10 Edible Flowers

Today I want to open your eyes to the possibilities of eating flowers.

Whether you’re an avid gardener who wants to eat more locally grown food or just someone who is super into the idea of having an edible flower garden, this article should be a great intro.

I tried to mostly avoid flowers that are almost strictly medicinal (like forsythia) and stick to ones that you would normally throw into meals and garnish with. I also wanted to avoid most of the cliche flowers most people would expect (although there are a couple).

Let’s take a look:

1. Calendula

Calendula is a flower known for two things: its skin health benefits and how easy it is to grow.

In many climates calendula will self-sow when it goes to seed. Calendula also crosses between varieties and is extremely easy to harvest seeds from making it a great candidate for beginner-level plant breeding.

Over last summer I collected an entire mason jar full of calendula seeds from various gardens and landscapes to get as wide of a range of colors and styles as possible.

On top of the beginner-friendliness of the plant, it also is very easy to add to things like desserts, compound butters, wildflower ferments, or salads.

2. Nasturtium

Nasturtiums are a cress relative that has an oddly spicy radish-like flavor. They are great for clearing your sinuses and for adding a kick to otherwise bland meals.

My mom commonly uses them in fire ciders, and I eat them fresh in the garden in the summer.

If you’re turned off by radish or horseradish type spice, this might not be a flower you’d eat but I think it’s lovely and has such a unique flavor for a flower (the leaves have the same type of flavor).

This flower can also be easy to grow and in most places self-sows each year.

3. Elderflower

I’ve written about elderberry before, but the flowers of the same shrub are also edible and have different medicinal properties.

Elderflower is great for teas, syrups, oxymels, fried whole, ferments, desserts, and baked goods on top of various herbal medicines.

The elderflower syrup my brother made had a faint bell-pepper note to it which was very interesting. It’s easy to see why this flower is considered valuable to chefs.

The best part to me is that elderberry shrubs typically benefit from thinning the flowers anyways so you might as well use the flowers before you get fruit on the rest of them.

4. Violets

Violets are one of the first spring flowers you’ll forage for, and they are a real treat.

While most of the medicinal qualities are in the leaves, the flowers offer a very nice flavor for desserts, teas, jelly, and as garnish.

My grandmother has made jelly from violets, and it has a strangely fruity note that reminds me of pears. It’s really a fantastic and underrated treat.

5. Clover

Clovers are another one of those plants that are used both medicinally and culinarily.

They are known for being a source of a lot of honey (at least here in the US) and can be deep fried, made into teas, or infused into beverages.

I like clover because it is absolutely everywhere and is easy to identify for the beginner forager.

This is another flower with multiple uses since it attracts pollinators to the garden and is also a nitrogen fixing plant which is huge.

There are plenty of cultivatable varieties as well that you might be interested in growing in your garden, I’ve mentioned these in the original article I wrote about clovers!

6. Alliums

Most people will eat the greens on alliums (garlic, onion, chives, shallot, etc). but many don’t know that the flowers are generally just as edible.

Not every cultivated allium will form true flowers (garlic and onions for example) but those that do will have edible flowers.

Allium flowers are great fresh, in salads, cooked, fried, as garnish, in soups, or added to compound butters.

Typically, allium flowers will have a milder onion-like flavor that is a great addition to so many different meals. They also double as a great pollinator and repeller plant!

7. Mallow

Mallow is already an underrated vegetable as-is, but the flowers are also edible and are equally nice to add to meals.

While there isn’t any very strong flavor, tossing mallow flowers and leaves into a meal is such an easy way to add nutrition and medicinal benefits without compromising on how it tastes.

Mallow flowers can be eaten fresh, added to salads, soups, stir fries, or cooked any way you’d use spinach or similar greens. The flowers have a very mild and almost unnoticeable flavor.

8. Squash

While I have not personally eaten squash blossoms, they are all the rage with gardeners these days!

The blossoms can be cooked like a vegetable and are often cooked as a tempura food (breaded and fried). They are good in soups, in egg dishes, in mixed vegetable dishes, roasted, grilled, or as garnish.

The one question I get is “but won’t that mean less squash?” and you’d be right to think that, however in order to maximize your squash production you’ll want to pinch off some flowers anyway.

Even if you didn’t want to do that, the male flowers will never turn into squash anyway so you might as well!

Maybe this year I’ll actually get around to harvesting some to try.

9. Rose

I’ve written about rosehips before, but the actual flower is also edible and has been consumed for thousands of years.

Rose has a unique flavor that is light, perfumesque, and one that pairs well with fruit.

I’m personally very picky about what I like rose flavor in, but I can totally see why so many people love it. If you’re a fan of light, floral flavors, you’d probably love roses.

Rose petals are commonly used in desserts, teas, oils, herbal sugars, infused honey, syrups, cocktails, candied, in ferments, and in baked goods.

10. Apple Blossoms

Apple blossoms (and pears, and quince and any of the related species) are edible too!

These are used very much the same way as rose petals.

I have only used them as a garnish so honestly, I’m unsure how much flavor they actually have but they look beautiful and once again, you’re generally going to thin apple blossoms anyway so eating the ones you prune is a great use!

Fruit blossoms like this are not something I hear many people talk about so maybe that’s a good thing for more of you to experiment with and post findings online for other people to see.

Honestly, I had a hard time cutting it off at 10. I could have easily gone to 50 and still wouldn’t have covered all of the stuff I could have!

Hopefully this gets your gears turning about potential for new foods, gives you inspiration for a garden, or gets you thinking about multi-use plants and how to get more food out of a given space.

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