Edible flowers: add the perfect finishing touch to your summer pastries, salads, and drinks
Edible flowers are perfect for decorating cakes and pastries. It’s fun to use them to season salads or to freeze them into beautiful ice cubes.
Since ancient times, flowers have been enjoyed as food by royals and emperors. In Queen Victoria’s England, flowers not only adorned dishes but were also used medicinally. The upper classes freshened their breath and sweetened their food with flowers. Some common choices were rose petals and pansies.
Though edible flowers are not very nutritious, they add a touch of luxury and beauty to dishes and table settings. A strawberry and feta salad will burst with vibrant colors when garnished with marigold and cornflower petals, just as cakes and pastries do for summer festivities. Even plain drinking water becomes festive when adorned with flowers.
Herb flowers can also add zest and flavor to dishes. Try using the flowers of basil, oregano, and anise hyssop. Mint flowers and leaves bring a refreshing touch especially to cool drinks, water, and salads.
Begin your experimentation with a few species and gradually broaden your selection. This way, you’ll learn the properties of different species and their best uses. However, keep in mind that consuming flowers is not recommended for people with asthma or allergies.
How to grow edible flowers
For edible flowers, it’s best to choose only organically grown seedlings. You can also grow flower seedlings yourself from seeds. Nursery plants may have been treated with pesticides, so they are not suitable for consumption.
The horned pansy requires a long pre-cultivation period, so sow the seeds in pots in February or March. Pansies can also be sown directly into the flower bed in autumn, allowing you to enjoy edible flowers the following year.
As for marigolds, the signet marigold is great for eating. Sow signet marigolds for pre-cultivation in March or April. They grow slowly at first, but once established, they grow into dense, bushy plants. Organic seedlings of this flower are fairly readily available in garden centers.
Other flowers edible flowers, such as nasturtium, cornflower, and marigold (Calendula), can be sown directly outdoors, but a short pre-cultivation accelerates their flowering.
Many wildflowers are also edible. You can add for example fireweed, clover, and dandelion on your plate, as long as you pick the flowers far from roadsides.
How to use edible flowers
- Harvest your flowers in dry weather, preferably in the morning when the plants are at their freshest, or just before serving. This way, the flowers won’t have time to wilt.
- Rinse the flowers before use. Make floral ice cubes by putting the flowers in water in an ice cube tray, or freeze the flowers in large containers to make ice blocks. Add the beautiful ice decoration into punch for special occasions.
- Edible flowers are at their best when fresh, but you can also dry them. The petals of roses, cornflowers, and marigolds, as well as lavender flowers, are good for drying. You can use them in cake batter or for flavoring tea, for example. Lavender flowers are also used in Herbes de Provence. Lavender, pansies, and rose petals can be used to flavor sugars.
- You can dry your flower harvest for later use in a plant dryer or by spreading the flowers thinly on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and baking them in the oven, with the door slightly ajar, at a low temperature of about 50 degrees Celsius. Turn the flower petals a few times during drying.
- Store the flowers in a tight jar, protected from light. Package the petals by species or try your own blends by combining different flowers. Dried flowers can be used as tea ingredients in herbal tea blends or as decorations in salads, cakes, and desserts.
Edible flowers
Marigold, Calendula officinalis
You may know marigold from the cosmetics industry, and you can even make your own marigold ointment from it. Use the petals as seasoning and decoration or mix them into bread and cake batter. Marigold blooms just over a month after sowing. It’s easy to collect seeds in the fall, and it self-sows readily.
Starflower, Borago officinalis
The flowers of the starflower are strikingly blue. When you sow starflowers in your garden, you’ll get new seedlings in future years as well. It self-sows, and excess seedlings are easy to weed out.
The leaves and stems of the starflower contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which is why pregnant women and those with liver diseases should avoid eating the green parts of the plant.
Signet marigold, Tagetes tenuifolia
An excellent edging and pot plant whose yellow, orange, or reddish flowers have a hint of citrus flavor. It blooms abundantly and for a long time, until frost.
Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia
The fragrant flowers of lavender are great for attracting pollinators. Lavender is rich in essential oils, making it an excellent flavoring for sugar and spice mixes. Dried flowers can also be made into sachets for linen closets or used with sea salt in a foot bath.
Edible chrysanthemum, Glebionis coronaria
You can make use of the petals and young, non-flowering shoots of edible chrysanthemum. The flower base itself has a bitter taste. In Japan and China, edible chrysanthemum is a popular seasoning for dishes.
Nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus
Pre-cultivate nasturtium briefly in May or sow the seeds directly into warmed soil. The flower petals have a peppery taste, and the seeds can be pickled in vinegar like capers. Nasturtium is sensitive to frost.
Scented geraniums, e.g. Pelargonium x fragrans
The flowers of the traditional scented geraniums are edible and make beautiful decorations on pastries and cakes. The taste of the flowers and leaves reflects the characteristic scent of each variety, including lemon, orange, rose, and hazelnut. You can also safely enjoy the flowers and leaves of apple and peppermint geraniums.
Cornflower, Centaurea cyanus
Cornflower is great for sowing as an adornment of your kitchen garden and to fill gaps in flower beds. The delicate flowers have petals that can be plucked off; it’s best to avoid using the flower base.
Roses, Rosa
In principle, all rose species are edible, but cut roses and nursery plants are often treated with pesticides. You can choose such species as rugosa rose (Rosa rugosa) and old-fashioned shrub roses to decorate your dishes. The rugosa rose is fragrant and aromatic. You can also make rose water from roses.
Horned pansy, Viola cornuta
A perennial small-flowered pansy with slightly tangy flowers. Thrives in partial shade or shade, in a nutrient-rich location.
