Edible Flower Bloom Calendar: What to Pick From March to October

Outdoors in Ukraine, edible flowers are in season from March to October, and the season is lopsided. We checked 37 flowers from our catalog against the Vyznachnyk roslyn Ukrainy (Key to the Plants of Ukraine, Kyiv, 1965), which lists the flowering months for every species. In March, only one of the 37 is in bloom: the primrose. In April there are five, in June twenty-nine, and by October just three are left: cosmos, calendula, and nasturtium.

Below is the calendar month by month, with a table at the end linking to each flower’s profile. The dates describe Ukraine’s temperate climate, similar to much of central and eastern Europe. If you garden elsewhere, use the order of bloom, not the exact months. The dates also come from the middle of the last century, and spring has moved earlier since then. The first section covers how much.

Where the dates come from and how far they’ve shifted

The dates in the key show the order of bloom, but spring flowers now open earlier than it says. The 1965 key is the second edition, 875 pages, compiled at the Institute of Botany of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and edited by D. K. Zerov. Each species carries a note such as “Fl. VI-VIII,” meaning it blooms from June through August. Occasional bloom outside the main window is given in parentheses.

Two large studies show what has changed since. Hungarian researchers used national weather service records from 1952 to 2000 for six species, including dandelion, black elder, black locust, and small-leaved linden. Four of the six started blooming earlier, by 1.9-4.4 days per decade on average (Szabó et al., International Journal of Biometeorology, 2016). The timing depended most on the temperature of the two or three months before flowering.

The Europe-wide picture matches. Annette Menzel and colleagues analyzed more than 125,000 observation series for 542 plant species in 21 countries from 1971 to 2000. Of all leafing, flowering, and fruiting records, 78% had moved earlier, and only 3% were significantly later. On average, spring and summer arrived 2.5 days earlier per decade (Global Change Biology, 2006).

So treat the calendar as a guide to what blooms next, and check the plant itself for timing. A warm spring pulls flowering earlier: by Menzel’s estimate, 2.5 days for every degree Celsius (1.8 °F) of warming in the preceding months.

March and April: primrose, violet, dandelion, apple

Spring has the fewest options: one of the 37 flowers blooms in March and five in April. First in the key is the common primrose (Primula vulgaris), in March and April. In the wild in Ukraine, though, it is very rare, as the key itself notes. Grow it in the garden rather than looking for it in the woods. Cowslip (P. veris) blooms in April and May.

April brings sweet violet (April-May), apple blossom (April-May, sometimes into June), English daisy (April-June, with scattered flowers into August), and dandelion. Dandelion has the longest season of the spring flowers, April through August.

May: black locust, elderflower, forget-me-not, clover

In May the count doubles to ten, and the first trees after apple come into flower. Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and black elder bloom in May and June. Black locust gets confused with poisonous laburnum, which has yellow clusters; see our guide to toxic lookalikes of edible flowers.

Among the herbs, woodland forget-me-not and wood sorrel start in May and bloom through June. White clover flowers from May all the way to September, red clover from May to August. Dill, according to the key, flowers from May through August.

June and July: peak season

June has the widest choice, with 29 of the 37 flowers in bloom, and July has 28. Among the ones that start in June: borage, German chamomile, cornflower, carnation, peach-leaved bellflower, common mallow, St. John’s wort, fireweed, evening primrose, flax, purslane, snapdragon, nasturtium, calendula, sage, sunflower, and zucchini flowers.

Some of them are over quickly. Cornflower, carnation, bellflower, and damask rose bloom only in June and July. Small-leaved linden opens in the second half of June and is done in July, so you have just those few weeks to pick it.

July adds lavender (July-August), marigolds, cosmos, and dahlia. The annuals you sow yourself bloom for a long time: borage from June through August, calendula and nasturtium from June through October.

August: phlox and the long-blooming annuals

August still has 23 flowers in bloom, but the early-summer ones are gone and the annuals carry the season. According to the key, garden phlox blooms in August and September. Chamomile, dill, mallow, St. John’s wort, flax, and zucchini flowers keep going. Dandelion finishes its season in August.

September and October: calendula, nasturtium, cosmos

Only three of the 37 flowers last into October, and all three are annuals. September has 11: marigolds, dahlia, phlox, snapdragon, evening primrose, fireweed, purslane, white clover, plus calendula, nasturtium, and cosmos. In October, the key lists only calendula, nasturtium, and cosmos. In some years, dahlia and sunflower hold on into October too.

If you want fresh flowers to the end of the season, sow calendula and nasturtium. They bloom for five months, June through October. Of our 37, only dandelion and white clover bloom as long, and both finish earlier.

What’s not in the calendar

Ten flowers from our catalog aren’t in the calendar. Seven are houseplants, greenhouse crops, or container plants, and their season depends on conditions rather than the month: begonia, scented geranium, fuchsia, impatiens, jasmine, roselle, and toothache plant. Each profile covers its own season.

The key mentions chives only as a related species, with no dates. For chrysanthemum, it gives dates only for crown daisy (Glebionis coronaria), June through August. Garden chrysanthemums bloom in the fall; see the profile for their season. Viola in the calendar means wild pansy, June through August in the key. Garden pansies planted in early spring aren’t included.

Anise hyssop and bee balm are North American plants grown in Ukraine as culinary herbs, and the key does not list them. Recent Ukrainian trials have anise hyssop starting to bloom in mid-July and flowering until frost, while wild bergamot starts in late June and peaks in July.

The calendar: what blooms when

Flowering months from the Key to the Plants of Ukraine (1965); occasional bloom outside the main window in parentheses. Each name links to the flower’s profile.

Before you pick flowers from the wild, compare the plant with its profile: several edible flowers have poisonous lookalikes. Florist bouquets don’t belong in the kitchen either; our article on what florist flowers are sprayed with explains why.