The importance of flowers of many vegetables, herbs, and berries is often overlooked. They are an essential part of a vegetable garden’s beauty. Many of them are edible and can be used to add color and flavor to a wide variety of dishes, used as cut flowers, or added to a potpourri for an exquisite scent. Flowers offer the added bonus of drawing in a wide variety of beneficial insects critical to proper pollination of numerous plants in the landscape as well as the control of insect pests.

Probably the most beautiful individual flower of any garden vegetable is that of the scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus). It forms a cone-shaped cluster of small flowers with brilliant crimson petals. An added bonus is that the flower is edible. By the way, it’s a hummingbird magnet.

Keep reading.