© Janet Davis

I love entertaining outdoors on summer evenings when the garden is filled with fragrance and dinner music comes courtesy of cicadas, crickets and the trickle from the bamboo water spout splashing into my lily pond.

One way to delight dinner guests is to use the garden’s floral bounty to garnish and even flavour dishes. Edible flowers aren’t new —the ancient Romans ate violets, roses and pot marigolds, while the Chinese have long incorporated steamed or dried daylilies and tiger lilies into their cuisine.

It’s obviously vital to know which flowers are edible and which are toxic. Poisonous flowers include lily-of-the-valley, bleeding heart, buttercup, iris, calla lily, narcissus or daffodil, lupine, petunia, sweet pea, monkshood, periwinkle, rhododendron and azalea, oleander, delphinium, clematis, foxglove, hellebore, wisteria and crocus.

It’s important that flowers used in food presentation not be treated with herbicides or pesticides, so grow your own, rather than buying from a greengrocer or garden centre. Also, be sure to taste anything you’re adding to a dish, since not all blossoms will appeal to your palate. For larger flowers like daylily and lily, remove the pistil, anther and stamens first.

PANSIES AND VIOLETS: Especially good are tiny Johnny-jump-ups and wild violets. Use them fresh to decorate cakes, along with strawberries, or do what the French do and “candy” violets by using a fine camel hair brush to paint them with slightly beaten egg white, then with berry sugar. Dry on waxed paper, then store in an airtight container -- lovely on fudge cake or chocolate mousse. Another neat idea is to freeze pansies in a large, decorative ice cube to garnish the punch bowl. Use a smaller bowl or jelly mould, freezing water in layers and adding a few blossoms as each layer is almost frozen. Freeze hard and add to punch at the last minute.

NASTURTIUMS: Pungent, peppery flavour; both flowers and leaves can be eaten, but harvest young before they become bitter. Chop flowers and scatter atop a tossed green salad or place entire flower on a cracker that’s been spread with goat cheese or herbed cream cheese.

CALENDULA: Also known as “pot marigold” and once used to colour cheese, calendula has a piquancy that’s good in egg dishes or with green vegetables. Adds natural orange colour to soups when heated.

HERB FLOWERS: Purple chive and oregano blossoms, white basil flowers and the yellow blooms of fennel and dill are edible and infuse the flavor of that herb into soups, flavoured vinegars, salads, pasta sauces or mashed potatoes.

MARIGOLDS: Use single French marigolds (not the big African doubles) as you would calendulas and nasturtiums to perk up a green salad or add vibrant colour to any dish.

BORAGE: One of the truest “blues” in the garden, tiny borage blossoms were praised by Pliny, Gerard and Sir Francis Bacon. Slightly cucumber-flavoured and nice in salads or as a platter garnish. Remove hairy sepals first.

ROSES: Add bright color and tart, fruity flavor to many dishes, including salads, teas and jelly preserves. Best petals to tear are from scented pink or red hybrid teas, but remove bitter white base first. Candy or chocolate-coated small roses (see pansies, above) for special desserts, such as wedding cake.

LAVENDER: Steep fresh sprigs to add typical lavender essence to vinegars, ice cream, pound cake, tea and even savoury dishes like soup and stew.

DAYLILIES: Remove pistil and stamens to stuff with savoury filling. Or boil daylily buds for a minute or so, then add to a stir-fry.

SQUASH FLOWERS: Remove pistil and stamens to fill with herbed cream cheese, tzatziki or any savoury filling.

Adapted from a column that appeared originally in the Toronto Sun

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