Growing edible flowers indoors brings fresh color and flavor to your kitchen no matter the season. From peppery nasturtiums to delicate chamomile, many edible flowers can be grown successfully indoors when you provide the right environment.

Whether you're adding colorful petals to a salad, harvesting flowers for tea or creating a beautiful garnish, growing edible flowers gives you another delicious way to enjoy your indoor garden.

Can You Grow Edible Flowers Indoors?

Yes! Many edible flowers can be grown successfully indoors when you provide the right light, temperature, water and nutrients. Pansies, violas, borage, nasturtiums, roses, calendula and chamomile are all possibilities for bringing edible blooms indoors.

Flowering plants typically need plenty of light to grow and bloom. When a sunny window can't provide enough, a full-spectrum LED grow light can provide a more consistent light source throughout the year.

6 Edible Flowers You Can Grow Indoors

Edible flowers aren't just beautiful. They can bring new flavors, textures and colors to everyday foods and drinks. Here are six edible flowers to consider for your indoor garden, along with a little inspiration for putting your harvest to use.

1. Pansies and Violas

Colorful and compact, pansies and violas are a fun addition to an indoor edible garden. Their delicate blooms can range from mildly sweet to slightly peppery, depending on the variety.

How to use them: Add fresh pansies and violas to salads, smoothie bowls, cakes and desserts, or freeze individual blooms into ice cubes for a colorful addition to drinks.

2. Borage

Borage is easy to recognize by its striking star-shaped blue flowers. The edible blooms have a mild, fresh flavor often compared to cucumber.

How to use it: Use fresh borage flowers to garnish salads and cold drinks, freeze them into ice cubes, or use the blooms to add a colorful finishing touch to dishes.

3. Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums produce cheerful blooms in shades of orange, yellow and red. Both the flowers and leaves are edible and have a distinctive peppery flavor.

How to use them: Toss the flowers and leaves into salads, add them to sandwiches and cheese plates, or turn the leaves into a colorful, peppery pesto.

Recipe inspiration: Put your harvest to work with this Nasturtium Pesto recipe from Ask the Food Geek →

4. Roses

Roses aren't just ornamental. Petals from edible rose varieties can bring delicate floral flavor, fragrance and beautiful color to recipes.

How to use them: Use fresh or dried rose petals in teas, desserts and baked goods, or turn the petals into beautiful candied garnishes for cakes and special-occasion desserts.

Recipe inspiration: Looking for a sweet way to use your edible roses? Try these Candied Rose Petals from Frolic & Fare →

Note: Only use correctly identified edible roses that haven't been treated with pesticides or other products not intended for edible crops.

5. Calendula

Calendula produces bright yellow and orange blooms with edible petals that bring color to both sweet and savory dishes. Sometimes called “poor man's saffron,” calendula has a slightly spicy or peppery flavor.

How to use it: Sprinkle fresh petals over salads, add them to rice and other dishes for color, or use fresh or dried calendula in herbal tea blends.

Tea lover? Calendula and chamomile can both be used in herbal tea blends. We've included our free Lavender Chamomile Tea recipe featuring both flowers below.

6. Chamomile

Chamomile's small, daisy-like flowers are one of the most recognizable flowers used for herbal tea. The flower heads can be harvested and dried, making chamomile a particularly rewarding addition to an edible indoor garden.

How to use it: Dry the flower heads for chamomile tea or combine them with other edible flowers and herbs to create your own tea blends.

From Your Indoor Garden to Your Cup

There's something especially satisfying about growing something beautiful that you can actually bring into the kitchen. Chamomile and calendula come together with lavender in this simple floral tea.

Want to save it for later?

Download the Free Lavender Chamomile Tea Recipe →

Lavender Chamomile Tea Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 tsp dried chamomile flowers
• 1 tsp dried lavender flowers
• 3-4 calendula blossoms (fresh or dried)
• Honey or lemon (optional)

Instructions:

1. Steep the chamomile and lavender flowers in the boiling water for 5-7 minutes. If using fresh calendula blossoms, add them in the last minute of steeping.
2. Strain the tea into cups.
3. Add a few calendula blossoms for garnish (if using fresh).
4. Sweeten with honey or add a squeeze of lemon to taste (optional).

 

A Few Edible-Flower Safety Tips

• Know what you're growing: Properly identify flowers before eating them. Common names can sometimes refer to different plants.
• Grow for eating: Use flowers you've grown yourself for culinary use or purchase edible flowers from a trusted food source. Avoid flowers that may have been treated with pesticides or other chemicals not intended for edible crops.
• Check the individual plant: Not every part of an edible-flowering plant is necessarily intended to be eaten, so verify which portions are edible before harvesting.
• Try new edible flowers in small amounts: Individual sensitivities can vary, particularly if you're trying a flower for the first time.

Enjoy your homegrown harvest!

Grow Something Beautiful and Edible Indoors

Growing edible flowers indoors gives you something beautiful to enjoy—and something you can actually harvest and bring into your kitchen. Whether you're growing chamomile for tea, nasturtiums for pesto or pansies for a colorful garnish, consistent light helps keep your indoor garden growing regardless of the season.

Happy Leaf LED grow lights are designed and made in the USA for efficient, reliable indoor growing year-round.

Explore the Procyon 2.0 Full-Spectrum LED Grow Light →