150 Flowers You Can Eat (Delicious Edible Flowers to Try this Season)

Last Updated on September 25, 2024

When most of us start tallying the ingredients we have on hand for dinner, edible flowers don’t tend to be the first (or second or third) things that come to mind. However, knowing the many flowers you can eat opens up a whole new world of foraging fun and expands your dining horizons.

Best of all, many (not all) edible flowers also have edible leaves and roots, so in many cases you’ll get not only delectable flowers for salads and sweets, but some tasty greens and tubers as well.

GETTING STARTED WITH FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT

I first got interested in flowers you can eat when wild violets started growing in abundance in our permaculture yard and our borage blossoms started adorning summer desserts. Edible flowers were sort of a fun add-in, rather than something I thought much about when taking stock of the edibles in our landscape.

But I got much more excited about the possibilities of eating flowers while I was researching my book on elderberries and elderflowers. Elderflowers have an incredible flavor that makes them a thoroughly delightful ingredient to play with in the kitchen, plus they’re abundant, easy to pick, and have potent medicinal properties.

As someone more than slightly obsessed with free healthy food and the medicinal power of common plants, I was totally hooked!

GETTING TO KNOW FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT

Besides their beauty and delightful scent, many edible flowers are chock full of valuable anti-inflammatory and medicinal compounds.

More importantly, edible flowers are an often-overlooked source of food growing freely all around us. How many people do you know take advantage of their daylilies, hostas, and begonias, super-common flowers you can eat?

Even if you’re not much of a cook, adding some flowers you can eat to your salad or cheese plate adds a little something special to the humblest of dishes, and it’s an easy way to dip your toes in the exciting waters of foraging.

Or if you love herbal teas, many edible flowers make beautiful and medicinal cups of tea. Even if you don’t have fresh flowers, you can use blossoms you’ve dried yourself or buy dry flowers for creating delicious homemade tea.

One of the best places to find high-quality dried flowers is Mountain Rose Herbs. They carry dried elderflowers, chamomile, calendula, lavender, and much more.

WHICH FLOWERS ARE EDIBLE?

While there are a pretty impressive number of flowers you can eat, not all flowers are edible, and many are toxic, so please be sure to use a good guide and positively identify your edible flower before sampling! Here’s a list of poisonous plants worth checking out.

Note that some plants have alternate and often similar names, which can cause confusion. While hyacinths are poisonous, muscari– which some people call grape hyacinth — are among the flowers you can eat.

Always look up any flower you’re thinking about eating, and pay close attention to the botanical name to make sure you have an edible flower rather than a toxic one.

And while in some cases other parts of the plant are also edible, many plants have flowers you can eat but toxic leaves, berries, roots, or seeds. Please do your homework before deciding to consume a new plant!

In most cases, only the petals of edible flowers are used.

When trying an edible flower (or any plant, actually) for the first time, start with a little nibble to make sure you don’t have an adverse reaction. I got an unpleasant tingling in my mouth when I tried a small bite of the daylilies growing in my yard, so I leave them alone. Daylily tubers, however, are among the many perennial vegetables to consider harvesting from your edible landscape.

Also be aware that if you have allergies to certain plants, some of their cousins may flare up your symptoms. People with ragweed allergies, for instance, should steer clear of daisies, dandelions, and chamomile, which are in the same family.

TIPS ON FORAGING & GROWING EDIBLE FLOWERS

1. Remember that picking flowers means you’re likely reducing the yield of the plant, especially in the case of fruit blossoms, when you want to get plenty of fruit as well, such as elderberries. (Here’s everything you could possibly want to know about growing elderberry.) But many fruiting shrubs and trees have many more blossoms than you will need for fruit, so as long as you don’t overdo it, your fruit harvest should still be fine. Apple trees, for example, are typically thinned so they produce larger, better quality apples than they would otherwise.
2. Flowers are very delicate and perishable, so you should eat any flowers you pick as soon as possible. Some will manage OK in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
3. Only use flowers you know were grown without chemical pesticides. Flowers from florists are typically treated and should not be consumed.
4. VERY IMPORTANT: Just because a startling number of flowers you didn’t realize were edible actually are does not mean all flowers are edible! Some are quite toxic and can make you very sick.
5. Not all parts of edible flowers are safe to eat. Before eating any flower, check which parts are edible.

