Edible flowers, so many to grow, so many ways to enjoy them in cuisine or tea. The flowers are also typically companions for vegetables and help build the soil, attract pollinators snd just make the garden even more enjoyable.
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I see nasturtiums. What else are you growing there?
I know squash and certain hibiscus are popular edible flowers.
I grow Mioga Ginger which has flowers that are edible and used for teas but I have never actually tried them.
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Okay, its been a minute since that photo was taken…but looks like nasturtium, radish, apple mint, beet, artichoke, carrot or celery, spearmint, peppermint…
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Ill share the list of what I’ve grown and used for dried herbs, tea or a specific dish. There are many more depending on your growing zone. Just another way to enjoy the plants and trees we grow. We could put together seasonal seed mixes, I grow flowers with vegetables as companions and for seasonal flavors too.
Nasturtium- light pepper flavor, eggs
Sweet Alyssium- like broccoli, salads
Borage-salads and tea, tastes like cucumber, leaves great in soup
Dandelion- tea, wine, jelly
Lilac-tea, jelly… and when I lived back East
Stinging nettle-soup or tea
Calendula- tea
Dianthus- tea
Agastashe-tea
Lemon Balm-tea
Hyssop-tea
Snapdragon- salad
Violas- tea, salad, quiche
Radish- salad, soup
Stock- tea, and on chocolate (like mild clove)
Marigold- tea
Hollyhock- salad
Cilantro- soups, dehydrate
Squash- stuffed, with eggs
Carrot-soup, sauce
Fennel- sauce, tea
Cosmos- salad, tea
Mint- on desserts, tea, jelly
Sweet Mace- tea
Cilantro-any foods using Coriander
Basil- any dish using basil
Dill- pickles, or salad, fish
Pea- salads, also tendrils are tasty too
Artichoke- dried flower, excellent tea
Celosia-tea
Roselle- tea, jelly, color
Moringa- soups, stir fry, tea
Palo verde- soups, tea, and the seeds when green
Sunflower- use petals or eat flower with immature seeds marinated and roasted
Rose- tea, petal flavored water
Zinnia- petals for tea or salad
Most all of the petals are used for garnish too. Most all can be dehydrated for tea or tincture creation too…so many uses. We put them into spring rolls.
Most will laterally branch as flowers are cut from the stem… and put out more stems with flowers and drive to create seeds. Keep blooms cut every few days, more will be produced, some can go for months.
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I eat the young shoots of mioga too until it’s about a foot tall, chopped up in Thin rounds, so delicious! The flowers are a treat
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Moringa or myoga? Ginger flower?
Amazing list Kim!
Some others favorites I didn’t see mentioned
Salsify and Scorenza -(both whole plant is edible, known for there roots scorenza has wonderful leaves, and the flower buds before opening fly up wonderfully. )
Doucette d’Alger/ horn of plenty- cousin of corn salad delicious greens, humming birds love the flowers
Dahlia - petals make beautiful garnish, and the tubers are edible though palatability varies greatly
Tulips- same description as dahlia.
Shungiku Chrysanthemum- admired for its edible greens
Mashua- a nasturtium relative with delicious spicy tubers
Chamomile- tea
(Note pineapple weed has similar properties to chamomile)
Passionflower- garnish, tea, vine is medicinal
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Myoga/ Mioga ginger, Latin: Zingiber mioga !
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That’s great to know, I’ll have to try that! What do the shoots taste like?
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Yes! I forgot the chrysanthemum is delicious leaves and flowers. I havent been able to grow dahlia, tulips and some of the others. Flowers can be part of the diet and the garden is happy.
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If you want tulips you might try Tulipa clusiana
I have some of the ‘Lady Jane’ variety and they have performed very well for me.
They are native to Afghanistan and surrounding region and are well adapted to the drought & heat.
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The mioga ginger shoots are aromatic and taste faintly ginger, but truly there own thing, when i use them ill put them in something mixed with basil or shiso, cilantro,green onions or any combo of herbs you please and when i first tasted them it reminded me of something id had growing up in Seattle going to lots of family owned Vietnamese restaurants, so i do it in rice noodle bowls or fresh rolls and love it so much! Enjoy, let me know how you like it!
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I bet it is tasty in a rice noodle bowl. So far anything in the ginger family doesnt do well for me. Im gonna keep trying. I have to find a variety that can grow in the desert. Or maybe the microclimate i have is still needing care…
Have you tried growing the mioga ginger?
I’ve been really impressed with it. I don’t give it any extra care. It goes dormant by end of summer but it has come back strong each spring.
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I got a whole bunch of ornamental tulips from a neighbor who had more than they knew what to do with. 
I’ve been able to try lots of different tulip petals this year!
Most of them have tasted just like lettuce, except with a little bit of a bitter aftertaste I found mildly unpleasant. There was one pink-petaled tulip with way more petals than usual that was delicious, though. It had this floral taste that was fantastic, with no bitterness. I am very interested in propagating that one more!
I also made sure to hand-pollinate all my tulips with pollen of a tulip of a different color, because I really want to get seeds to sow. Most of the tulips seem to be pregnant with big fat green seed pods burgeoning now, to my joy! 
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Oh wow I know nothing of the dry extremes…Any ginger family in the desert would be hard, i could only think to incorporate it into a grey water systems planting (thats regularly used, )or in the pnw we have success with it in pots in hoop houses but again more mosture than you in a hoop too. Mioga had been able to stay alive outside here in wet areas along creeks. Hard that most gingers have been cloned so long they don’t produce seed as well, i guess that’d be a well worth thing to encourage seed production in, and i imagine drought tolerant you wouldnt get as good roots, but if your eating the shoots like mioga thats awesome!
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Lovely petals also look stunning on the plate. Do share a photo, I’d like to see your colors. Do you prepare them with a light vinegarette? I would share the pink hollyhock petals with children so they knew what “pink” tastes like. We have alot of fun tasting colors as we tip toe thru the garden.
I have to look for some. I have not tried growing this tyoe of ginger.
Yes, transferring some plants to the desert means we have to eat a different edible part of the plant…stems or flowers instead of rhizomes or rooots…until adaption takes place. Im looking at similar results with fruit trees…if the fruit doesnt make it, can we eat the leaves or sap in a culinary dish.
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