A Beginner's Guide To Edible Flowers

Good enough to eat? You don’t need to hit the hedgerow to forage for tasty blooms when your borders can serve up some culinary surprises

- Anne Swithinbank

Imagine an afternoon treat of pale green garden tea, served from a glass teapot filled with snippings of herbs, thyme flowers and rose petals. Or a tumbler of elderflower cordial, made from creamy-white blossom gathered in early June. How about a plate of biscuits flavoured with the chopped leaves and blooms of English lavender and, for supper, a salad garnished with sage flowers, or bright, peppery nasturtiums.

Foraging flower borders for tasty blooms is a great way to add colour, flavour and a range of minerals to your diet without the need for veg beds. Even weeds such as dandelions and nettles are edible; and who can resist nectar from the base of a honeysuckle flower? notes, or the individual petals of roses and pinks – easy to crystallize for cake decoration. (It’s a fun but fiddly job that involves painting the petals with egg white before dipping them in caster sugar and drying them until firm and crisp.)

I’ve been served brightly coloured tulip petals made into ‘boats’ for cream cheese and urged to tuck into day lily (hemerocallis) buds and flowers (they were rather sappy). A spring discovery was the delicate but complex flavour from the petals of magnolia x loebneri, and this summer I’m determined to try dahlia – it’s said to taste of spiced apple or carrot.

When picking blooms to eat, confident identification is paramount, because some garden plants are poisonous. To avoid residues, you’ll also op using pesticides unless they’ve been organically grown, never rage from florists owers or newly bought plants.

Palatable petals