Edible Flowers for Salads

A surprising number of flowers from both temperate and subtropical gardens look beautiful and are tasty raw in salads. When I lived in Denver I loved the blooms of Anchusa italica (a relative of the blue flowered herb borage), daylilies, and Johnny Jump Ups plus some of my Old Roses. Here in Tampa I add the stunning blue blooms of Clitoria terneata, yellow and orange nasturtiums, gladiolus, plus those of food crops like the various Brassicas, Vigna beans, Scarlet Runner Beans, and Sugar Snap peas. Some folks here use the various orchids (all edible if grown organically) as edible garnishes, in salads and in Asian stir fry. I hope you enjoy the pics, which I will have to place in two posts due to the limitations of the software. I never fail to be amazed by the crystalline pure blue blooms, both single and double, on my various Clitoria terneata blooms, which look stellar in a salad with yellow and orange nasturtiums! If you have any questions about the IDs of any of these blooms, just ask. Enjoy, John