Image copyright Nobu.

I’m quite a fan of mixing purely ornamental flowers and veg, but sometimes I wonder whether this is rather silly, given the number of stunning flowers  which go on to produce fabulous edible crops. So before you plant up your patch with plants you can’t eat, here are some crops with very striking flowers indeed.

The snake gourd (above) bears beautiful filigree white blooms. These are almost too good-looking for a flower bed, let alone the veg patch.

Image by Paulo Sérgio Ignácio.

This is a bottle gourd flower.

Of course, normal pumpkin flowers, fat and cheese-coloured, are really gorgeous as well. And you can eat the male flowers.

The hyacinth bean bears purple or white flowers with stunning purple-veined leaves.

Image copyright Phill Bower.

The Scarlet Runner Bean is fiesty and fiery-flowered.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

Pea flowers are so soft and childlike. And when you start looking at heritage cultivars of culinary peas, you’ll fall so in love with them that your sweet peas might need to start looking for a new home. The flowers above are from ‘Kent Blue Pea’.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

The very talented Rebsie Fairholm has bred these red-podded, red-flowered peas.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

The salmon-flowered pea blooms at the top of its stalks and is marvellously girly.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

And if you’re looking for a girly fix, there are pink-flowered broad beans…

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

…and red-flowered broad beans.

Image copyright Shannon Lucas.

If you can bear it, leave a few of your leeks to produce cloudy, dreamy blooms. You won’t be able to eat them once they have flowered, but the bees will thank you, and your plot will look hot into the deal.

Image by Sarah Gilbert.

This is an okra flower, the hibiscus of the veg patch.

Of course, you can also brighten up your plot using edible flowers, herbs, and beneficial plants, which we’ll be looking at in coming weeks. But for now, what are your hottest veg patch blooms?