Eat Your Pansies

Kids are enchanted by anything they can grow—doubly so if they can eat it, too.

But if your garden is small and crowded, and your child’s yearning to consume what he plants is bumping up against your desire for big showy blooms, consider planting something that will appeal to both of you: edible flowers.

Edible flowers have a surprising number of possible uses. You can sprinkle them on salads to add vibrant colour, freeze them inside ice cubes for elegant cocktails, throw them into exotic soups, or use them to scent jellies, ice creams or cakes. You can use them to make aromatic sugars, butters and flower waters. You can candy them for beautiful garnishes, make them into teas, or pair them with herbs to add flavour to seafoods and meats.

If you’re a kid, of course, you can just rinse the petals off with cool water and chomp on them. Many flower petals are rich in vitamins A and C.

According to Flowers Canada Retail, there are just a few basic safety rules for getting started. For one, it’s important to eat only flowers you’ve grown yourself. Start with a small quantity at first to rule out the possibility of allergies—and to see if you like the taste, of course!

As well, do your homework so you know which parts to eat—for example, in most cases you should eat only the petals, not the pistils and stamens. The websites listed below are good places to reference if you have any questions but we recommend teaching your kids the following golden rule: “Don’t put anything from the garden in your mouth unless an adult said it was OK first.”

Here’s a partial list of annual and perennial flowers you can plant—and eat—with your kids. All the perennials listed here are hardy to zone 5a or 4b (or more), and will survive our notoriously frigid Ottawa winters:

• Annuals – pansies, violas, nasturtiums, begonias, pot marigolds, impatiens

• Perennials – day lilies, apple blossoms, lilacs, chives, lavender, rose petals, peonies, squash, zucchini and pumpkin flowers, strawberry flowers, hollyhock blossoms, aster, bee balm (bergamot), dandelions, sweet William, hibiscus

Victoria Day is widely considered to be the magical date by which you can safely plant tender annuals in Ottawa. Celebrate the end of frosty nights by populating your garden with flowers you’ll be able to eat later.

Flowers Canada Retail
www.flowerscanada.org

Valentine Floral Creations
www.valentine.gr

LearningHerbs.com
www.learningherbs.com

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