I am crazy about nasturtiums!

They are my very most favorite angiosperms–flowering plants, that is. Along with a hundred others.

I’m nothing if not catholic in my love for flowers of all seasons, shapes and colors.

 

I mean, how can you not love the showy and fiery orange, red, and yellow blossoms, which can be doubles or singles, and the accompanying vividly colored round leaves?  I can’t resist these intensely colored blossoms.

In fact,  I love them so much that I eat them! I put the flowers and tender young leaves in my salads, as they are completely edible.  Nasturtiums add a mild heat to salad greens.

The colorful flowers not only dress up a plate, but they’re high in vitamins A, C (10 times as much as lettuce and similar to parsley), and D. Moreover, they contain up to 45 mg of lutein per 100 g, which is the highest amount found in any edible plant.

The unripe seed pods can be harvested and dropped into spiced vinegar to produce a condiment and garnish, sometimes used in place of capers.

For salads, harvest nasturtium flower buds, flowers, and young leaves in the cool of the morning when flowers have just opened. The more heat-stressed the plant, the more pungent the leaves and flowers will taste.

Gently wash and dry the flowers and leaves and use immediately or store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Although you can eat the whole flower, if the flavor is too strong, use only the milder-tasting petals.
Nasturtiums are also good in stir-fries, cook them with pasta, and stuff the flowers. More ambitious cooks can try grinding the seeds to use as a pepper substitute and in flavored oils, and pickling the flower buds or immature seedpods to use as a substitute for capers.

 

In one of my favorite movies, Silver Streak, Gene Wilder’s character seductively tells his love interest–an art historian–that nasturtiums “like it nasty” by which he means they do best during the punishing dog days of summer.  And it’s absolutely true, they love the heat of summer.  They also do best in poor soil.

The most popular varieties of nasturtiums are one of two common species. Tropaeolum majus is a trailing type that can be trained to climb and Tropaeolum minus is a bush type.

Most modern varieties have been bred so the flowers stand above the foliage, making them especially striking in the garden.

 

When the plants begin to flag in the heat of summer, cut them back, and they’ll regrow and flower again when cooler weather arrives in fall.  Until frost, and then its over for the year.

But that’s when you can gather up the chickpea-sized seeds, dry them, and save to plant in peat cups indoors 4 to 6 weeks before setting them out the following spring.  Nasturtiums don’t like being transplanted, so it’s best to plant the peat cups in the garden soil.

Nasturtiums thrive on neglect and don’t require, or even like, rich soil. In fact, if you amend soil with too much nitrogen-rich fertilizer or manure, you’ll get lots of dark green foliage and few flowers. Plants shouldn’t need supplemental fertilizing during the growing season.  Remember: nasturtiums like it nasty. Hot, dry, and poor.

 

Nasturtiums are easy to grow from seeds.  I plant them every spring and enjoy them all summer long.  They flourish in hot, sunny locations.  The hotter and sunnier, the better.