Herbal Flowers #7

Pictured above are nasturtiums, Tropaeolum majus, one of my favorite herbs. The flowers are not only beautiful in the garden, but are one of the best edible flowers around.

A member of the Cruciferae (mustard) family, nasturtium has leaves and flowers with a great cress-like peppery taste from benzyl isothiocyanate, a form of mustard oil. High in vitamin C, the leaves as well as the flowers make a great addition to a salad of mixed greens. I have also made a delicious pesto using half nasturtium leaves and half parsley instead of the usual basil.

Now is the time of year to start growing nasturtiums here in Florida as they deteriorate in the intense heat of our summers. They also dislike extreme cold, so take care to protect them or bring them in when the temperature dips into the 30s. They're easy to grow, preferring full sun and very little fertilizer in order to flower. (Too much fertilizer will give you lots of leaves with little flowering.) Nasturtiums come in mounding and vining forms, several flower colors and a variety with variegated leaves.

Mislabeled

I was starting some nasturtium seeds today and saw on one of the packages something that reminds me how often garden things are mislabeled for Florida.

Many seed packages have a little map on the back and a chart that shows which months the seeds should be started in each area. For nasturtiums, which do best in cool weather, the package from American Seeds had it right: start seeds here Sept-Feb. This way they will be growing in the cool fall, winter and early spring and will only have to be protected on those few nights when temperatures approach freezing. But the Northrup-King seed package had it exactly backwards: start seeds here Feb-Sept. Obviously they were following the first frost dates for the northern zones and continued it for the most southern. But that would have us growing nasturtiums in late spring and summer when they will struggle in the heat.

I'm constantly running across things I think are mislabeled, especially mislabeled for Florida and I will try to post more as I run across them.