This collection has 10 different "ornamental" flowers (actually not only ornaments, but valuable companions) and 8 vegetable or herb flowers. These are all in my backyard vegetable garden. The vegetable flowers here are eggplant, pepper, squash, broccoli, carrot, bean, basil, and cucumber.
I was curious to see the carrot flower. Carrots are biennials and bloom their second year. To get the flower, I planted the top of a supermarket carrot in the spring. I won't collect the seeds as I imagine the supermarket carrot is a hybrid.
Nice pictures
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
That's a really interesting idea, planting the carrot top to see the flower. I'm sure it brought lots of flower flies and beneficial wasps to your garden. Was the carrot top starting to sprout when you planted it?
ReplyDeleteI *think* I've seen where you can plant almost any grocery vegetable that has the part where root & leaves meet. Is that called the crown? I have a couple of leeks that sprouted roots in a pot, after I used up almost all the white part. I'm going to let them grow until frost and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteYes the carrot I planted was putting up a small sprout after being in my fridge a while. The flower attracted lots of little insects. Looked just like wild carrot flower (queen Annes lace).
ReplyDeleteAny biennial with a root or corm should sprout. Like you said -- if you have the crown with root and leaves. Carrots, beets, celeriac, radish, onions, leeks, garlic, turnip, parsley root, celery, horseradish, etc. are things that should sprout and produce a flower and seed on year two. Annuals go through their whole cycle in one year. And they generally don't have roots on the part we buy. Lettuce, arugula, spinach, bok choi, cabbage, broccoli, etc. These all bolt in the summer heat and form seed. Fruit like tomatoes, beans, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, corn are annuals with the seed produced the first year inside the fruits. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are annuals that do have a root-like structure that we buy. (The potato tuber is actually an enlarged stem structure with eyes that will form leaves and roots.) Potatoes from the supermarket will grow a plant and bloom, but it did this same whole cycle the previous year too. (I loved my botany class!)