In nature, plants are not divided into beautiful and edible. Only a person once decided to do this by defining a place in flower beds for some, and sending others to the garden. But even this division turned out to be temporary, because in recent years, with the advent of fashion for natural flower beds and ecological farming, the situation began to change.
Therefore, today in the flower garden you can find garden plants — fennel, sunflower, amaranth and others, and among the beds — flowering annuals: marigolds, calendula and nasturtium.
Apiaceae plants
Once I posted a photo of cute fluffy carrot inflorescences on social networks. “Does the carrot bloom? I’ve never seen it,” a friend who has lived in a country house with a vegetable garden all her life wrote to me. Yes, it blooms, only in the second year. And very nice. It’s worth taking a look at it at least once, leaving a couple of carrots in the ground after harvesting. Next year, a spreading bush with fine openwork foliage and several lush inflorescences-umbrellas, white or pale pink, will appear above the bed.
And in some varieties, two tiny red flowers appear in the middle of the white inflorescence, similar to droplets of blood. So carrots attract (not only by smell) pollinators — predatory insects, which, as is known, destroy herbivorous insects, that is, they become our assistants in the fight for the harvest. In short, flowering carrots are needed not only for beauty, seeds or curiosity satisfaction, they will also help to maintain the balance of various insects in the garden.
Important: wild carrot seeds ‘Purple Kisses’ have appeared on sale, you should not count on the harvest of root crops here at all, its large spectacular inflorescences are intended only for decorating the garden and flower garden.
In general, umbrella plants (fennel or angelica) have long been used in new wave flower beds, but “white lace” is also good in the garden. Plant a bush of precocious coriander on the beds (varieties intended not for greenery, but for seeds). It will soon bloom, and a white cloud will rise over the bed.
Fluffy umbrellas also have another annual from the Apiaceae family — anise, but they lie on the ground, and this property can also be used by decorating the lower tier of the bed with mixed plantings with a creeping haze.
Another spicy annual herb that is not too popular with us is Anthriscus cerefolium, it is especially good not during flowering, but immediately after it — with the suddenly pink color of lace leaves and ripening elegant seeds collected in small brushes. The usual umbrellas of dill are also good, if you look at them with an unbiased eye.
Many biennial and perennial herbs of the Apiaceae family — parsley, cumin, leaf celery, lovage — bloom modestly and unobtrusively, but this is exactly what is good for decorative beds and flower beds of natural style.
Important: Keep in mind that the taste of flowering herbs from the Apiaceae family deteriorates, and they become coarser. But if these plants are not grown for seeds, but as a decoration of the garden, then it is enough to leave one or two specimens on beds with mixed plantings, and collect the rest before flowering.
Spicy herbs
Of course, many spicy herbs are able not only to fragrance, treat and attract pollinators to the garden, but also to decorate the garden with their flowers.
Mint and oregano, thyme and borago (cucumber grass), lofant and monarda, hyssop and lavender are especially good in flowering. A bed or even a border grown from such universal herbs will perfectly fit into the design of almost any plot.
The flowers of numerous basil varieties look pretty and very diverse, especially Ocimum basilicum var. Thyrsiflora. True, the gorgeous flowering of this southern spice can be achieved only in warm climes, and in the middle zone — exclusively with greenhouse or container cultivation. But a variety of plant varieties more than compensate for the lack of flowers with spectacular and not always the usual color of the leaves.
Perennial onions
Perennial onions will also decorate the garden with their flowering. The first, back in May, produces arrows with white stars collected in umbrellas, Allium ursinum. Then the schnitt blooms (there are varieties with fluffy white or pink inflorescences), yellow Allium obliquum balls bloom, in mid-summer it’s the turn of Allium nutans (its pink inflorescences are slightly larger).
If you allow the leek to overwinter in the garden, then it will bloom in the spring with very decorative large balls.