Borage (
Borago officinalis) has a wonderful blue flower and is great to make ice cubes for summer drinks. Has a slight cucumber flavor. If you need a plant that takes up space in your garden, borage may be the ticket. Here is a slightly closer photo of the flowers. You always want to eat organic, non-sprayed flowers, remove those reproductive parts in the center. It would be the black tips of the borage or eat the petals only.
They are just so pretty in the garden, but they do reseed and can be an issue if you aren't looking for a plant to take up space, this may NOT be the one for you.
Calendulas are the poor man's saffron (
Calendula officinalis). They were used in the early times as color in lots of different dishes. It does not give the taste of saffron. You should just be eating the petals of this flower. We use them in our salads and cookies (a recipe is in the link below). Way back in 2008 when I started this journey I did a pretty complete post on calendula. Here it is again,
Herb of the Year-Calendula.
Daylilies are one of my favorite edible flowers. Oh, no, wait, I like nasturtiums more. Oh, no, well, you get the idea. That's why I'm giving you a potpourri of flowers. Daylilies (
Hemerocallis spp.) are one of those edible flowers that the whole species are edible. They make fantastic cups. You need to take those reproductive parts out of the center and then you can fill them with your favorite salad. They are also good in a champagne flute filled with ice cream or sorbet and chocolate or fruit sauce. The lighter colored ones are better. The red ones tend to bleed their color. This one in the photo above is called Frans Hals after the artist of the same name from I think the 1950's. I have the orange one that is along roadsides called
(Hemerocallis fulva). Don't be eating this one from the roadside, because they do spray with pesticides along the roads. Also it is a very good erosion control for some people, but it has made the invasive species list in some parts of the United States.
My bee balm (
Monarda didyma) was blooming the other day when Jekka was in the garden! I just love this flower. The hummingbirds love it and it blooms for awhile. I bet a month or so. It has blocked off one of the entrances to the back garden and we have let it. I'm hopefully going to be able to make some bee balm couscous salad before they complete fade away. It is from Jekka's latest Herb Cookbook. Again, just use the petals in salads, both greens and fruit. If you use them in a different way in cooking, please let me know.
The lemon balm is FULL BLOOM! What you should never let your lemon balm do! I'm going to be removing lemon balm everywhere next season. My perennial problem. Worse than garlic chives. But my garlic chives are catching up to the lemon balm. Well, up in the upper corner of my blog, I have posted a new connection for my latest post for The Herb Companion. Hope you enjoy it. Muggy and rainy out. Hope you have a great day wherever you may be. Talk to you later.
