Vegetable flowers are beautiful!

[Seagull]

I am growing (among other things) eggplant for the first time this year. Embarassingly enough I had never seen an eggplant plant before . This morning the first flower opened and it's surprisingly beautiful! A star shaped purple flower. I may plant vegetables instead of flowers in the flower boxes next year.

[red]

I always think courgette plants are attractive - nice arching leaves and big yellow flowers...

[ohareward]

Seagull. Are you growing your eggplants inside or out? I had mine growing in an unheated glasshouse. I planted mine too late, so I only got 2-3. They have a long growing season. Next coming year I will get them in earlier.

Robin

[Millymollymandy]

I am leaving some of last year's spring onions to flower. I love all allium flowers so I hope they will pretty up the veg patch, although I don't as yet know what they will look like (colour, size etc).

[Seagull]

ohareward, the eggplant is planted in a large pot on my balcony outside which gets a lot of sun and has a glass roof and had been getting very warm (35 degrees celsius or more - Freiburg is the warmest place in Germany) with the weather we were having. This probably helped it along!

[dmwcarol]

According to the gardening books I've been reading, Runner beans were first introduced to this country for the flowers rather than the beans. They are pretty spectacular so I can totally understand the appeal!

Carol

[hedgewitch]

Aubegine flowers are beautiful - I thought the same thing the first time I grew them.
And the good thing about courgette flowers is that you can eat them too.

[ina]

According to the gardening books I've been reading, Runner beans were first introduced to this country for the flowers rather than the beans. They are pretty spectacular so I can totally understand the appeal!

Carol

Some varieties are particularly nice - I think the one I had last year was Painted Lady? Two tone, pink and red. I grew sweat peas alongside of them, and they complemented each other perfectly.

[magnuscanis]

Aubegine flowers are beautiful - I thought the same thing the first time I grew them.
And the good thing about courgette flowers is that you can eat them too.

I've not tried growing aubergines or courgettes, but I do like to grow nasturtiums which have pretty and edible flowers (at least, I think you can eat the flowers - I only remember trying the leaves). I recently discovered that chive flowers were edible too, and they definitely make a salad look more interesting.

Regarding runner beans, are the flowers edible or just good to look at? I've not got any runner beans in the garden but I've just planted some French beans (for the first time). I assume they'll have nice flowers too, although I'm growing them for the beans.

- Magnus