Gardening and dogs

Myrtle has always seemed a very romantic plant to me.    I loved the way that Queen Elizabeth II and Kate Middleton had a spring of it in their wedding bouquets that were grown from the original myrtle in Queen Victoria’s wedding bouquet – a lovely way of showing the links across the generations.

About seven or eight years ago, I came across a plant for sale and decided that it would be just right for a space I wanted to fill.  Its lovely dark green leaves complement the other surrounding shrubs and provide a wonderful backdrop to the herbaceous perennials in front of it.  Now the plant is six feet tall and doing just the job I wanted it too.

The trouble is that when it was smaller, I never noticed it in flower as it was surrounded by all the other shrubs.  Thankfully now it is tall enough to be able to appreciate the lovely delicate white flowers.

I love Hemerocallis – their flowers are absolutely gorgeous.

Hemerocallis - in flower

The downside of them is given away by their other name – Day Lily.  After just one day, those beautiful blooms are over and need to be dead-headed.

Hemerocallis - the next day

But there is another way, you can eat hemerocallis.  So, rather than just add the flowers to the compost bin, sometimes I eat them when I am deadheading my flowers in the evening – they are in their prime.  I know that within 24 hours, the flowers will be over anyway so I am losing nothing when I look at the garden and I am gaining the pleasure of eating them.  The flowers are very crisp, a bit like a smooth tasty lettuce.  I am afraid that I have no sense of smell, so can’t describe their flavour in detail – maybe someone who reads this could add this information in a comment.

Supper - the alternative

This year, I had it in mind to have a hemerocallis salad, but the menu plans didn’t fall into line, so tonight I decided to add the flowers to my pizza.  I will admit to eating the flowers before the pizza, but it was a very enjoyable meal.  A really beautful plate of food to be savoured.

There are of course many other flowers that are edible and can add interest to your plate – what is your favourite?