Edible flowers enhance food with fragrance, color and flavor. In most cases, only the petals are eaten. Common edible flowers include nasturtiums, which taste a little like radishes, and borage, which has a delicate cucumber flavor. Garden-grown carnations (pinks) have a spicy bite. Chive blossoms taste oniony, while bright-yellow calendula petals can be used to add color to a dish, much like saffron does. Fragrant lilacs and candied violets often decorate baked goods, while red clover, chamomile, hibiscus and bee balm are used to make tea. You can stuff and fry squash blossoms or use them to decorate vegetable platters. Flowers from herbs, such as dill, fennel and even lavender, provide color and aroma for food. Finally, roses (preferable old shrub roses, not the hybrid tea roses) add strong color and a delicate, flowery taste to salads.

One word of caution: Several familiar flowers are quite poisonous and should never be used near food. These include, but are not limited to, lily of the valley, clematis, morning glories, sweet peas and foxgloves. Never eat or garnish food with flowers unless you know for sure they are edible. Also, never eat flowers that have been sprayed with chemicals or sold as bouquets. Be aware that even “safe” edible flowers can trigger allergic reactions in some people.

Here are some edible flowers to look for:

Bee balm (Monarda didyma)
Borage (Borago officinalis)
Bachelor button (Centaurea cynaus)
Chive blossom (Allium shoenoprasum)
Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.)
Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)
Hollyhock (Alcea rosea)
Hybrid tuberous begonia (Begonia x tuberhybrida)
Lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
Marigold (Tagetes tenuifolia)
Mint (Mentha spp.)
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)
Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana)
Pink (Dianthus spp.)
Rose (Rosa spp.)
Scented geranium (Pelargonium spp.)
Squash blossom (Cucurbita spp.)
Stock (Matthiola incana)
Violet (Viola odorata)