Edible, Beautiful Hummingbird Favorite Nasturtium

Add some edible beauty and hummingbird appeal to this year’s garden. Grow nasturtiums in containers or the garden and include their leaves and flowers in your meals.

Boost their ornamental value by growing one of the variegated varieties. Alaska nasturtium has irregular creamy stripes and gold, orange, salmon or mahogany flowers on compact plants.

Go vertical with Amazon Jewel. This climbing nasturtium also has variegated leaves and flowers of orange, peachy-rose, red, gold or pale yellow.

Consider including the All-America Selections winner Baby Rose. Its uniform compact habit, and unique rose-colored flowers that were consistent from plant to plant made this a winning variety.

Nasturtiums are easy to start from seed right in the garden after the danger of frost has passed or start them indoors 4 to 6 weeks earlier.

A bit more information: Nasturtiums large seeds make them easy for young as well as seasoned gardeners to handle. It takes several weeks for the seeds to germinate. Soak them overnight before planting to speed germination. Grow nasturtiums in full sun or partial shade and well-drained soil. Avoid over fertilizing as too much nitrogen results in leafy plants with few, if any, flowers.