9 Edible Annual Flowers to Grow in Your Garden

9 Edible annual flowers to grow in your garden from seed or from plug plants. Or indeed from seedlings given to you by a friend or bought at a local plant sale.

And because they’re annual flowers, they’re low commitment and low cost. If you’re renting a property they don’t create major changes but give you pleasure. If you’re expecting to move house soon, they fill the garden with spring and summer colour. And if you’ve recently moved to a garden and are dutifully waiting to see the year round before making changes, they ease your gardening ‘itch’!

Firstly, our List of 9 Edible Annual Flowers

Or, to be more precise, our flower list table. Because, if we’re growing these flowers to eat the petals and the seeds you need to be very sure you have the correct plant! Hence I’ve given you both the botanical Latin name and the most usual UK common name, in alphabetical order.

Botanical Latin Name	Common Name
Borago officinalis	Borage
Calendula	Marigold
Centaurea cyanus	Cornflower
Helianthus annuus	Sunflower
Limnanthes douglasii	Poached egg plant
Matthiola longipetala	Night scented stock
Nigella damascena	Love-in-a-mist
Papaver somniferum	Opium poppy
Tropaeolum majus	Nasturtium

And next the flowers, growing and eating them, and, of course, their taste.

9 Edible Annual Flowers to Grow in Your Garden

Unless specifically mentioned, these annual flowers are pretty tolerant of soil pH so long as its not at either extreme. They all like some sun, certainly not heavy shade, but will tolerate partial shade for part of the day. You may find they’re not as floriferous or the taste is not as piquant where they don’t have enough sun to bring out the full flavour.

NB – Only eat flowers which have been grown organically, without pesticides or herbicides used nearby. This is an extremely good reason for growing your own.

Unless specified, only the petals of these flowers are eaten, but they may be used raw or in cooked dishes.

How to enjoy the flowers at their best when you’re eating the blooms rather than the leaves or seeds –

Flowers are best enjoyed when eaten fresh within a few hours after picking.
Pick when they have fully bloomed but are not starting to wilt.
They’re best picked on a dry, sunny day.
Rinse the flowers briefly in cold water to remove dirt and insects.
Gently shake off the water taking care not to remove the pollen, which often has a lot of flavour.
If you have to pick on a damp day, air dry them.

Borago officinalis, Borage

Also known as starflower, borage has a regular place in the herb garden but looks good in an ornamental border too.. Remove the hairy inner parts of the flowers with your fingertips. The flowers have a subtle, cucumber-like flavour and are a delight in summer drinks and salads. You can also freeze them as pretty ice cubes to add to drinks.

Calendula, Marigold

Pot marigolds have a spicy or citrus-peppery flavour depending on the variety. They’re often grown in the kitchen garden to attract pollinating insects and as a ‘sacrificial’ companion plant. I like adding them to butter and biscuits as well as using in salads and soups. (They’re particularly good in leek & potato soup). Calendula petals can also be used as a cheap alternative to saffron for adding a yellow colour to colour dishes. (see blog link below for more on marigolds)

Centaurea cyanus, Cornflower

The young shoots are edible; the flowers can be eaten fresh or dried for tea. Cornflowers have a sweet, mildly spicy flavour. And an edible blue dye is obtained from the flowers, which can be used as an edible colouring.

Helianthus annuus, Sunflower

Sunflower seeds have a mild, nutty flavour and the large flower heads give you lots of edible seeds for snacking on and baking with. Young flower buds can be cooked and eaten.

Whilst you can eat seeds with black shells, they’re a ‘tough nut to crack’ and you wont manage to open the hulls with your fingers. These are the ones used for sunflower oil. The sunflowers you grow in your garden should have striped black & white seed hulls so you can easily extract the seed inside. (see blog link below for more sunflower facts)

Limnanthes douglasii, poached egg plant

This makes a pretty, lightly scented edge to a raised vegetable border, as it’s a good companion plant. Which means its easy to pick a few flowers to garnish your salad. And if you have a sense of humour, pop one on top of your next bacon buttie.

Matthiola longipetala, Night scented stock

These flower more profusely in a poorer soil and they’re also tolerant of drought. The delicious scent is noticeable as perfume-like flavour. Matthiola are delicious eaten fresh or candied and are a delight in cocktails too

Nigella damascena, Love-in-a-mist

With pretty flowers, delicate foliage and decorative seed heads, this is one of my favourite annual flowers. The flowers are edible, as are the seeds. These latter have a nutmeg-like flavour when finely ground.

NB Only eat flowers and seeds in small quantities, as they contain the potentially toxic alkaloid damascenine.

Papaver somniferum, Opium poppy

The seeds can be eaten and are used for adding extra flavour, crunch and bite to breads and cakes. Be careful, as the seeds of many other poppy species are not edible. Also, you must not consume any other part of a poppy plant – they’re poisonous.

Tropaeolum majus, Nasturtium

Flowers, leaves and seeds of nasturtium are edible, all have a peppery flavour. The flowers and leaves are most often used raw in salads and sandwiches, whilst the seeds can be pickled as a caper substitute. And of course they can also be used in cooking. Nasturtium produces far more flowers when grown in a poor soil. Foliage grows and trails happily in poor and rich soils.

9 Edible Annual Flowers from Seed to Table

I’ve put links to seed sowing and growing and annual plant blogs below, so here are just a few extra tips. And you may like to download Plews free gardening printable ‘Seeds I Need’ for your online or in person shopping list.

The common definition of an annual is a plant which is sown from seed, grows, flowers and sets seed within the space of a season. However, just to confuse you, some will produce small seedlings in the early autumn from that year’s self-sown seed.

Most, if not all, of our edible flowers will cope with poorer soils and don’t need pampering. Although not sowing seeds outdoors until after the threat of frost has passed will give you a better and faster germination rate.

Propagation options are: –

allow to self-seed outdoors (2^nd & subsequent years)
sow yourself in autumn outdoors or under cover (all years)
sow yourself in spring outdoors or under cover (all years)

Most of the plants in our list will easily self-seed if you leave a few flowers on to develop and burst. Alternatively collect ripe seeds whilst still on the plant, especially if you’d like them in specific areas of your garden or are moving house.

Sow outdoors straight away, ie from mid-summer to early autumn, when the seeds have ripened. These seedlings can be directly sown where you want them to flower next year. Or grown in pots or modules so you can pop them in a coldframe or otherwise protect from the worst of the frost. The aim of both methods, of course, is to give you some flowers earlier than the ones you sow in spring.

Spring and early summer seed sowing can happen from March through to June. To increase the flowering (and eating) period you could make four sowings, one at the beginning of each of the above months. Depending on where you garden, some frost protection may be a good idea. If you were able to cover the soil over winter then it should be warmer, which aids germination.

Where to grow your 9 edible annual flowers

The choice is yours, but for example: –

You could treat these edible flowers as a crop like any other and grow them in the kitchen garden. One of the benefits of doing this is that you will encourage pollinating and beneficial insects which will in turn help your organic veggies to thrive. However, sunflowers are best not grown near certain crops as they can inhibit growth. (see the sunflower blog for why!)
Or you could let them run riot in a cottage garden style border
If you have male dogs you might like to grow them in pots or raised beds…
When you’re sowing the seeds directly in to the ground, keep each flower type as a group. Not only does this make weeding easier but it gives you painterly blocks of colour and texture.

And finally

Hoping that this blog about 9 edible annual flowers to grow in your garden has given you food for thought 😉 If you’d like help with a planting design in your garden to create your own edible flower garden, or have queries regarding your existing planting, do get in touch to ask about our design and consultancy services.

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