Edimental plants are ornamental plants that are also edible. Edimentals include herbs and culinary plants where some or all of the plant is safe for human consumption.
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Chrysanthemum 'Gethsemane Moonlight'
Item #: 9818
Zones: 5a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $20.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Chrysanthemum 'Matchsticks'
Item #: 9263
Zones: 5a to 8b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia 'Blackwater'
Item #: 7511
Zones: 7b to 10b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 72" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Tropical Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $26.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia 'Coffee Cups'
Item #: 6668
Zones: 8a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 72" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $26.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Aloha' PP 29,692
Item #: 12989
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Black Coral' PP 23,896
Item #: 9580
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 42" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic'
Item #: 1818
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Black Runner'
Item #: 4867
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 54" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $26.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Blue Hawaii' PP 20,003
Item #: 8042
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 30" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Coal Miner'
Item #: 6901
Zones: 7a to 10b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 54" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Diamond Head' PP 19,939
Item #: 7245
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Elepaio'
Item #: 5370
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $30.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Hawaiian Punch' PP 24,596
Item #: 2469
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Jack's Giant'
Item #: 7400
Zones: 7a to 10b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 84" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Lemonade'
Item #: 8067
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 84" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Lemon-Lime Gecko'
Item #: 4915
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 54" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Maui Gold' PP 24,482
Item #: 2032
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Maui Sunrise' PP 31,175
Item #: 14267
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Mojito' PP 21,995
Item #: 8545
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Pharaoh's Mask' PP 33,772
Item #: 15723
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 42" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $35.00Regular priceUnit price perNext crop available: 06/28/2024Sold out -
Colocasia esculenta 'Redemption' PP 34,729
Item #: 17918
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $35.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum 'Black Beauty'
Item #: 7727
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 30" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $26.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'Waikiki' PP 34,615
Item #: 17034
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 42" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $28.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Colocasia esculenta 'White Lava' PP 24,481
Item #: 2867
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Eastern Asia
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per
More Information About Edimentals
Humans have been cultivating plants for over 12,000 years and in that time, someone, somewhere, has tasted almost every single plant. The results weren't always pretty, but these intrepid tasters discovered an amazing variety of culinary plants that also happen to look great in the landscape.
What is an Edimental Plant?
By the strict definition, an edimental is a vegetable (leaf, root, stem) that you eat, but not a fruit, seed, herb, leaf, or any part that you make tea or alcohol from. However, for our purposes, we are going to define a culinary plant as any plant that you can eat, including herbs and spices, fruits, seeds, as well as any plant part that can be used to make tea or can be fermented into spirits.
Of course not every culinary plant is as tasty as a turnip, and some garden perennials require quite a bit of processing (cooking, pickling, etc.) to be made edible, but the adventurous perennial gardener can greatly expand their palette if they are inclined to. Included in our list are plants that can be eaten raw, plants that require cooking to remove toxic or distasteful compounds, plants that are popular with cultures outside of the US, plants that were popular edibles in the past, subsistence crops (plants that take a lot of effort to prepare but provide only a few calories) and famine crops (plants that have distasteful flavors or textures but are be eaten when times are tough).
Do Your Research
When growing edimentals in the perennial garden, it is important to know which plant part to eat. People can eat almost any plant part including roots, bulbs (corms, rhizomes, tubers), stems, twigs, bark, pith, stem hearts (cortex), immature or mature leaves, leaf petioles, fruits, flower buds, flowers, nectar, pollen, seeds, or seed oil. In preparing our list of culinary plants we consulted many sources but relied heavily on the "Plants for a Future" website (www.pfaf.org) as a reference to the edibility rating of our plants. They also provide brief preparation guidelines and notes on toxicity.
Disclaimer - we have not eaten most of these plants and advise caution and plenty of research before eating any plant in these lists. Remember, here at PDN, we grow perennial plants for their looks, not their taste.