6 Garden Flowers You Didn't Know You Could Eat

When most people think about gardening, it's usually about growing food or growing flowers. Not only to add some eye-catching color, but also to support pollinators like bees and butterflies, flowers are great to have around during the gardening season.

Many varieties of plants can be grown not only for their leaves or roots (basil, radishes, or cilantro), but also for the flowers that will develop with a bit more time. Sometimes it's better to pick off the flower buds to encourage more leaf-production (if you're into more basil leaves). Otherwise, when the flowers appear, try these new harvests to enjoy. 

Check out the six lesser-known edible flower varieties below, it's time to get fancy.  

1. Borage Flowers 

Borage is a beautiful flower, also known as the starflower. It has a similar taste to a cucumber (!!!) and is perfect to garnish your cocktails. The vibrant blue of this flower truly shows off when added to ice cubes. Bees LOVE borage, so it's a fantastic variety to have around for pollinators.

Grow your own Borage:   

6. Buzz Buttons

Have you ever had a Buzz Button?? These plants grow edible leaves and flowers that will leave your taste buds tingling! This flower is sometimes called "the toothache plant" because of it's medicinal uses in helping to reduce pain of a toothache by leaving a mouth-watering and numbing sensation when eaten. The compounds in the plant help flush the lymphatic system and boost immunity! Try taking just a small bite of the bud at first, to experience the numbing feeling. The leaves and flowers can be consumed fresh (even in cocktails), or dried to grind up and use later.

Grow your own Buzz Buttons:  

Feeling fancy yet? Try growing flowers you've never had before to dress up boring salad greens or create whimsical cocktails for impressive entertaining. 

 #SeedsheetSuccess