeysuckle flower apart and sucking the nectar from it.  Try it, it’s not only for the hummingbirds.