ALWAYS make sure to correctly identify a plant before foraging. Consult a good field guide before foraging any plant for the first time. Here are my favorite books on foraging.

You might consider taking a foraging class, like the Herbal Academy’s online foraging course, which teaches plant identification and ethical wildcrafting practices.

HOW TO USE FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT

Some of the simplest ways to use edible flowers are as beautiful garnishes or as colorful additions to salads.

Using flowers for cake toppings is another popular use for flowers you can eat. I love to top summer birthday cakes with star-shaped borage flowers. Candied or fresh violets are another option, or you can place fresh rose petals or elderflowers around the cake.

Steer clear of spicy flowers like nasturtium or oregano for desserts — though beautiful, they won’t taste great with a chocolate cake! Save them for salads and cooking.

Some edible flowers, like daylilies and squash blossoms, can be stuffed with savory or sweet fillings, while other flowers you can eat are commonly candied or made into syrups for sodas and cocktails.

You can also use edible flowers to infuse vinegar. Instructions from Herbal Academy here. You can also flavor salt or sugar with your blossoms.

Many flowers make delicious teas, using either dried or fresh flowers, alone or in combination with other flowers and herbs. I’ve made some deliciously floral sun tea using lemon balm, borage, and elderflower.

OTHER WAYS TO USE EDIBLE FLOWERS

Infuse edible blossoms in vinegar to add something special to your homemade salad dressing or to give as easy homemade gifts.

Many flowers you can eat can be dried for tea. Elderflower, chamomile, rose petals, lavender, clover, and apple blossoms all make lovely floral tea ingredients.

If you’re not up for harvesting and drying your own flowers, you can also buy them already dried, such as rose petals, lavender, chamomile, and hibiscus.

Ready to have some fun? Below are some of my favorite flowers you can eat, followed by a lengthy list of edible flowers you can explore.

There are simply too many flowers to include recipe links and foraging information for all of them, so I highly recommend using your web skills and searching for the edible flower you’re interested in, plus the word “recipes.” You can also follow my Edible Flower Pinterest board, where I’ve collected some of my favorites.

150 FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT!

EDIBLE HERB FLOWERS

The flowers of mints, basil, oregano, thyme, dill, chervil, cilantro, rosemary, savory, and sage can add the herb’s flavor as well as beauty to your next meal. In addition to adding some extra beauty, the herb flavor for a number of these flowers is a bit milder.

Chive flowers are also edible, and make gorgeous additions to any dish where you’d normally use chives, such as eggs, potatoes, or fish dishes.

Lemon balm flowers can go in your favorite lemon balm recipe or can be added to your lemon balm tea. They would make a tasty addition to a fruit salad. Here are loads more delicious uses for lemon balm.

Catnip flowers get added to my favorite herbal tea for sleep, along with lemon balm, yarrow, and violet leaves and flowers. These plants are among the many perennial herbs you can grow in your garden.

Many of these herbs are among those that can tolerate shade. Here’s a list of herbs for shade if you’re dealing with a less sunny garden.

FLOWERS OF EDIBLE WEEDS

Numerous edible weeds have flowers you can eat. Wood sorrel, Virginia waterleaf, pineapple weed, edible clover, and dames rocket are some of the many tasty flowering “weeds” you might enjoy eating this season. Below are some other favorites.

Violets

Violets are among the first flowers we can enjoy in spring, and they have medicinal properties as well as culinary ones. They are a longstanding herbal remedy for cough.

Throw some in salad along with some violet leaves and other wild greens or make a simple tea. Common violets don’t have a lot of flavor, but if you’re lucky enough to have sweet violets, consider using them in dessert. Learn more about the benefits of wild violets, then check out this collection of wild violet recipes.

Related violas, pansies and johnny jump-ups are also edible.

Dandelions

Dandelions are abundant and rich in nutrients. You can use the petals, leaves, and roots in everything from baked goods to wine. Here are more than 35 ways to use dandelions.

Purslane

Purslane is a superstar edible weed, and its little yellow flowers are edible as well. Here’s how to identify purslane, and here are yummy purslane recipes to try it in.

Yarrow

Yarrow is both a useful medicinal plant and a culinary herb that’s sometimes used as an alternative to tarragon. The flowers are often included in teas considered especially useful for lowering fever. Here’s more on the uses for yarrow.

