Edimentals: 13 Best Plants That Are Delicious and Pretty
Edimental is a fun word that refers to plants that are both beautiful, or ornamental, and also edible! From veggies to flowers, join gardening expert Melissa Strauss to talk about some plants you can grow to eat and to enjoy looking at.
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I love a space that is both beautiful and functional. Providing the necessities while making the space look gorgeous at the same time is the goal of every home designer. Why not bring that same philosophy to the garden? Edimentals are the perfect solution for the gardener who wants an aesthetically pleasing garden where they can also grow delicious things to eat.
The word edimental is simply a blend of the words edible and ornamental. Edimental plants are those that have attractive flowers, foliage, or shapes, and also, parts that you can eat. These are great for a dual-purpose garden or a smaller space that you want to be both beautiful and productive.
Many edimental plants are great for supporting pollinators and other beneficial insects. Some even boost the biodiversity of your garden. Let’s take a look at some beautiful vegetables, display-worthy herbs, and lovely flowers that double as stunning garnishes.
Pacific Beauty Blend Calendula (Pot Marigold)
Pacific Beauty Blend Calendula (Pot Marigold) Seeds
Fennel ‘Smokey Bronze’
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botanical name Foeniculum vulgare ‘Smokey Bronze’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4-6′ |
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hardiness zones 4-9 |
Fennel is an edimental plant with fern-like foliage that acts as an herb, and the bulbs are a popular vegetable that tastes like licorice. It has a host of uses in the kitchen. It makes a delightfully sweet tea and lends a unique flavor to salads and cooked vegetable dishes. You can also harvest the seeds and use them as a spice.
The plant is stunning, and ‘Smokey’ is an incredible cultivar of bronze fennel. The four to five-foot plumes of feathery foliage are bronze in especially rich, dusky tones. The yellow flower umbels are attractive to pollinators. It’s also a host plant for the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly.
Be careful where you plant fennel; it’s truly better to grow it in a container. The roots are allelopathic, which means they can disrupt the growth of other plants. Fennels are also invasive in areas of western North America.
Swiss Chard ‘Celebration’
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botanical name Beta vulgaris var. vulgaris ‘Celebration’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 20″ |
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hardiness zones 2-11 |
The vibrant, colorful stems of ‘Celebration’ chard make it an eye-catching edimental plant. In shades of pink, red, orange, white, gold, and yellow, the veins also carry color through the deep green to bronze, lightly crinkled leaves. The leaves are tender and earthy, delicious in salads when young, and sautéed, or used in soups and stir-fries, when mature.
The bright and vivid colors make this a standout in the vegetable garden. So much so that you can easily add them to an ornamental bed. The clumps of sturdy, colorful foliage make harvesting these challenging. You won’t want to cut them! However, they are an excellent source of vitamins C and K, as well as a great source of lutein and other minerals.
Nasturtium ‘Cherry Rose Jewel’
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botanical name Tropaeolum majus ‘Cherry Jewel’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 10-12″ |
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hardiness zones 2-11 |
Nasturtiums are an excellent edimental plant! The entire plant is edible and has a distinct, peppery flavor that is nice in salads and other cold dishes. The leaves are a cool, blue-green color with a rounded shape, reminding me of lily pads.
The foliage alone is attractive, but the flowers are stunning. ‘Cherry Rose Jewel’ produces bright, cherry pink to red blooms with a velvety sheen. They have semi-double petals, which makes this an extra fancy variety. The growth habit is bushy and somewhat trailing.
Calendula ‘Pacific Beauty’
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botanical name Calendula officinalis ‘Pacific Beauty’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 12-24″ |
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hardiness zones 2-11 |
Another excellent edimental flower that also makes tasty, garden fresh tea is calendula. Also called pot marigold, these cool-weather plants are actually adaptable and will grow in summer if you give them some shade in the afternoon. The blooms are bright and colorful in warm shades, and retain most of their color when dried.
‘Pacific Beauty’ is a popular cultivar with large, daisy-like flowers in shades of orange, yellow, apricot, and cream. They have a bright, peppery flavor, and they also have plenty of practical uses outside the kitchen. They are often added to skin healing and anti-inflammatory products, and you can use the petals for dying fabric as well.
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Sage ‘Purpurascens’
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botanical name Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 18-24″ |
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hardiness zones 6-9 |
Purple sage is one of my favorite edimentals this year. I have it in my small kitchen garden alongside other herbs, and it really enhances the area. The ombre of smoky purple starts out vivid violet on new leaves and ages to a lovely, dusky green.
Sage is a versatile herb that pairs well with savory dishes and meats. It has an earthy, slightly bitter taste. “Purpurascens’ has a stronger flavor than green sage. In early summer, if you allow it to flower, it sends up spikes of lavender blossoms. These are attractive to pollinators, making this a great companion plant.
Basil ‘Purple Petra’
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botanical name Ocimum basilicum ‘Purple Petra’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 24″ |
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hardiness zones 2-11 |
I’ve been loving purple herbs this year, and ‘Purple Petra‘ basil is another stunner with gorgeous, deep violet foliage. The leaves are glossy, providing a nice contrast to the purple sage’s fuzzy leaves. Plant them near each other, but in separate containers, as they have opposing moisture needs.
