Edimentals: Look Good, Eat Good

Welcome to the world of edimentals (a portmanteau of "edible" and "ornamental), where the boundary between good-enough-to-gaze-upon and good-enough-to-eat crumbles like the proverbial cookie.

If you’ve ever stared at a particularly lush kale leaf and wondered why it’s hiding in the veggie patch instead of taking center stage in a floral arrangement—or if you’ve secretly wanted to garnish your beverage with the very flowers currently decorating your front porch—you’re already one of us.

Edimentals are the ultimate garden multitaskers: plants that pull double duty by looking spectacular along the garden walkway while being perfectly prepared to jump onto your dinner plate or into your iced tea. It’s high-fashion landscaping with a side of antioxidants, and honestly, why should we choose between a pretty yard and a pantry when we can simply grow both in the same square foot?

Check some of our favorite edimentals here at Painters: plants that are every bit as functional—be it for flavor, tea, or tincture—as they are decorative.

The Garnish Gallery: Edible Flowers and Herbal Blooms

From vibrant petals that pop on a plate to blooms that brew into a soothing tea, these eye-candy additions prove that beauty is literally a matter of taste.

Calendula 'Resina'

Bright flowers in shades of orange and yellow, long treasured for their medicinal properties, as well as their uses in fabric dyeing and cosmetics. This cultivar is bred for high resin content, ideal for making salves, tinctures, and teas; can also be used culinarily in lieu of saffron.

Mexican Mint Marigold

A beautiful annual herb with aromatic, flavorful foliage, and bright yellow flowers summer to frost. Also known as Mexican tarragon, it is a heat and drought tolerant alternative to French tarragon and is popular as a kitchen herb to season fish, chicken or tossed salads. The edible golden flowers and foliage have an anise flavor, slightly hinted with citrus.

Viola petals effortlessly beautify any dish, from baked goods to salads.

Echinacea

Known for its iconic "coneflower" beauty in borders, but equally famous for its immune-boosting roots and petals.

Nasturtium

Leaves, flowers, and seeds are edible; peppery and nutritious, perfect for brightening up salads. Grows wonderfully from seed, Sow True Seeds Nasturtium packets available at Painters but supplies are limited.

Feverfew

Mounding, aromatic, and feathery foliage, with small daisy-like flowers summer-fall. Makes a good cut flower and dries beautifully. Also known as wild chamomile. Feverfew has been a folk remedy in Europe for thousands of years and has been referred to as ''medieval aspirin.''

Borage 

This is a wonderful addition to the herb garden. The cucumber flavored blooms are fun to add to salads and summer beverages (Pimm's cup, anyone?)! Plus one of the "best" plants for bees as the flowers refill their nectar every two minutes!

Blue Skullcap

Scutellaria lateriflora

This native perennial herb has small, pale blue blooms summer to fall. A woodland beauty, and prized in folk medicine for its calming properties.

Scented Scenery:

Pretty Herbs for Culinary or Medicinal Use

Why hide your flavor in a dedicated herb plot when these aromatic multitaskers offer enough texture and fragrance to anchor your most stylish containers?

Eucalyptus is a favorite "edimental" because it bridges the gap between high-end floral design and the home apothecary--a staple in home medicinal use for its decongestant properties. And its silvery-blue coin-shaped foliage provides a cool tone contrast that makes nearby flowers really pop.

Bouquet dill:

Bouquet grows taller and produces abundant large seed heads, making it ideal for canning pickles and cut flowers. Large and lovely, it has lush foliage and abundant summer blooms that attract pollinators and all sorts of beneficial insects. Excellent eaten fresh and the most popular choice for pickling.

Chives: Completely gorgeous with loads of edible, pink-purple, pom-pom blooms in spring.

Or try Garlic Chives with an abundance of white flowers in early summer; a beautiful addition to your edible landscape (top video).

Red Rubin Basil

Compact, dark-leafed variety that combines ornamental appeal and intense, spicy flavor. It's a striking container or accent plant and excellent for flavoring vinegars and oils or using as a gorgeous garnish!

Lemon Basil

Attractive spikes of small, white, fragrant flowers in summer that are amazing in any pollinator garden. Plus its refreshing, sweet lemony aroma and flavor is a delicious finishing touch for countless beverages and dishes.

Lemon Balm: A lush, green filler with a bright citrus scent that makes a refreshing tea and acts as a gentle, calming tonic.

Jewels of Opar

This succulent purslane relative is beautiful with its airy wands of pink summer flowers and tiny red-orange berries. It's excellent in arrangements! And it's edible--use the foliage in place of lettuce or spinach in the heat of the summer.

Salad Burnet

The young leaves have a fresh cucumber-like flavor and are delicious in salads. The feathery, serrated fern-like leaves and small, reddish, globe-shaped flowers are attractive in borders, cottage gardens and containers.

Summer Savory

This fast-growing perennial herb has culinary, medicinal, and decorative value. Its mild peppery taste is delicious in teas, soups, and savory dishes. The tiny white-pink summer flowers are equally loved by bees!

