Identifying Edible Flowers for Summer Salads

By Using Hawthorn Berries in Ketchups and Leathers
Comments 35
19 Jul 2026

Identifying Edible Flowers for Summer Salads

Why Edible Flowers Belong in a Summer Salad

A handful of flowers turns a bowl of leaves into something that looks like it came from a kitchen garden. They bring colour, but also real flavour — pepper, cucumber, sweetness, aniseed — and a bit of texture. The three flowers I recommend to beginners are easy to identify, generous croppers and perfectly happy in a pot on a windowsill. If you can grow a nasturtium, you can eat flowers this summer.

Safety First: Where Not to Pick

Two things must be true before a flower reaches your plate: it is what you think it is, and it has grown somewhere clean.

Avoid polluted ground. Skip roadside verges, lay-bys and roundabouts; exhaust fumes and tyre dust settle on petals.
Avoid sprayed land. Field margins, golf courses, railway embankments and municipal parks are routinely treated. If you don't know who gardens there, walk on.
Avoid dog routes. Popular footpaths and park gates are unhygienic at exactly the height you'll be picking.
Never eat a florist's flowers. Cut flowers are grown for looks, not for eating, and are nearly always treated.
Familiar looks deceive. Sweet pea is not a garden pea and is not edible. Buttercups are acrid and can blister. Foxglove, lily of the valley, monkshood and lupin are seriously toxic. If in doubt, leave it.
Start small. Try one new flower at a time, in small amounts, especially if you have hay fever, asthma or allergies.

Forage only where you'd happily eat the leaves: your own garden, an allotment, a friend's unsprayed plot, or a quiet hedgerow well away from traffic. Take a little from many plants rather than everything from one, and never dig anything up. In England and Wales, picking wild flowers for personal use is generally accepted as long as you don't uproot the plant or pick for profit; in Scotland the right to roam does not extend to taking plants for commercial gain. Always ask before picking on private land.

Three Flowers to Learn First

Violets. Sweet violet (Viola odorata) flowers in spring, often with a second, smaller flush in autumn, and our common dog violet follows close behind. The flavour is gentle and faintly perfumed, and the flowers look lovely crystallised with lightly beaten egg white and caster sugar for cakes. Stick to the flowers and leave the leaves and roots alone.

Nasturtiums. Not a British native, but one of the most generous things you can sow. Flowers appear from June until the first frost, in orange, red, yellow and cream, and the taste is peppery and mustardy. Flower, leaf and green seed pod are all edible — pickle the pods as a stand-in for capers. Pair with watercress, radish, rocket and soft cheese.

Borage. Blue, star-shaped and faintly cucumbery, borage (Borago officinalis) is the classic addition to a jug of summer cup and lovely scattered over cucumber or yoghurt. It self-seeds enthusiastically, so once you have it you'll likely always have it. Treat it as a garnish rather than a salad base and enjoy it in modest amounts.

A Few More Worth Knowing

Chive flowers — pull the purple heads into individual florets for a clean onion hit.
Calendula — petals are peppery and saffron-ish, and hold their colour in rice and cakes.
Cornflower — mild and faintly clove-like, lovely alongside borage.
Wild garlic flowers — a spring treat carrying the same gentle garlic flavour as the leaves.
Courgette and runner bean flowers — pick male flowers only if you want the crop to keep coming, then stuff and fry them.
Herb flowers — thyme, rosemary, sage, mint, basil and rocket all produce edible blooms. If you are nervous about identification, start here: you already know the plant.

Picking and Handling

Pick mid-morning, once the dew has dried but before the heat of the day. Carry a shallow box or tray rather than a bag — petals bruise and sweat in plastic. Snip cleanly with scissors, and leave plenty behind for the bees and for seed.

At home, swish the flowers in a bowl of cold water, lift them out rather than pouring them through a colander, then lay them on a tea towel or spin them dry. Store in a lidded container lined with damp kitchen paper in the fridge and use them the same day; edible flowers are at their best within hours of picking.

Dressing the Bowl

This is where most people go wrong. Flowers are fragile, and a heavy vinaigrette collapses them into a soggy heap. Dress the leaves first, toss and taste, then scatter the flowers over the top at the very last moment. A squeeze of lemon, good olive oil and a pinch of salt is usually all you need — and go easy on the salt, which draws water from petals fast.

Beyond salads, try them in cold soups, on soft cheese, frozen into ice cubes for drinks, folded through yoghurt, or over a bowl of strawberries. Keep a notebook of what you picked, where and when; it is the quickest way to become a confident forager by this time next year.

Foraging

A Forager's Guide to Safe Mushroom Picking

Turn a hedgerow harvest of blackberries into smooth jam by balancing fruit with sugar and lemon, then testing for a set.

Previous Post At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium.

Next Post Dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentiu deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores

5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

Jenny Watson

Hi! beautiful people. I`m an authtor of this blog. Read our post - stay with us

Instagram

How We Can
Help You!

Identify lemony sorrel, wild rocket and chickweed to add fresh flavour to salads, soups and sauces from spring through autumn.

section heading hidden

Our Latest News

Making Blackberry Jam with Foraged Fruit

Foraging for Sorrel and Other Wild Greens

How to Dry Herbs and Wild Leaves for Tea

Contact Us

Article