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{Design Expert} Edible flowers in a hot plot

Late spring and early summer is a wonderful time to enjoy the garden both in terms of colour, fragrance and taste. Not many fruit or vegetables can be picked yet, but there is a whole larder of edible flowers to be used in so many different ways. In fact, I have a whole border dedicated to edible flowers and as the summer progresses, it is bursting with heaps of flavours.*

Some you may already know about, others might come as a surprise, but I bet most gardeners have access to at least a few of the plants mentioned below.

Primroses, polyanthus, cowslips, violets (Viola odorata), and violas can all be used. Choose the most sweet smelling flowers. You can simply strew them on salads or pates. But with the addition of sugar, they will be transformed.

The sugar will enhance the sweet flavour which is why we often crystallize petals and use them to decorate cakes, sorbets, ice creams, biscuits, macaroons and meringues. First whizz up an egg white and with a paint brush carefully but lightly coat both sides of each petal.

Lightly drizzle a little caster sugar over both sides of the painted surface and then gently lay them to rest on grease proof paper or better still black baking strips which are non stick. Put them in a warm place for 24 hours (back of the AGA or sunny window sill or airing cupboard).

By then they will have shrunk, but now be papery to touch and very tasty. They are ready to use and will probably last about two or three days. Use a tiny bit of icing to make them stick if you are using them to decorate a macaroon for example, where using frosting or butter icing all you need to do is merely place them on the mixture and firm them down. Later in the season I use a lot of scented rose petals in this way. Rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ is one of my favourites or tiny Rose ‘The Fairy’.

If you want a savoury flower idea, then here are two wonderful ways to use them. Sweet cicely Myrrhis odorata is starting to flower right now. Take the dainty white flowers and add them to warm baked red peppers with olive oil, garlic and capers cooked in the well of each half of the pepper. The sweet cicely will bring a lovely aniseedy flavour to the dish which is so right with all the other deep flavours. But there is an extra punch line. The sweet cicely will begin to go to seed. These green semi-ripe seeds, at just a few days old, are really delicious in their own right. Pick a handful and add them to the pepper dish before cooking ie add them along with the crushed garlic, capers and olive oil. For a few weeks you will be able to gather flowers and semi ripe seeds together. Enjoy.

Another ‘must use’ are chive flowers. They are packed with flavour. Now don’t add a whole flower to a baked potato or salad. First you must cut off the florets and use them individually or you will drown all other flavours. But if used sparingly the florets which are beautiful in their own right are very tasty as well as pretty. So on Sunday mornings in May or June make yourself a special brunch of scrambled eggs with a few snippets of leaves and a few chive florets added to the egg mix before cooking. Once cooked, pile generously on to some buttered toast and with a flurry of a few more florets you have a fantastic meal.

Marigold petals, elderflowers, dianthus, hesperis are among other edible flowers which will start to bloom in this season.

Your garden, balcony or pots will soon become your larder. No air miles here, no trips to the supermarket, just pleasure!

*If anyone wants to visit we have certain open days (£4.50 entrance, children free) in the summer. Please see my website for more information.

You can also read more about edible flowers in my book.

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