The Edible Flower Garden. Rosalind Creasy
Flower Lobelia cardinalis: Particularly the bulb
Clematis Clematis: All
Daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus: Particularly the bulb
Datura Datura mete hides: All
Delphinium Delphinium spp.: All
Foxglove Digitalis purpurea: All
Gloriosa Lily Gloriosa spp.: All
Hydrangea Hydrangea spp.: All
Iris Iris spp.: Leaves and rootstock
Jessamine Gelsemium sempervirens: All
Lantana Lantana spp.: All
Larkspur Delphinium spp.: All
Lily-of-the-Valley Convallaria majalis: All
Lupine Lupinus spp.: All
Monkshood Aconitum spp.: All
Narcissus Narcissus spp.: All
Oleander Nerium oleander: All
Poinsettia Euphorbia pulcherrima: All
Rhododendron Rhododendron spp.: All
Star-of-Bethlehem Ornithogalum spp.: All
Sweet Pea Lathyrus spp.: All
Tansy Tanacetum vulgare: All
Wisteria Wisteria floribunda and W. sinensis: Pods and seeds
my edible flower gardens
I always have edible flowers growing in my yard. Some (lavender, daylilies, and anise hyssop) grow in ornamental flower borders, others (rosemary and thyme) are part of my herb corner, and still others (squash and broccoli) grow in the vegetable garden. Sometimes, though, just for fun I like to try new edible flower varieties or illustrate how little room it takes to grow a selection of flowers for the kitchen, so I grow tiny gardens of only edible flowers.
It never stops amazing me how little space it takes to grow an enormous number and variety of blossoms for the table. The garden illustrated on pages 18-19 was located in my front-yard vegetable garden and included eleven species of edible flowers—enough to make a huge impact in the kitchen. I chose yellow, orange, and blue flowers. The total area of this little flower garden was six feet by twelve feet with a two-foot-wide path running through the middle, or about sixty square feet of bed space. As it turned out, half that size would have been plenty.
I live in a mild-winter area, so I planted my garden in early fall. Gardeners in USD A Zones 1 through 8 would plant this type of garden in the spring, starting many of the plants in flats six weeks before the average last frost date. I planted the mizuna, arugula, nasturtiums, and calendulas directly in the garden from seeds. The rest of the plants came from a nursery.
My front walk (right) is festooned with edible flowers, including roses, winter savory, society garlic, the species marigolds 'Lemon Gem,' and 'Empress of India' nasturtiums.
My soil is in enviable condition after twenty years of soil building, so I didn't need to add amendments at planting time. First, I laid out the beds. Because they are the tallest, I filled the back row of one bed with arugula and mizuna, a Japanese-type mustard. The middle row contained nasturtiums and calendulas, which grow to about eighteen inches. In the front row I planted the shorter pansies, violas, Johnny-jump-ups, and chives. In another bed I included strawberries, pansies, English daisies, and tulips as well as half a dozen heads of romaine and frilly red lettuces and a cluster of bunching onions—all great for salads. I could have included cilantro, fennel, radishes, bush peas, broccoli, and many more types of mustard, but I planted them in the vegetable garden that year because I like to rotate crops.
One year, I took the middle two beds out of my vegetable garden and planted them primarily with annual edible flowers. In spring, these little plots produced enough flowers to decorate a panoply of fancy platters. The drawing (above) indicates the location of the plants. In the back row, the north side of the garden (to the left), I planted the tallest plants so they would not shade the shorter species. The back row contains (top to bottom) arugula and mizuna (a Japanese mustard). The next row contains yellow nasturtiums and a chive plant, orange calendulas, and red and orange nasturtiums. The front row contains yellow and lavender violas and 'Antique' mix pansies. Across the path (top to bottom), are romaine lettuces, yellow violas, white English daisies, Alpine strawberries, and the red lettuce 'Lolla Rossa.' In the middle is a cluster of tulips, and the front row was planted with bunching onions, purple violas, and more English daisies.
Over the years I have noticed that the cool-weather edible flowers are the savory ones that are great for salads, appetizers, and garnishes for winter and spring meals. The sweet flowers on roses, lavender, honeysuckle, and scented geraniums all bloom in warm weather. That winter I was able to harvest pansies, violas, Johnny-jumpups, and calendulas—all great for salads and garnishes—from early winter through late spring. Our frosts knocked out my nasturtiums, so I replanted them in early spring. Soon the tulips, English daisies, mizuna, and the arugula came into their glory. I could now make an even greater range of appetizers and butters and fancier salads. In the middle of spring the nasturtiums kicked in and the strawberries started to flower (and kept going through the summer). In late spring the chives came into bloom, the English daisies were starting to dwindle, and the mizuna went to seed and were pulled out. A few weeks later I needed to pull out most of the plants in order to plant summer vegetables. If I had the space to allow most of the edible flower plants to go to seed (as I do some years), the nasturtiums, arugula, Johnny-jump-ups, calendulas, and mizuna would have reseeded themselves and the next fall very little planting would have been needed to renew the beds (the strawberries, chives, and English daisies are perennials).
My little annual edible flower garden (left) in early spring produced tulips, violas, mustard flowers, and a few English daisies. A few weeks later, the same garden was in full swing (above) and the violas and nasturtiums were exuberant, growing in among each other, as were the chives, pansies, and calendulas.
I planted another edible flower garden off my back patio (see page 11). It had a completely different color scheme: burgundy pansies, pink dianthus, light yellow 'Stella de Oro' dwarf daylilies, primrose yellow nasturtiums, Alpine strawberries, baby-pink roses, and variegated society garlic. Probably the most dramatic and fun edible flower garden I ever created was one planted with only nasturtiums—ten different varieties, to be exact (see page 12). It was eye-opening to see how many different varieties there were. Some were double, others were bicolored, and still others had green and white foliage. Of course, it produced a "gazillion" nasturtiums, and everyone who visited left with a big enough bouquet to cook with for a week.
Many edible flowers will reseed themselves like crazy. This little corner of my garden (below) grows by itself. Every spring it is completely filled with Johnny-jump-ups, nasturtiums, mache, and watercress with its edible lacy white blossoms shown on the right.
The Chez Panisse Flower Garden
A number of years ago I invited Andrea Crawford, then manager of the Chez Panisse restaurant garden in Berkeley, California, to join me in an experiment: growing a prototypical edible flower garden with which the chefs could experiment. She and Alice Waters, the executive chef of Chez Panisse, had