FLOWERS OF FRUITING SHRUBS AND TREES

Many fruiting trees and shrubs have flowers you can eat. Apple, plum, and citrus blossoms are all edible.

Apple blossoms make a lovely floral tea, or you can add them to fruit salads. Just eat in moderation, as they contain some cyanide precursors that may not be safe in large amounts.

Elderflower is one of my all-time favorite flowers to use in the kitchen. Like the berries they turn into, elderflowers are rich in medicinal compounds, but more importantly they are SO delicious! If you’ve ever enjoyed an elderflower soda, you’ll understand what the fuss is about. Here’s lots more on how to forage and use elderflower and making elderflower tea.

Remember not to overharvest your fruit blossoms or you won’t get any fruit. 🙁

One interesting exception to this rule comes in the case of my beloved rhubarb, which doesn’t grow fruit — it’s the stalks we use in yummy rhubarb sauce and homemade fruit leathers.

Every year we pull off the flowers so the plants don’t waste energy we want to go to growing stalks. I’ve always tossed them, but in researching this article, I learned the flowers are actually considered a delicacy. Read more about using rhubarb flowers if you’re curious.

FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT FROM COMMON GARDEN PLANTS

Nasturtium

I plant gorgeous nasturtiums in my garden beds every year to beautify the garden and attract pollinators. The spicy leaves and edible flowers also make a beautiful addition to salads. These tasty flowers are easy to grow, and also work as a companion plant for your veggies.

Borage

Borage is an easy-to grow annual that’s great for pollinators and works well as a companion plant for strawberries or zucchini companion plant or other garden crops. Its delicate blue flowers make a beautiful topping for cakes or floating in drinks, while the leaves make a fantastic infused water or borage tea. Here’s more on growing and using borage.

Hosta

Most of us don’t realize that those ubiquitous hostas are edible, starting with the shoots in spring. The stalks, leaves, and flowers are edible as well.

Bee Balm

A drought-tolerant native plant, bee balm is a smart addition to the ecological landscape as a useful natural remedy you can grow in your yard. Considered helpful for addressing stress, colds, and digestive complaints, bee balm can also be used in cooking. Different varieties taste quite different; some have a pronounced oregano flavor, while others have a more bergamot taste (hence their other name, bergamot, though they’re not in any way related to the fruit bergamot).

Peony

Peony flowers are not only utterly gorgeous in the garden, their petals can be used in cocktails, as salad garnishes, or in all sorts of sweet treats, like ice cream and jelly.

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle is another medicinal flower that makes delightfully-flavored sweets. Here’s how to make honeysuckle syrup and other honeysuckle recipes. Note that there are many types of honeysuckle, and some are toxic, so do your homework before foraging.

Broccoli Flowers

A little late to your broccoli harvest? No worries! Those little yellow flowers are edible, too. Go ahead and cook your flowered broccoli just as you would if it hadn’t flowered. Make the most of your broccoli harvest by using the delicious broccoli leaves and stems as well. The leaves can be added to stir-fries or added to your next batch of baked kale chips. The stems are one my favorite ingredients for root to stem eating to reduce food waste.

Arugula Flowers

Has your early arugula bolted in the summer heat? You can use the little flowers to add interest and that yummy arugula bite to your salads. Let some go to seed and you may get a second crop without planting.

Pea Flowers

While you don’t want to pick too many pea flowers off your snap pea plants, you can plant some peas to grow as pea shoots and pick the flowers as well. They have a delightful fresh pea flavor, and are terrific in salads and stirfried. Pea shoots are also one of the fastest-growing vegetable options.

Hibiscus

Not all hibiscus is edible, but a number of varieties are popularly grown for their beauty as well as their edible leaves and petals. It’s actually the calyx, not the petals, of a certain type of hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa) that’s most often used to make hibiscus tea. Here’s more on the benefits of hibiscus.

LIST OF EDIBLE FLOWERS — 150+ FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT

A note on how to use this list: This list of flowers you can eat is meant to be a quick overview of the many possibilities and a jumping-off point for further research. Be sure to do your homework before consuming. Because plants sometimes go by many different names, you want to be sure you’ve got the correct plant before you eat these flowers.

Check out these 150+ flowers you can eat!

