Make a meal of them

What grows in your borders is not just for admiring or to pick for the house: much of it is there for the munching. Edible flowers are an essential ingredient for the fashionable cook — from scatterings of tangy nasturtium blooms in the salad bowl to courgette flowers with tagliatelle, day-lily buds in stir-fries and scented geraniums infusing sorbets.

Using petals, buds and stem tips in our food is not a new idea: in the late 17th century, James II expected his chef to create a “grand sallet” from at least 35 ingredients, including primroses, gillyflowers and the buds of cowslips and broom. Somewhere along the way, however, we lost the knowledge and art of incorporating them in our dishes.

Today, thanks to the trend for using fresh, seasonal ingredients and creating dishes that tickle the senses visually as well as gastronomically, the well-dressed salad comes with a generous sprinkling of zingy petals. In early summer, this could be a confetti of gentian-blue anchusas, lilac chive heads and orange pot marigolds. Scarlet bergamot and golden sunflower petals follow later in the season.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which starts on May 19, will see florally inspired menus blossoming throughout the capital. These include one devised by Tom Aikens at his Michelin-starred restaurant in Chelsea, London. He combines violas with salmon and pot marigolds with lemon risotto. Thanks to supplies from Richard Vine, of RV Baby Salads and Vegetables, based in Wiltshire, Aikens can now incorporate ingredients such as pea and broad-bean flowering shoots as well as his regular nasturtiums, violas, borage and marigolds. “Pea and bean flowers taste really sweet,” he says.
Vine, who also grows “micro salads” (very young leaves) for restaurants, has been experimenting with new flavours for a number of chefs. This year, he is trying tomato and cucumber flowers. “These are all seasonally grown — not forced — and picked at the right time, which means that the flavour is at its best.”

Claridge’s hotel has traditionally put on a floral tea; this year, the Grosvenor House hotel is joining in with a rose- themed champagne tea that includes rosewater millefeuilles and a rare black China tea combining the leaves and a single rose petal in a heart-shaped block, over which the water is poured.

Vivek Singh, executive chef at the Cinnamon Club restaurant, in central London, draws on the exotic traditions of West Bengal, using flavours such as hibiscus, coriander, pumpkin and roses in his vegetarian garden menu. “Borage and lavender are a bit predictable,” he says. The Australian chef Skye Gyngell uses petals from the garden at Petersham Nurseries, in Richmond, Surrey, including scented pelargoniums for custards and bold-coloured mallows, deep-fried, to add to desserts. “I like them to look gutsy and purposeful,” she says.

It was in the late 1990s that Joy Larkcom and Jekka McVicar, the queens of vegetable and of herb-growing respectively, opened our eyes to the array of edible blooms. Larkcom, who gardens on a windy site on the southeast coast of Ireland, restricts herself to those that are easy to grow and offer a range of flavours: pot marigold, nasturtium (particularly ‘Alaska’, which is less rampant than others and keeps longer than newer varieties), borage, french marigold (especially Tagetes ‘Tangerine Gem’, ‘Orange Gem’ and ‘Lemon Gem’, which have a fruity kick), chives, society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea), day lilies, pumpkin, courgette and salsify.

With salsify, Larkcom uses the buds and tops of stems. “When steamed and eaten cold, they have a lovely musty flavour, like a cross between an aubergine and celery,” she says. Beware of floral overload, though: she warns against strewing the bowl with so many petals that you can’t see the salad underneath.

McVicar, whose garden and nursery are near Bristol, puts violets at the top of her list for the intensity of their flavour — she uses them in salads and in butter, and sometimes crystallises them — and suggests stuffing nasturtiums with herb cream cheese. Many people don’t realise that the blooms of many herbs are edible, too: from rosemary, thyme, oregano and mint to fennel and dill. “Most of them taste like milder, sweeter versions of the leaves,” she says. When herbs such as salad rocket and coriander start to bolt, strip off the delicious flowers before you throw the plants on the compost.

Most people already have an edible garden without realising it, especially cottage-garden favourites such as lavender, rosemary, scented roses, pinks, chives, day lilies, hollyhocks and pelargoniums. You should start by trying some of these in small amounts to see what you like. (Allergy sufferers should be especially cautious.)

Roses, for example, vary enormously in flavour, but generally those with the best scents will be the tastiest. Kathy Brown, a garden designer whose book Edible Flowers shows how to grow and cook a range of buds, petals and blooms, and who last year created a designated edible bed in her Hertfordshire garden, recommends the strongly perfumed varieties ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and ‘Madame Isaac Pereire’, which she uses to flavour cakes, sorbets and punches.
With a bit of planning, you can have petals to pick, from early spring to autumn; and, if you really get the bug, to dry, crystallise or freeze for use throughout the year. Who knows? This summer, you could be whipping up a sage and chive petal mustard for the barbecued sausages and drying camomile petals for soothing teas through the winter months.

What to grow: Many trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals provide flowers that can be eaten. Some, such as cornflowers or the bellis daisy (Bellis perennis), have little or no flavour and are used to add a splash of colour to a dish. Others offer a range of flavours, from peppery (nasturtium, pot marigold and salad rocket) or aromatic (thyme, marjoram and sweet bergamot) to sweet (rose, sweet violet and pinks). Textures vary from crunchy to velvety smooth.

If you have limited space, include at least one early and one late-season plant. The former include sweet violet, primrose and cowslip. Most bloom in spring and summer, with varieties such as saffron (Crocus sativus), fennel, hops and tiger lily providing grazing in autumn. If you already grow vegetables, sow extra seeds of those with tasty flowers, such as courgettes (use the male ones only), peas and broad beans.

If you only have space for pots, you can still have a selection, from violas and primroses to pelargoniums, pot marigolds and nasturtiums, as well as various herbs. Make sure you know what you are picking — books on edible flowers list the main toxic ones, or check at rhs.org.uk. Daffodils, delphiniums and foxgloves, for example, may land you in A&E. And never take those that may have been sprayed with pesticides: you should avoid collecting from roadsides for this reason.

How to use: Most should be picked when young and in perfect condition, early in the morning, before the essential oils have evaporated. Ideally, they should be used straightaway, though some, such as violets, will stay fresh for several days in a fridge.

Large amounts of pollen tend to spoil the taste, so cut out the stamens in pollen-rich species such as lilies, hibiscus and hollyhocks. The protective sepals should be avoided; likewise the bitter white base of roses and chrysanthemums. Smaller flowers can be used whole, but others should be cut into pieces or pulled apart. Check for insects before using, and with composite heads such as sweet cicely and elder, where tiny bugs are easy to miss, dip into salted water first.