HAWAI'I'S GARDENS
Edible flowers easy to grow in Hawai'i's gardens
By Heidi Bornhorst
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| Chinese gold day lilies bloom at the Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley. The plants are a common ground cover in Hawai'i and the blooms are good eating. Use them in salads and in soups, or dry them for future use.
Advertiser library photo • 2002 |
— Curious in Niu Valley
A. We have many edible flowers that grow well in our gardens and look and taste good.
For starters, there are the edible day lilies. These are an old-fashioned flowering ground cover. Classic gardens will grow the Chinese gold variety.
The orange-yellow petals are edible and ono. You can eat them right out of the garden or put them in salads, soup, tempura or even dry them for future use.
Nasturtiums are another winner. These grow better in cool upland mauka gardens. They are a weed at higher elevations. They come in many colors besides the basic orange and yellow. The flowers are sweet and spicy, and the leaves also have a spicy flavor. Grow nasturtiums from seeds or cuttings.
Pansies are an upland garden edible. There also are "Johnny jump ups," a kind of mini purple and white pansy.
You can eat the flowers of many herbs. Flowering chives have spicy purple flowers, and basil blossoms can be eaten. Try rosemary flowers "for remembrance."
When arugula, mustard greens or kai choi flower, they have edible blossoms. Try the young seed heads of green onions.
In bloom
Day lilies are in peak summer bloom. They delight the eye and the 'opu, too, being edible and full of beta-carotene. Flowering gingers: white, yellow and kahili varieties are coming into fragrant summer bloom.
We have a rare, orange hybrid kahili ginger, which was a garden gift from the late Dr. Adrian Brash. It bloomed up on Tantalus more than a month ago and is now blooming in the lowlands, too. The perfume of this is reminiscent of summer gardens in the Islands.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable-landscape consultant.
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