There’s nothing like going out to the garden and eating your flowers to make the dogs days of summer more bearable (ha!) -especially when they can beautify a huge glass of cool water. Or garnish your favorite garden squash.
10 Summer Wildflowers to Eat
After checking and double checking, I can confidently say the flowers of the following native plants are great in the summer garden, and good for the summer kitchen as well. But please make sure you always properly identify your wildflower before eating it! And if you have pollen allergies to certain types of flowers, please also avoid eating them. Let me know if you give these a try!
Bee Balm, Wild Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa
Ohio Spiderwort
Tradescantia ohiensis
Ohio spiderwort made the spring list, but here it is again because it’s still blooming!
Evening primrose
Oenothera biennis
Photo by Radio Tonreg CC
Nodding onion
Allium cernuum
All flowers in the genus Allium are edible!
Garden phlox
Phlox paniculata
Yucca
Yucca filamentosa
Photo by Maja Dumat CC
Purple Coneflowers
Echinacea purpurea
Squash!
Cucurbita spp.
Summer and winter squash blossoms are all edible. Make sure to harvest the male flowers!
Mountain mint
Pycnanthemum spp.
All mountain mint flowers are edible!
Carolina rose
Rosa carolina
All wild roses (Rosa genus) flower petals are edible! Remove the white portion because it can be bitter. Photo by D. Gordon E. Robertson CC
Resources:
Edible Wild Food, by Karen Stephenson
Dining Wild: Native edible plants are naturals for home gardens, farms by Nadia Navarrete-Tindall
Eat the Weeds, by Green Deane
Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie, by Kelly Kindsher
A Wild Garden 