For thousands of years, civilizations worldwide have been using plants, vegetables, flowers, and herbs for medicinal purposes and as healing remedies in addition to their versatile edible uses.

Flowers, herbs, and vegetables are beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, providing joy and brightness to anyone's home or day. Giving or creating bright edible floral bouquets is a way one shows love or appreciation, bringing joy and beauty to any person or event. (Just remember, use food-grade floral ingredients that haven’t been treated with chemicals or grow your own organic florals and herbs!)

Flowers Have Beautiful Health Benefits

Flowers aren’t only beneficial for creating a beautiful space and bringing joy to the lucky recipient—they’re also incredibly healing for the heart and certain blooms are useful therapeutically and medicinally.

There are thousands of flowers, plants, and herbs that can be used for teas, salves, ointments, essential oils, in addition to being eaten in soups, salads, and food to alleviate stress and anxiety. They can also help heal common illnesses or even play a part in healing different cancers and heart disease.

So what does this have to do with floral design? Therapeutic and edible bouquets are an excellent way to create something unique and beautiful with beneficial uses your clients can enjoy. Some of the flowers or herbs can be eaten directly for healing or nutritional properties, but for the most part, they need to be made into a tea, tincture, tonic, salve, or essential oil to fully receive the benefits.

8 Great Options for Edible Flower Bouquets:

Please be sure to research and advise clients on proper ways to use/consume the following herbs and flowers. And clients should always consult with their doctor first if there’s a concern or could be an interaction with prescriptions, supplements, etc.

Calendula

Calendula flower is great for foods, salads, omelets, soups, and stews; it’s powerful for promoting cell repair and growth, and it’s antiseptic and anti-inflammatory.

Calendula flower is commonly found in creams and salves for treating bruises, burns, sores, skin infections, and rashes.

For babies, calendula is used to treat diaper rash, cradle cap, and other skin irritations. The bloom is helpful for digestion, indigestion, diarrhea, and cramps, and it’s nourishing and cleansing for the lymphatic system.

Nasturtium

Nasturtium is filled with vitamin C and is great for improving the immune system, soothing sore throats, coughs, and colds, as well as helping fight bacterial and fungal infections. The leaves and flowers are edible with a slightly spicy flavor.

Borage Blossoms

Borage flowers and leaves help with depression, fever, and cough. They support healthy hormones and adrenal insufficiency, help with blood purification, and can prevent inflammation of the lungs

Roses

Roses are invigorating, regenerative, and rejuvenating for skin and wound healing. Rose water infusions can help to soothe pain from inflammation, treat skin conditions, and rose oil is helpful for wrinkles, acne, burn wounds, and helping with stress, anxiety, and depression. The petals and rose flower buds are great to add to jams, salads, pies.

Queen Anne's Lace

This flower contains beta-carotene to treat bladder and kidney conditions. Its leaves can be added to salads and soups, and roots can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute and diuretic tea. The leaves can also help heal and kill bacterial infections.

Chamomile

Both the flower and leaf can be used as an anti-inflammatory and anti-fever agent. It’s great for treating arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. This herb is great for restful sleep and an excellent support for nervous and digestive systems. You’ll often find it used in teas for stress and nervousness, promoting sleep, and aiding digestion. It can even help calm colic in children.

Red Clover

The flowering top and leaf is high in beta-carotene, calcium, vitamin C, a spectrum of vitamins B, magnesium, and zinc. It’s a blood and lymphatic cleanser, and it can help with eczema and psoriasis. It treats childhood respiratory problems and restores health following a respiratory infection. Red clover even helps menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, and night sweats.

Red and White Yarrow 

Both the leaf and flower can be used to heal wounds, bruises, and sprains as it has antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and astringent properties.

It stimulates delayed/absent menstrual cycles and helps ease and relax uterine tension/menstrual cramps, as well as reduces heavy bleeding during menstruation. It is styptic which stops bleeding and is helpful during childbirth or with wounds/cuts. Use it in a bath to drive down a fever!

9 Powerful and Delicious Herbs to use for Therapeutic Flower Arrangements and Edible Bouquets:

Lavender

The lavender flower and leaf can be used to help sleep, relaxation, and ease anxiety. The herb is a mild anti-depressant and helpful in dispelling depression and melancholy; it can alleviate migraines and headaches, relieve tension, stress, and insomnia; it’s antibacterial, anti-fungal, and antiseptic and can be used for staph, strep, colds, cases of flu, and yeast infections. It’s often used to heal scrapes wounds and burns and calms stomach muscle spasms and indigestion

Peppermint

Using the flower or the leaf, peppermint acts as a digestive aid and is great for nausea. It helps muscles relax and reduces stomach cramping and spasms as well as calms upset stomachs and vomiting. Peppermint is known to reduce the pain of headaches, bee stings, burns, toothaches.

Eucalyptus

This highly used green is high in antioxidants which can prevent cancers, heart disease, and dementia. Herbal eucalyptus teas and essential oil are great for relieving colds, congestion, asthma, and respiratory issues. It can also be used to treat dry skin, relieve inflammation and reduce pain, and promote relaxation and calming effects. It can even be used to repel various insects!

Sage

Sage leaves are used to lower cholesterol and help the liver. In women, sage is used to promote regular menstruation and relieve hot flashes and night sweats. It can also heal inflammation in the mouth such as laryngitis, tonsillitis, and sore throats, and can help with colds and cases of flu.

Rosemary

Both the leaf and the essential oil of rosemary can be used. Rosemary can be used to make a brain tonic for improving concentration and memory as it enhances cellular uptake of oxygen and is a mild uplifting stimulant. It eases headaches and migraines and relieves mild to moderate depression. Rosemary also helps with poor circulation and low blood pressure.

Tulsi Basil

Tulsi Basil is an adaptogenic herb that helps restore vitality and vigor. In other words, it raises your mood when feeling too low and lowers when you're feeling too high! This herb would be great to add in to daily deliveries.

Sweet Basil

The leaf and flowering top of sweet basil are used to help with the digestive and nervous systems. It relieves headaches, gas, stomach cramps, as well as nausea and vomiting. It’s helpful in treating nervousness, irritability, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and insomnia as well.

Garlic

Use the bulb and scape of garlic for colds, cases of flu, sore throats, and poor digestion. It boosts immune function, is an antiseptic and an antibacterial, and maintains healthy blood cholesterol levels as well as heals ear infections.

Lemon Balm

Lemon Balm is arguably the most important member of the mint family. It’s a remedy for heart disease, depression, anxiety, and ADD/ADHD. It’s used to calm both digestive and nervous system disorders, in addition to viral and bacterial infections. You can even use lemon balm and passionflower tea for insomnia.

Parsley

This herb treats iron deficiency, anemia, and fatigue. It’s great for bladder and kidney problems as it is a safe and effective diuretic. Plus, it’s quite tasty!

Have fun experimenting with these diverse flowers and herbs to create beautiful arrangements filled with hundreds of healing properties and delicious smells and flavors! Enjoy making a colorful bouquet to boost their emotional and physical health simultaneously.