For example, you will see a few hollyhocks at the Sooke garden. But attractive and edible as the flowers are, they aren't cultivated because they aren't tasty. Cook calls hollyhock flowers beautiful tissue paper. Tuberous begonias have fleshy, edible stems, and the flowers, though without scent, have a tangy flavor. Borage self-seeds, and its flowers have a dainty cucumber taste.
Nasturtium flowers are edible, and so are the cresslike leaves.
Calendula flowers, which grow vigorously, must be bruised to release their color into food. The tuberous form of the nasturtium also is edible and has much the same flavor as the better-known nasturtium. The climate at Sooke is ripe for gardening. The winter, mollified by the Pacific air, rarely turns harsh, though challenges do arise. It can snow, and sometimes heavily.