1. Alyssum
2. Angelica
3. Apple blossoms
4. Arugula
5. Aster
6. Balloon flower
7. Basil
8. Bauhinia
9. Bee Balm
10. Begonia
11. Birch catkins
12. Blue porterweed
13. Blueweed
14. Borage
15. Black Locust
16. Broccoli
17. Burnet
18. Caesarweed
19. Calendula
20. Camellia
21. Canadian honewort
22. Carambola (starfruit)
23. Carnations
24. Catnip (here’s how to tell catnip vs catmint if you’re not sure)
25. Chamomile
26. Chervil
27. Chickory
28. Chickweed
29. Chives
30. Chrysanthemum
31. Cilantro
32. Clary sage
33. Clover
34. Coltsfoot
35. Coral Vine
36. Cornflower/ bachelors buttons
37. Corn poppy
38. Cow slips
39. Creeping charlie
40. Daisy
41. Dame’s rocket (among the tastiest weeds with pink flowers to explore)
42. Dandelions
43. Dayflower
44. Daylilies
45. Dianthus (also known as pinks)
46. Dill
47. Elderflower
48. Evening primrose
49. Fennel
50. Fireweed
51. Forget-me-not
52. Forsythia
53. Freesia
54. Fuchsia
55. Gardenia
56. Garden sorrel
57. Garlic
58. Garlic chives
59. Ginger
60. Gladiola
61. Golden Alexanders
62. Goldenrod
63. Gorse
64. Gunnison mariposa
65. Hawthorn
66. Hibiscus
67. Hollyhock
68. Honeysuckle
69. Horseradish
70. Hosta
71. Hyssop
72. Impatiens
73. Indian paintbrush
74. Jasmine
75. Johnny jump-ups
76. King’s spear
77. Kudzu
78. Lavender
79. Leek
80. Lemon balm
81. Lemon blossom
82. Lemon verbena
83. Lesser calamint
84. Lilac
85. Lime blossom
86. Linden
87. Loroco
88. Lovage
89. Magnolia
90. Mallow
91. Manzanita
92. Marigold
93. Marshmallow
94. Mayflower
95. Meadowsweet
96. Milkweed
97. Mimosa silk tree
98. Mints (peppermint, apple mint, orange mint, chocolate mint, pineapple mint, e.g.)
99. Muscari (also known as grape hyacinth, but it’s not a hyacinth — they’re poisonous!)
100. Nasturtium
101. Nigella
102. Nodding onion
103. Okra blossoms
104. Orange blossom
105. Oregano
106. Pansy
107. Parsley
108. Passionflower
109. Pea flowers
110. Pineapple weed
111. Peonies
112. Phlox (Phlox paniculata, not creeping or annual phlox)
113. Plum blossom
114. Primrose
115. Prunella/self heal
116. Purslane
117. Queen Anne’s lace
118. Radish
119. Redbud/forest pansy
120. Rose
121. Rosy garlic
122. Rosemary
123. Safflower
124. Sage
125. Sagebrush
126. Salsify
127. Samphire
128. Santolina
129. Scented geranium
130. Scarlet runner beans
131. Smartweed
132. Snapdragon
133. Spiderwort
134. Spring beauty
135. Squash blossoms
136. Strawberry blossom
137. Society garlic
138. Stock
139. Strangler Vine
140. Sumac
141. Summer savory
142. Sweet mace
143. Sweet olive
144. Sweet woodruff
145. Sunflowers (learn more about uses for sunflower petals)
146. Szechuan buttons (aka spilanthes or buzz buttons)
147. Thyme
148. Tuberose
149. Tulips
150. False roselle
151. Sage
152. Smartweed
153. Sweet Cicely
154. Sweet William
155. Viburnum
156. Violet
157. Wapato
158. Water lily
159. Winter savory
160. Wisteria
161. Wood sorrel
162. Yarrow
163. Yucca

If you know of others, please leave a comment so I can add them. I found additional references to edible flowers, but in many cases it seemed that only the leaves of the plant were consumed, or the flowers weren’t really considered worth eating or were not found widely in North America. Let me know if there are more to add to the list 🙂

That’s a whole lot of flowers you can eat! Which are you going to try first?

Pin to save this list of edible flowers for later!

Edible Flowers photo credits: couleur, Mammiya, pasja1000, NatachaUnicorn, Susannah Shmurak, kathas_Fotos, John Lodder, Bru-nO, Yvonne Huijbens