‘Purple Petra’ has wonderfully aromatic leaves and a strong, spicy-sweet flavor. It makes a great addition to your caprese salad, where you can enjoy the raw, potent flavor alongside savory cheese and rich tomato. In midsummer, you can allow it to bloom, but it won’t taste the same afterward. The flowers are pale lavender, a nice complement to the deeply pigmented foliage.
Amaranth ‘Burgundy’
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botanical name Amaranthus hypochondriacus ‘Burgundy’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 12″ |
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hardiness zones 4-8 |
For a striking edimental backdrop in the garden that towers up to six feet tall and brings tons of drama, ‘Burgundy‘ amaranth is perfection. The tall, slender plants are entirely edible and completely beautiful. The entire plant is deep, a rich, ox-blood red, which glows intensely in the sunlight.
You can eat amaranth leaves in any way you can prepare spinach. It has similar uses and a similar flavor. The large flower plume up top is also burgundy and has a velvety texture. When the seeds ripen, you can use them as a grain similar to quinoa.
Borage
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botanical name Borago officinalis |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 2-3′ |
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hardiness zones 2-11 |
Borage is a beautiful edimental plant that makes an excellent companion to other edible plants. It’s considered an herb, with slender stems and soft, fuzzy leaves, and bright, blue, star-shaped flowers. The flowers are usually blue, but can occasionally be pink, and bloom for an extended time from spring until fall.
In addition to being pretty and beneficial in drawing pollinators, you can eat the whole plant. The leaves are best when they are young. They can get prickly as they age. The flowers make a lovely garnish. The flavor is often likened to that of cucumbers.
Pansy ‘Got the Blues’
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botanical name Viola wittrockiana ‘Got the Blues’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 6-8″ |
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hardiness zones 2-11 |
I love these little cool-weather wonders. Pansies are difficult to grow in my climate in the summer, but they are wonderfully cold-tolerant, so here in zone 9, they are winter flowers. These small, delicate members of the violet family are wonderful in containers or as a low border.
I use the flowers to decorate baked goods. They have a soft, floral flavor and a distinctive beauty. You can sugar them and use them to decorate cakes and other cold dishes, or add them to your cookie dough for a pretty, surprising element. They fit the bill for an edimental, as they are attractive and tasty!
Kale ‘Dwarf Blue Curled’
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botanical name Brassica oleracea ‘Dwarf Blue Curled’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 1-2′ |
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hardiness zones 2-11 |
Kale is versatile in the garden and comes in a wide array of both edible and ornamental cultivars. Many of the more decorative varieties aren’t great for eating, but ‘Dwarf Blue Curled‘ is a nutritious edimental, and delicious in winter soups. The young leaves are tender enough for eating raw.
This heirloom isn’t just nutritious and delicious, it’s also wonderful to look at! It’s a low-growing cultivar with delicate, heavily ruffled and curling leaves. They grow in a loose rosette and rival any exclusively ornamental variety out there.
Okra ‘Red Burgndy’
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botanical name Abelmoschus esculentus ‘Red Burgundy’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4′ |
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hardiness zones 3-11 |
Okra isn’t my personal favorite vegetable, but one of my kids loves it pickled, so I grow a bit of it for this purpose. I prefer to grow it as an ornamental, but it has many merits as an edimental plant. Okra is related to hibiscus plants, and the flowers are incredibly beautiful. Each pod comes after a large, cream-colored flower with a crimson heart.
If you love okra as a vegetable, ‘Red Burgundy‘ is as pretty on the plate as it is in the garden. The pods are the same shade of scarlet that pops in the center of the blossoms. The red color also appears in the stems and the veins of the leaves. If you want an edimental with major appeal, this is a great one.
Eggplant ‘Jewel Amethyst’
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botanical name Solanum melongena ‘Jewel Amethyst’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 22″ |
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hardiness zones 9-12 |
Eggplants are a gorgeous vegetable, and they grow on attractive plants. I love ‘Jewel Amethyst‘ for its compact growth habit, which makes it a good container variety. The bright green foliage is small and veined with purple. When it flowers, the lavender blossoms attract pollinators.
The fruits on this compact eggplant are on the small side and best picked when they are three to four inches long. They have a firm texture that stands up well to cooking, and the plant produces prolifically.
Artichoke ‘Green Globe Improved’
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botanical name Cynara scolymus ‘Green Globe Improved’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 5′ |
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hardiness zones 7-10 |
Artichokes are fun and fabulous as edimentals. The large plants are tall and exotic with long, architectural leaves. Their large flower buds are edible and delicious when steamed, grilled, or baked. The heart is the most prized part in the kitchen.
In the garden, they cast quite a silhouette. If you don’t like to eat them, or simply want to allow some to flower, the blooms are bright and beautiful. They look like giant purple thistles, and pollinators adore them. They also make amazing cut flowers.
