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.
-
Amorphophallus x konbus 'Green Genes'
Item #: 17093
Zones: 6a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter, Spring
Height: 40" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $75.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Amorphophallus x konbus 'Mary Sizemore'
Item #: 15753
Zones: 6a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter, Spring
Height: 46" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $75.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $26.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $36.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Amorphophallus konjac 'Leo Song'
Item #: 7089
Zones: 6b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter, Spring
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: China, Vietnam
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $36.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $38.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Angelica japonica
Item #: 8157
Zones: 7a to 9b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 18" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Japan, Korea
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $18.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $19.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Sold out
Arisaema serratum var. mayebarae
Item #: 7571
Zones: 5b to 8b
Dormancy: Winter, Fall
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Japan
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $34.00Regular priceUnit price perSold out -
Arisaema tortuosum
Item #: 1383
Zones: 6a to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Winter, Fall
Height: 50" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Himalayan Mountains
Pot Size: Bare Root / 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $23.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Arum italicum 'Marmoratum'
Item #: 765
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Sold out
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)
Regular price $25.00Regular priceUnit price perSold out -
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)
Regular price $35.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $29.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Sold out
Asarum harperi 'Callaway'
Item #: 678
Zones: 5a to 9b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 3" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Shade
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $29.00Regular priceUnit price perNext crop available: 07/15/2022Sold out -
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)
Regular price $19.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $20.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $18.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Sold out
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)
Regular price $18.00Regular priceUnit price perNext crop available: 07/29/2022Sold out -
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)
Regular price $20.00Regular priceUnit price per -
Asphodeline lutea 'Italian Gold'
Item #: 10450
Zones: 6a to 9b
Dormancy: Summer, Fall
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Mediterranean Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $19.00Regular priceUnit price per -
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)
Regular price $19.00Regular priceUnit price per
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.