Salad ornaments

Contemplating my wildflower wish-list got me thinking about all the edible flowers I’d like to grow. I recently saw edible flowers described somewhere as ‘salad ornaments’ which I thought was just the perfect name. There are all sorts of things I want to do with edible flowers this year – freeze them in ice cubes for cocktails, use them to create floral garnishes on home-made focaccia, sugar-coat them for cake decorating, make jellies and syrups and butters and creams… but let’s face it, the vast majority will be destined for the summer salad bowl. Just a few seconds’ work and you’re rewarded with a botanical work of art for the dinner table – that’s my kind of kitchen gardening.

So come the warmer months, none of my salads will look underdressed this year. I’ll be ornamenting them with nasturtiums, as always, both for their gloriously red velvet petals and their peppery little lily-pad leaves, and borage flowers, which look like little stars in amongst the lettuce . 

But I’ll be branching out too, with some new additions – primroses, pelargoniums and maybe some pickled magnolia petals, which I tried for the first time last year (they go brilliantly with cheese). I’m also going to sow pots of camomile, just because they’re so pretty, but also because they apparently have a slightly apple taste (and the medicinal ability to calm frayed nerves). And of course I’ll have thyme flowers and chive flowers from the herb garden which not only look amazing but add a citrusy, in the first case, and slightly onion-y, in the second, flavour.

Cornflowers will add a frilly pop of blue and a warm, almost clove-like touch of spice. Japanese honeysuckle reminds me of my childhood – we used to suck the flowers in the hope of tasting honey. I’m also transported back by the smell of rose petals, which look beautiful nestled among the leaves of a salad (just remember to nip out the little white bit at the base of the petal). And from under the hedges, bird’s foot trefoil, wood sorrel, wild garlic, sweet violet, hawthorn blossom and wild strawberry flowers will (hopefully) be on hand to adorn my salads throughout the year.