Guide to Edible Flowering Plants

Growing a mixture of flowers under your fruit trees, in your vegetable patch or in fact anywhere in your garden can help you have healthy soil, healthy trees, happy bees—and even a healthy gut, particularly if you include edible flowers in the mix.

This guide includes more than 100 edible flowering plants that grow well with fruit trees; most (but not all) are suitable as understorey plants. It forms the perfect companion to The Under Story Masterclass presented by Dr Christine Jones.

There are many benefits to flowers and so many varieties to choose from, but knowing whether flowers are edible can be difficult!

Flowers are beautiful to look at and be around, they add value to your diet, and can even add a handy source of income. In a grazed orchard or pasture, flowers can improve animal health enormously.

This guide has stunning photos, usage suggestions and botanical names of more than 100 edible flowers, including ornamentals, herbs, vegetables, shrubs and vines. It doesn’t include grasses and legumes that are also useful in cover crops, green manures or as part of your perennial fruit tree understorey—you’ll find lists of these plants in other short courses including Weed Therapy, Learn to Love Your Weeds, and Build Soil Fertility with Green Manures.

One of the important things to know about edible flowers that if you’re not positive a flower is safe to eat, DON’T EAT IT. To help keep you safe, there’s also a handy guide to poisonous flowers and plant parts at the end of this guide!