Ornamental plants that are edible...Edimentals are culinary plants, including Allium and Hibiscus. Humans have been cultivating plants for over 12,000 years and in that time, someone, somewhere, has tasted almost every single plant.
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Acorus gramineus 'Ogon'
Item #: 369
Zones: 5a to 9b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: China, Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Adiantum raddianum 'Barberton'
Item #: 7446
Zones: 7b to 10b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: South Africa
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Agastache 'Blue Fortune'
Item #: 3209
Zones: 3a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Agave havardiana
Item #: 5007
Zones: 5a to 9b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 20" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Mexico, United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Agave parryi 'Border Guard'
Item #: 2948
Zones: 7b to 9b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Agave parryi ssp. huachucensis 'Excelsior'
Item #: 7868
Zones: 7b to 9b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 6" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Mexico, United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Agave parryi ssp. truncata
Item #: 5247
Zones: 8a to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 18" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Mexico
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Agave x protamericana 'Funky Toes'
Item #: 10777
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Mexico
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Agave utahensis ssp. kaibabensis
Item #: 12
Zones: 5a to 7b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Ajuga reptans 'Texas Tough'
Next crop available: 03/12/2021
Item #: 12990
Zones: 3a to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 4" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Allium 'Millenium'
Item #: 5466
Zones: 5a to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Allium 'Pink Planet'
Item #: 12727
Zones: 4a to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 18" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Alocasia cucullata 'Yellow Tail'
Item #: 7588
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Burma/Myanmar, India
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Alocasia gageana 'California'
Item #: 14918
Zones: 8a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Burma/Myanmar
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Alocasia 'Portodora'
Item #: 3654
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 96" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 2 qt. (1.9 L) ?
Alocasia wentii
Item #: 2967
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: New Guinea
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Alstroemeria 'Koice'
Next crop available: 08/27/2021
Item #: 9113
Zones: 6a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 18" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Alstroemeria 'Koncajoli' PP 22,267
Item #: 10756
Zones: 6a to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 20" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Alstroemeria 'Princess Fabiana' PP 17,991
Item #: 9555
Zones: 7b to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 10" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Alstroemeria 'The Third Harmonic'
Item #: 4160
Zones: 6a to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Amorphophallus konjac
Item #: 783
Zones: 6a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter, Spring
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: China, Japan
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Amorphophallus konjac 'Gordon's Gold'
Item #: 15750
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Shade
Origin: China, Japan
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Amorphophallus konjac 'Nightstick'
Item #: 1166
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Shade
Origin: China, Japan
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Aralia cordata 'Sun King'
Item #: 9133
Zones: 4a to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 72" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Arum x diotalicum 'Jet Black Wonder'
Item #: 6121
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Southeast Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Arum italicum 'Spot On'
Item #: 16291
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Italy, Southeast Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Arundo donax 'Peppermint Stick'
Item #: 6677
Zones: 6a to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 144" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Mediterranean Europe
Pot Size: 2 qt. (1.9 L) ?
Asarum fauriei var. takaoi 'Ginba'
Item #: 5622
Zones: 4b to 8a
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 2" tall
Culture: Light Shade to Shade
Origin: Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Asarum fauriei var. takaoi 'Roundabout'
Item #: 9820
Zones: 4b to 8b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 3" tall
Culture: Light Shade to Shade
Origin: Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Asclepias asperula
Item #: 13329
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Asclepias incarnata 'Cinderella'
Item #: 388
Zones: 3a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 50" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Asclepias purpurascens
Item #: 12659
Zones: 3a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Asclepias tuberosa
Item #: 335
Zones: 3a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Asclepias tuberosa 'Hello Yellow'
Item #: 6700
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 20" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Asparagus densiflorus 'Graham's Cracker'
Item #: 2154
Zones: 6a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: South Africa
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Astilbe chinensis 'Amber Moon' PP 26,028
Item #: 5442
Zones: 3a to 8b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 30" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: China
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Astilbe 'Chocolate Shogun' PP 26,430
Item #: 13514
Zones: 3a to 7b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Hybrid, Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Astilbe 'Delft Lace' PP 19,839
Item #: 14594
Zones: 3a to 7b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 26" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Athyrium filix-femina 'Lady in Red'
Item #: 4968
Zones: 3a to 8b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 20" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Athyrium filix-femina 'Victoriae'
Item #: 2361
Zones: 3a to 8b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 18" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Europe, United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Athyrium niponicum 'Silver Falls'
Item #: 3889
Zones: 4a to 8b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Shade
Origin: Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Aucuba japonica 'Ooba Nakafu'
Item #: 3134
Zones: 7a to 9b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Calamintha nepeta var. nepeta
Item #: 3501
Zones: 5a to 8a, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 20" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Southern Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Callirhoe involucrata
Item #: 1839
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 6" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Callirhoe involucrata var. lineariloba 'Logan Calhoun'
Item #: 4124
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Campanula poscharskyana 'Camgood' PP 13,161
Item #: 8037
Zones: 4a to 7b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 8" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Balkans
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?
Canna 'Flaming Kabobs'
Item #: 13108
Zones: 7b to 10b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid, United States
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Australia'
Item #: 2707
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Bengal Tiger'
Item #: 819
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 72" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Cleopatra'
Item #: 2399
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 50" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Ermine'
Item #: 2459
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Intrigue'
Item #: 4743
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 84" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 2 qt. (1.9 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Lemon Punch'
Item #: 5201
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 42" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Minerva'
Item #: 1194
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Orange Punch'
Item #: 4680
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 2 qt. (1.9 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Pacific Beauty'
Item #: 3867
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 72" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Phasion'
Item #: 2456
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 84" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Red Tiger' PP 30,655
Item #: 13733
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna x generalis 'Red Wine'
Item #: 11804
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 72" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
Canna indica 'Red Stripe'
Item #: 3072
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 96" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3 qt. (2.8 L) ?
More Information About Edimentals
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. 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).
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. When you finish your research and are looking for where to buy culinary plants for your perennial garden, we hope you will check out our culinary plant list.