Edible flowers: 15 beautiful blooms that really are good enough to eat

There are dozens of uses for edible flowers - here are some particularly pretty ones to try.

**Borage (Borago officinalis)**

Use fresh in salad, with meat and fish dishes or in drinks

**Pansies (Viola tricolor and hybrids)**

As well as fresh in salad, use to decorate puddings and cakes

**Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)**

Either fresh in salad or to garnish pasta

**Roses (Rosa species, hybrids and cultivars, especially those sweetly scented)**

Use fresh in salad and to decorate cakes, also for jam and crystallising or to flavour syrups and drinks

**Common marigolds (Calendula officinalis)**

Use fresh, dried or preserved in oil or vinegar, in salads, soups, sautées, stews, puddings and cakes

**Primroses and cowslips (Primula vulgarise, P. veris and cultivars)**

Use fresh or crystallised

**Lady’s smock or cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis)**

Excellent in salads and as a garnish for delicately flavoured white dish doe an intense hit of watercress and capers

**Courgette (Cucurbita pepo var. cylindrica)**

Batter and deep-fry the bloom. Generous chefs use female flowers, complete with the delicious baby marrows

**Wild garlic or damson (Allium ursinum)**

Lends a sweet garlicky pungency to salads, herby butter and soft cheese, soups, lamb and venison

**Elder (Sambucus nigra)**

For cordials, wine and jelly. The whole inflorescence can also be coated in batter and lightly deep-friend to make a lacy fritter, served powdered with icing sugar or dipped in chilli sauce

**Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)**

Use the flower spikes to flavour sugar, honey and vinegar or serve with roasted meat. Scatter fresh, individual flowers in a buttery sponge cake, as with caraway seeds

Thyme (Thymus)

Flower spikes of all garden kinds of thyme enliven salads and are a superb garnish for grilled meat and trout

**Daylily (Hemerocallis)**

A vibrant addition to stir-fries, Chinese-style soups and salads, tasting mildly of radish and green beans (use sparingly until sure they agree with you)

**Bergamot (Monarda didyma)**

Brightens rice, pasta and poultry dishes. Also makes an uplifting tisane, fresh or dried

**Carnations and pinks (Dianthus)**

Fresh or preserved in salad, to decorate cakes and puddings and to flavour sugar, oil and vinegar

For a wider selection and further guidance, visit the RHS website: www.rhs.org.uk/advice