Edible flowers showcase a hidden side of our gardens and give us the chance to unlock an array of flavours and textures, all while creating lots of food for wildlife to enjoy, too. For someone who loves food and has boundless culinary curiosity, these plants provide some incredible and unusual surprises.
You'll be familiar with many of the classic edible flowers - nasturtiums for their watercress-like flavour, borage for its cucumber hit, and the pretty petals of calendula, cornflower and the ever-popular viola. Building on last month's advice, where we explored some of the amazing flavours harnessed from herbs, this month we'll delve deep into the most popular and sought-after flowers on the farm - edible blooms that are more than just pretty petals on a plate, they also champion a range of seasonal flavours and textures.
Classic edible flowers
Many of the flowers you may already be growing can be used in meals. Here, we share some of the most popular and how to best use them
Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus)
Sunflowers have a wonderful nutty flavour. They make up a huge part of our floral salad and in everyday dishes we use them as we would any salad leafy green. Pull petals away from the flowerheads you want to eat and cut back the flowering stems throughout the season to encourage them to keep producing blooms. This is an annual plant that we grow year on year, by collecting and saving their seeds - although we find the birds always beat us to them, which is no bad thing. 'Autumn Beauty' is our favourite mix for a wide range of colours. Best for: salads
Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus)
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Esta historia es de la edición May 2023 de BBC Gardeners World.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
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We love June
We're cruising towards midsummer: this is a month full of love and abundance. Wherever you look there will be something in your garden that lifts the spirits and makes you glad to be alive. We have colour to cheer us, we have leaves that still have the bounce and freshness of small puppies, we have the first berries fattening up, there are birds frantically parenting very demanding broods of chicks, the bees are all over the place, it's prime barbecue and picnic season, and we have lawns as lush and green as billiard tables. What a month to fall in love.
Your wildlife month
The female will usually lay one clutch of up to eight eggs
An edible garden in pots
Join Lucy Bellamy in creating an edible container garden for all seasons, as she harvests what's ripe now and starts later-season crops
Garden craft with kids
Fill the summer holidays with fun nature makes for kids, including botanical printed t-shirts, seed sowing in upcycled food containers and a hanging home for beneficial insects. Jaime Johnson and family show you how
Secrets of a COLOURFUL GARDEN
Using a colour theme is an easy way to give any garden a strong, unified character - Nick Bailey shows you how
Indoor plants, outdoor treats
Break the rules and give your house plants a summer holiday, with Michael Perry's mixed pot display ideas
YOUR PRUNING MONTH
The first few weeks of summer are a good time to get spring-flowering plants in shape. Follow Frances' guide for best results
Gardening for wellbeing
As the pressures of modern living bear down, our outside spaces can provide soothing respite for our minds and bodies, says Arit Anderson
Your greenhouse guide to A fruitful summer
Get the best from your greenhouse fruit and vegetable crops this summer, with these tried and trusted growing tips from Adam Frost
Stars of the show
Agapanthus is the perfect midsummer plant, flowering with spectacular blooms from June onwards and, as Monty explains, it loves to grow in a pot