Valerian

Often used in cottage-gardens for its attractive foliage and clusters of white blooms that attract pollinators, it is also a well-known medicinal herb with a strong, sweet scent. Also known as "all-heal," it is valued as a sleep aid and used in foods, perfumes, and teas, and has similar effects as catnip for cats.

Loveage

Ornamental and endlessly useful! (A.k.a. mountain celery). All parts--stems, roots, leaves, and seeds--are edible, with a strong, pleasant, citrusy celery-like flavor used in salads, soups, and teas. With its lush foliage, it acts as a dramatic accent plant in the back of a border and the bright yellow clusters of flowers in mid-summer are highly attractive to bees and beneficial insects.

Rosemary 'Arp'

A staple ornamental herb! This aromatic evergreen with very good flavor for culinary use also is beloved for its pale blue spring flowers. Plus, one of the sturdiest, most cold-hardy varieties available.

English Lavender 'Munstead'

Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead'

Dating back to the early 1900s and still one of the most popular lavender varieties today, it is cherished for its resilience, fragrance, and beauty. Compact, early blooming, and long lived, this lavender is an excellent choice for hedging or knot gardens.

Parsley

Planted in larger blocks, curly-leaf parsley is a brush-stroke of texture. And it lasts nicely even as fall frost takes out other warm season herbs.

And don't forget all the culinary Sages:

• Garden Sage 'Berggarten': Highly aromatic, large-leafed variety of common garden sage with abundant spikes of showy, violet-blue flowers in early summer. Myriad ornamental, culinary, and medicinal uses.

• Tricolor sage (Salvia officinalis 'Tricolor'): Variegated leaves are as beautiful as they are delicious.

• Purple sage (Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens'): Aromatic purple-green leaves can be used fresh or dried. It lends ornamental appeal without sacrificing fragrance or taste.

Haute Horticulture: Desirable and Delicious Veggies

Forget the dusty farm rows; these are the show-stopping vegetables that are bringing bold colors and dramatic foliage to your ornamental beds. Pop them in between herbs and flowers for a striking snack.

Mustard 'Miz America'

These deeply lobed, wine-colored leaves are as beautiful as they are tasty. A visually striking addition to salads and to the veggie garden.

Swiss Chard 'Bright Lights'

Leafy green with brilliantly colored stems, in stunning shades of gold, pink, crimson, white, orange, purple, and green. A rainbow of yummm!!

Kale 'Red Russian'

Silvery-green, oak-leaf-cut leaves with bright purple stems are both tasty and ornamental. The red-purple hues intensify after a frost so it makes a great fall garden addition.

Lettuce 'Lolla Rossa'

Heavily frilled leaves with dark red edges add fantastic texture and color to salads and garden boxes.

Eggplant 'Shooting Stars'

Italian heirloom variety with charmingly small (3-4''), striped fruits that are elegant and delicious, high in both ornamental and culinary value.

Eggplant 'Fairy Tale'

The world's cutest eggplant!!! Compact, with beautiful purple, white-streaked, miniature (2-4'') fruits. Suitable for containers and pretty enough for flower beds.

The Edible Estate – Trees and Shrubs that Anchor the Landscape and Fill the Pantry

These are the 'permanent collection' of your garden runway— the beauties that provide a backdrop of blossoms and greenery and a harvest of fruit for years to come.

You can't top all the beautiful blossoms on Crabapple, Cherry, Pear, and Apple Trees! Nearly the crown-jewel of edimentals (but who can choose?)!

Hardy figs

Statement foliage! The massive, deeply lobed leaves provide a lush, tropical texture that few other hardy plants can match. Plus the clusters of fruits are lovely also!

Serviceberry

Gorgeous multi-season artistry plus a harvest of delicious berries--if you get them first!-- it also acts as a natural birdfeeder, bringing "living art" in the form of cedar waxwings and songbirds directly to your garden.

Black Chokeberry 'Viking'

Aronia melanocarpa 'Viking'

While it offers lovely white spring blossoms, aronia is famous for its flaming, neon-red autumn foliage that outshines almost every other shrub in the landscape. Plus this nativar was developed for orchards, with nutrient-rich berries that are perfect for jams and juices.

Southern Home Grape

Vitis rotundifolia x vinifera

This self-fertile, hybrid cross between muscadine and bunch grapes, has delightfully ornamental foliage and the sweet, black, flavorful fruits ripen late summer to fall.

Blueberries

Blueberries are beautiful bushes, producing white, bell-shaped flowers in spring and turning vibrant shades of red and orange in autumn.

• Rabbiteye types: Often have an upright habit and good fall color. '

• 'Pink Lemonade': Features pink berries, pinkish-beige bark, and red fall foliage

• Northern Highbush Blueberry 'Duke'

  Leading early-ripening cultivar, delicious, high-yielding, and hardy; attractive fall foliage and winter stems

As always, our inventory can change quickly - to see if items in this blog are currently available, visit our availability pages.