Edible Flowers’ List: Tasty Colorful Blooms For Your Garden:
Flowers are the perfect complement to container gardens. We hope our edible flowers list makes it easier for you to incorporate them. Brightly colored and sweetly scented, they liven up any green space, especially patios and balconies. But a culinary delicacy as well? Why not? Some special blooms can also liven up salads, cakes and punch bowls.
The Edible Flowers List of Precautions
Like wild mushrooms, you wouldn’t want to start munching down on any old flower. Do your research before tasting any unknown blossoms, because they’re certainly not all edible. And do make sure your breakfast bouquet hasn’t been sprayed by chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
Preparation
Edible flowers can be enjoyed raw, cooked and candied straight from the garden. The blossoms should be used soon after harvesting to preserve their taste and appearance. Wash the blooms gently and remove the stems, stamens, pistils and sepals of the flowers before serving. These can lend a bitter taste to otherwise sweet blossoms. Don’t remove the sepals from johnny-jump-ups, violas and pansies, or the flavours in these particular flowers won’t fully blossom.
The Edible Flowers List : Our top 5
5. Nasturtium (Tropaeolum Majus)
Kicking off our edible flowers list is the vibrant nasturtium flower. Popping up in bright shades of red, orange and yellow, these blooms add a peppery bite to salads. Plant them in direct sunlight to achieve maximum blossom potential. Don’t use fertilizers in these outdoor gardens. They’ll cause nasturtiums to grow many leaves but few flowers. Use fertilizers sparingly in indoor gardens.
4. Violet (Viola Odorata)
Care for a side of flower with your afternoon tea? These perky, sweet tasting perennials can be eaten fresh or candied and come in at number 4 on our edible flowers list. Blooming from April to May, violets prosper in moist, well-drained soil in sunny to partly shady locales. Despite the name, violets are available in a wide variety of colors.
3. Anise Hyssop (Agastache Foeniculum)
Put away the twizzlers and go au naturel with this tasty treat coming in the middle of our edible flowers list. The lovely purple blossoms of anise hyssop taste sweetly of licorice and–as the name suggests – anise. Self-seeding, this perennial will come back year after year in your container garden. The anise hyssop prefers well drained soil and sunny locations with some shade. Flowers appear in July and continue blooming until the first frost of the season.
2. Pansy (Viola x Wittrockiana)
Coffee breath preventing you from getting to close to anyone? Skip the Tic-Tacs and give a pansy a try. These delicate annuals have a wintergreen flavor when eaten whole. Short in stature, pansies can be great choice for an elevated garden. Pansies blossom from May to July. They should be planted in rich soil in cooler locales. Cooler weather = cool, minty breath.
1. Bee Balm (Monarda Didyma)
This spunky bloom ranks #1 on our edible flowers list because it’s beautiful and tasty, and it might also bring a little wildlife to your container garden. This cheerful plant comes in a variety of colors and has been known to attract hummingbirds, butterflies and–as the name suggests–bees. Given the great bee and butterfly decline, planting bee balm is the least we can do to keep the species alive. And with a delightful citrus and minty taste, bee balm can also be used in salads and made into tea. Bee balm does well in a container garden, and prefers a well lit, sunny spot with rich soil. Blooms appear in July and August.
Any suggestions for our edible flowers list? We’d love to hear from you so please post your favorite bloom to snack on below.
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