Edible Flowers You Can Grow in a Cool Climate (and How to Use Them)

The easiest edible flowers to grow in a cool, wet climate are calendula, borage, nasturtium, sweet violet, primrose, chive flowers and lavender, and all seven will grow in Ireland from a packet of seed or a single plant with no more care than a bed of lettuce. This guide covers twelve flowers we grow at the nursery that are safe to eat, which part of each one you use and what it tastes like, the common garden flowers that are poisonous and get mistaken for them, and how to pick, clean and keep them. It is written from Co. Wicklow and holds for any cool temperate garden across the UK and northern Europe.

Short on time? A packet of calendula seed sown in March gives orange petals for salads and rice from June to the first frost, and the plants seed themselves for next year.

Why Grow Edible Flowers

Most edible flowers are not grown for flavour. A handful of them taste of something (nasturtium is peppery, borage is cucumber, chive flowers are onion), but the rest are grown for colour on a plate, for the pleasure of eating something you picked a minute ago, and for what they do in the garden while they wait to be picked. Calendula, borage and nasturtium are three of the plants that hoverflies and bees work hardest, and two of them have a real record as companion plants, which our post on companion planting sorts from the folklore.

They are also the cheapest crop in the garden. A EUR 2.95 packet of borage or calendula seed sown once gives flowers that year and seedlings every year after, and the perennials on this list, violets, primroses, chives and lavender, are bought once and picked for a decade.

The Rule That Matters: Know What You Are Eating

Some of the most popular flowers in an Irish or British garden are poisonous, and a few of them sit beside the edible ones in the seed rack. Foxglove is the one that kills; every part of it. Sweet pea is toxic and looks like the garden pea whose flowers are edible, so never confuse the two. Columbine, lupin, monkshood, delphinium, daffodil, lily of the valley, hydrangea and rhododendron are all poisonous to some degree. The rule is that you eat only a flower you can name with certainty, and if a flower is not on a list you trust, you do not eat it. We sell foxglove, columbine, lupin and sweet pea seed for the bees and the look of them, and none of the four goes anywhere near a plate.

Three other cautions. Only eat flowers from plants you have grown yourself without sprays, or bought from a grower who says they are grown for eating; the RHS advice is to grow on a bought ornamental plant for at least three months before picking from it. Avoid flowers from roadsides and dog-walked verges. And if you react to pollen, go easy, because you are eating it.

Twelve Edible Flowers for a Cool Climate

Calendula, or pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) is the workhorse. Pull the petals off the orange or yellow heads and scatter them on salads, rice, soups and scrambled eggs for colour and a faint peppery bitterness. They dry well for winter and were once used to colour butter and cheese. Sow calendula direct from March and it flowers from June until the frosts, then seeds itself.

Borage (Borago officinalis) has starry blue flowers that taste of cucumber. Pull the flower from its hairy calyx and drop it into a glass of Pimm's or gin, freeze it into ice cubes, or scatter it on a salad. Borage is one of the best bee plants there is, flowers within eight weeks of sowing, and self-seeds for life.

Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) is the one that tastes of most. The whole flower is peppery, like a mild watercress, and the leaves and green seed pods are edible too; the pods pickle like capers. Scatter whole flowers on a salad or stuff them with soft cheese. Nasturtium grows in the poorest soil and flowers more for being ignored.

Sweet violet (Viola odorata) flowers in March and April under hedges and fruit bushes, and the flowers are eaten fresh in salads, crystallised for cakes, or steeped in sugar syrup. The young leaves are edible as well. A clump of sweet violet spreads slowly into a carpet in part shade.

Primrose (Primula vulgaris) is the other spring flower, the pale yellow native of banks and woodland edges. The flowers go on salads and cakes, fresh or crystallised, and the leaves can be cooked as greens. Primrose feeds the first bumblebee queens of the year and asks nothing but a bit of shade.

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is used sparingly, because a little goes a long way. Rub the dried buds into sugar for shortbread, infuse them in honey or cream, or lay a sprig under roast lamb. One lavender plant in a gritty, sunny spot gives more buds than any kitchen needs.

Chive flowers (Allium schoenoprasum) are purple pompoms in May with a mild onion flavour. Pull them apart into florets over salads, potatoes and eggs, or steep whole heads in white wine vinegar for a week to make a pink, oniony vinegar. Chives are the first herb up in spring and the flowers are a bonus on top.

Pinks (Dianthus) are the clove-scented cottage flower. Snip the petals from the bitter white base and use them in sugar, syrups, vinegar or on cakes. Dianthus is a sun-loving perennial that lasts for years on a dry edge.

Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) carries spikes of lilac flowers from July to September that taste of liquorice and are loved by bees and butterflies. Strip the florets into fruit salads and teas, or dry them. Anise hyssop is sown in spring and flowers in its first year.

Sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) has frothy white umbels in May with an aniseed sweetness. The flowers, leaves and green seeds all go into stewed rhubarb and gooseberries to cut the sugar. Sweet cicely is a perennial for damp shade.

Fennel flowers (Foeniculum vulgare) are flat yellow heads in August that taste of aniseed pollen and are the finishing touch on fish, tomatoes and roast pork. Bronze fennel is the ornamental form with copper foliage, and the flowers are identical.

Elderflower (Sambucus nigra) is the one tree on the list. The creamy June flower heads make cordial, fritters and the flavour in gooseberry fool, and the berries follow in September. An elder tree in a hedge gives more flower heads than you can use within two years of planting. Only the flowers and cooked ripe berries are eaten; leaves, stems and raw berries are not.

Herb Flowers: The Bonus Crop

Every culinary herb that flowers is edible in flower, usually with a softer version of the leaf's flavour: rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, mint and basil flowers all go on salads and into butters. Rocket flowers are peppery. Pea flowers and the young tendrils taste of pea. Courgette and squash flowers are stuffed and fried, using the male flowers once the females have set. Most of these are already in a cool-climate garden, and the flowers are the part people throw away.

How to Pick, Clean and Keep Edible Flowers

Pick on a dry morning, after the dew has gone and before the sun has been on them for long, and choose young flowers that have just opened. Shake each one to send the insects back into the bed, then rinse briefly in cold salted water and dry on a tea towel. For large flowers, remove the stamens, pistil and the green calyx at the base, which are bitter; for calendula and pinks use the petals only. Use them the same day, or keep them in a sealed box in the fridge for two days at most.

To crystallise violets, primroses or borage, paint each flower with lightly beaten egg white, dust with caster sugar, and dry on baking paper overnight; they keep for months in a tin. Borage and violets freeze into ice cubes. Lavender, calendula and anise hyssop dry on a tray in a warm room in a week. Any of them can be steeped in vinegar, sugar or syrup to carry the flavour and colour into winter.

Sowing and Planting

The annuals are sown where they are to flower from late March to May once the soil has warmed: calendula, borage and nasturtium direct into the bed, 1 cm deep, thinned to 20 or 30 cm apart. Anise hyssop is better sown in modules in April and planted out in June. All of them flower within eight to twelve weeks of sowing and, left to set seed, come back on their own every spring, so one packet is usually the last packet.

The perennials go in as plants at any time the ground is workable: violets and primroses in part shade under fruit bushes and along the north side of a bed, chives along a sunny edge, lavender and pinks in the driest, grittiest spot you have, sweet cicely at the damp shady end, fennel at the back where its height does no harm. Our guide to perennial vegetables covers the plant-once approach that the perennials on this list belong to.

FAQ: Edible Flowers

Which common garden flowers are poisonous? Foxglove, monkshood, delphinium, lily of the valley, daffodil, columbine, lupin, sweet pea, hydrangea, rhododendron and laburnum are all toxic, several of them seriously. Sweet pea is the one most often confused with an edible flower, because garden pea flowers are safe. Never eat a flower you cannot name with certainty.

Can you eat nasturtium leaves? Yes. Nasturtium leaves, flowers, buds and green seed pods are all edible and all peppery, like watercress. The leaves go into salads and pesto, the flowers are a garnish or stuffed, and the green pods pickle in vinegar as a substitute for capers.

Are pansies and violas edible? Yes. All members of the Viola genus, including pansies, violas and sweet violets, have edible flowers and young leaves, with a mild, faintly sweet flavour. Only eat ones you have grown yourself or bought as edible, since bedding pansies from garden centres are often sprayed.

How do you crystallise edible flowers? Paint each flower with lightly beaten egg white using a small brush, sprinkle with caster sugar until coated, and leave to dry on baking paper for a day. Stored in an airtight tin they keep for months. Violets, primroses, borage and pinks work best.

Can I eat flowers from a garden centre plant? Not straight away. Ornamental plants are often treated with pesticides that are not approved for food crops. The RHS advises growing a bought plant on for at least three months and only eating later flowerings, unless the plant is sold specifically for culinary use.

Starting an Edible Flower Patch

Earthling Plants grows every flower in this guide at our nursery in Co. Wicklow, as seed packets or plants, and ships across Ireland, the UK and the EU. For a first patch, a packet each of calendula, borage and nasturtium sown in April, a chive plant and a violet, will give you flowers for the table from May to October and a bed the bees will not leave alone. The companion planting post explains which of them earn their keep next to the vegetables, and the full list of plants for bees is in our pollinator plants guide.

Related reading: Companion planting: what actually works · The best pollinator plants · How to start vegetable seeds