Top 5 Edible & Medicinal Flowers to Grow This Spring

Spring is coming and @sagescrub and I are excitedly planning our garden! We're incredibly grateful to have a huge gardening space at the new place we've just moved to in Williams, Oregon. Of course we have many, many veggies in mind, but one of the things I'm most excited about is flowers.

I used to think flowers were mostly decorative until I began working on farms that focused on diversity. At these places, flowers were grown for many purposes, including food, medicine, dyes, decorative (cut/drying), pest control, and attracting pollinators and beneficial insects. And as I began to recognize and learn the name of these flowers, I grew more and more fond of them. I began compiling several lists of flowers that I hope to grow in our own garden. Below are some of my favorite flowers that have multiple functions.

1. Daylily.

This is at the top of my list of favorite edible flowers because it is beautiful, delicious, and a hardy perennial that can withstand -20C. I learned about daylily at Terraflora, a permaculture homestead in east Washington.

The young buds taste very similar to asparagus. I'm really into pickling, so an idea came to mind to make dilly daylily. I tried it and it became a quick favorite! It held up nicely in brine with a gentle crunch and sweet, salty, sour flavors. We also ate the flowers raw in salads. I later found out that daylily is one of the key ingredients of Chinese hot and sour soup. According to Edible Perennials, the juice of the roots of Hermerocallis middendorffii is an effective antidote to arsenic poisoning!

2. Violet.

I'm not sure where the phrase "shrinking violet" comes from; a violet may look fragile, but it is extremely resilient. It's the only flower I've seen growing in snow right through winter. The last time we looked in our low tunnel, they were still blooming in January.

Aside from being a kickass hardy perennial, violet is also edible and medicinal. Some of their edible uses include flavoring salads, desserts, and teas. It contains salicylic acid and can be used for treating headaches and insomnia. It's also used to treat lung problems like coughs and asthma. Susun Weed has an entire chapter dedicated to "Aunt Violet" in her book Healing Wise if you are interested in learning more of its medicinal qualities.

3. Calendula.

This cheerful orange flower hits a lot of points for me: edible, medicinal, and a dye.

Though it is not a perennial plant, it reseeds extremely easily. Throw a few seeds into your garden, and you'll soon find them coming back year after year. They also bloom for a very long time, from spring all the way through fall. I learned about calendula at Camp Joy Gardens, where we dry them for teas and salve, and have since collected envelopes of seeds for our garden. I also use the fresh petals in salads and to decorate baked goods.

Calendula is well known for its antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, and thus is often used topically (usually as salves/ointments) for minor injuries. Check out this study on calendula to learn more about its medicinal values.

4. Nasturtium.

Why I love this flower: not only is it edible and medicinal, it's also a useful pest control. They're a good "sacrificial" plant to have in the garden because insects (especially aphids) tend to love them and so they'll likely go for nasturtiums instead of your veggies. If you plant nasturtiums in combination with sunflowers, lavender, echinacea, and cilantro, you'll also attract the beneficial insects that feed on the pests and further protect your food crops.

Not only are nasturtium flowers edible, but also their leaves. When my dear friend and talented chef, Kerri, used nasturtium leaves to make dolmas, my mind was completely blown. Kerri pointed out to me that nasturtium's round, mild-tasting leaves make them easy to use for wraps. It was such an aha moment.

5. Borage.

Aka the bee plant, does exactly as it's named, attract bees! Have you ever stood near a borage plant? You'll know it right away from the sound of the buzzing bees. Borage is also one of my favorite edible flowers because its blue, star-like blossom is such an impressive garnish to any dish.

But wait, there's more! Borage is also medicinal. It's used for stimulating milk production and as an adrenal gland tonic. And then there's its usefulness as a pest control - borage is an excellent companion plant, especially for tomatoes, as it confuses hornworms. It also reseeds easily, flowers for a long time, and is fast growing, with lots of foliage, making it ideal as compost.

The more I learn about plants, the more awe I feel for nature and its seemingly endless creativity and diversity. What's even more exciting is that there's sooo many more wonderful plants I've yet to discover and I'm glad to know it's going to be a life long discovery.

So what are you look forward to planting this spring?