Gardening Classes in Bow, WA at Blanchard Mountain Farm with Garden Mentors

Grow Nasturtium & Eat’m Too!

Ready to Grow Your Best Garden Now?
Learn about flora and fauna with Garden Mentors.
Learn preserve, craft & make the most from your garden.
Learn to grow your own food and herbs with us.
Join the Garden Mentors Academy Today!
QUICKLY BUILD LASTING GARDENING SKILLS * GROW YOUR THRIVING DREAM GARDEN NOW
MONEYBACK GUARANTEE

Grow nasturtiums, and you’ll be cultivating a multipurpose beauty!

We always grow fluffy mounds of annual, orange, yellow and red nasturtiums gracing the edges of our food garden on the farm. And, we pluck their generous blooms to decorate dinner salads, and their abundant leaves helped fill our bowls as well.

Nasturtium flower

Tropaeolum majus or annual garden nasturtium is edible, beautiful & more for your garden.

Do you get grossed out by black aphids all over your plants?

Us too. But, when you grow nasturtiums, you can use them to lure these pests! So, we’re always glad fast-to-regenerate nasturtiums are a pest’s favored plant – rather than some of our nearby storage crops like squash, tomatoes and beans.

Plus, we’re always thrilled when tiny hummingbirds dart from bloom to aphid to bloom. In fact, nasturtiums are one plant that has served many purposes on our little homestead. Nasturtiums are worth growing for pollinator forage, pest lure, eye candy, and food for us.

Grow nasturtium annual plants in your garden

On our farm, we grow Tropaeolum majus. This is the non-native, but quite common garden nasturtium. Usually, in spring, we sow seeds deeply in the earth and throughout summer the generous plants trails, mounds, and sometimes climbs like a vine. These plants feed us, help with pest insect control, and they look lovely. From annual nasturtium, we harvest leaves, flowers and even young seed pods to eat. But, come the chill of autumn, the plants crash to the ground, permanently. Of course, if these plants shed seed, new nasturtiums grow again the following spring. That’s an annual for you.

Mashua flower and leaves

Orange-red mashua nasturtium flowers offset by a background of green nasturtium leaves add eye-candy to our pre-frost fall garden beds, feeding hummingbirds & us.

Also grow nasturtium perennials even more garden food harvests

Thanks to my friend Jessi Bloom, author of Free Range Chicken Gardens, Practical Permaculture and Creating Sanctuary, I learned about a gorgeous perennial Tropaeolum to cultivate in our Pacific NW garden.

Years ago, she handed me a shriveled old tuber from her fridge one winter day a few years ago and said, “Grow this.” And, I did. What came from that sad looking root was an amazing nasturtium that continues to thrive as a multipurpose perennial in our garden today: Tropaeolum tuberosum, mashua or perennial nasturtium is its name.

What Mashua has to offer & how to grow this perennial nasturtium:

Andean native mashua offers a few special features not found in its annual cousin. While annual nasturtiums may climb a little bit, Mashua climbs a lot, making for a beautiful seasonal privacy screen. Too, this means its unique, tubular, orange-red flowers open high on its twining stems. These high blooms lure hummingbirds. And, those birds sip greedily.

Grow Nasturtium to climb on Arbutus unedo

Tropaeolum tuberosum growing through the branches of fall flowering & fruiting
Arbutus unedo adding loads of color, interest & food to forage.

One bummer to know when you grow Mashua:

Mashua flowers open late in our PacNW growing season. This means the flowers don’t open until late in October or even November in the Pacific Northwest. So, if a frost hits early, this perennial may melt to the earth before blooming.

The good news with growing this perennial nasturutum

Perennials don’t die completely for winter. Instead, T. tuberosum has saying power through its carbohydrate-rich tubers. So, abundant new plants will come up again the following spring. But, this assumes you haven’t eaten all of those tubers.

Yep – the roots of Mashua are edible.

The starchy tubers from the Mashua impart a unique taste to soups and stews. Like the edible leaves of nasturtium, the Mashua roots are somewhat peppery and floral. And, they will most certainly infuse your dish with that flavor. Some consider it a delicacy, but not everyone is a fan.

Another great reason to grow Mashua…

Like Mashua’s annual cousin, the leaves and flowers of this perennial nasturtium are also edible. So even if you don’t dig eating those tubers, you may want to sprinkle some leaves in your summer salads.

Grow nasturtium perennial Mashua tubers to cook

Mashua tubers cleaned and ready to cook.

To start growing Mashua in your garden…

It doesn’t take a lot of starts to get a lot of mashua growing. In fact, one or two tubers should be plenty of this perennial nasturtium. Many small nurseries will offer tubers in spring, and Raintree Nursery offers them for sale online.

Climbing Nasturtium

Even in shady spots, there’s no stopping Mashua from growing lovely leaves.

Curious about other unusual edible plants to grow?

We offer a number of ways you can learn more about growing delicious and unusual plants in your garden. From our group garden coaching club premiere program to Herbal Happy Hour Garden-to-Bar, you’ll learn to grow, harvest and make the most of your tasty garden full of fabulous plants – including all sorts of nasturtiums!

13 comments on “Grow Nasturtium & Eat’m Too!

  1. Bill W. on

    The mashua variety ‘Ken Aslet’ flowers from early September in Western WA, which is a big improvement if you main interest is ornamental. The trade-off is that it doesn’t taste as good as the variety Blanca/Pilifera that you have there.

  2. Diane on

    I am interested in the tuberous nasturtium. I am in zone 5. Is it likely they will survive the winter – they’ve been milder and milder lately? Or perhaps I’ll just consider them an annual

  3. Garden Mentors on

    Diane,

    We haven’t grown them in a zone 5 location, but we have kept tubers over the winter in the refrigerator, replanted them in spring & they’ve done great. So, if you try them, just save a few tubers indoors each winter to replant — just in case.

  4. Carri leroux on

    I live in Mexico, in a semi-tropic zone. West coast of central Mexico, state of Jalisco. Am I able to grow nasturstiams here. And, if so, what kind. I have not had good luck in the past. I love nasturtiams and grew them in So California for many years. Please help! Thank you, Carri L.

  5. Garden Mentors on

    Carri, Nasturtiums are fairly forgiving plants, and they do thrive in heat. Check with a local nursery for best recommendations for your region or just try potting up some seeds and see how they do. Good luck!

  6. Jerry S on

    Hi,
    I live in downtown Toronto, Ontario – Canada. The downtown tends to have less severe winters than north of the city. Also, my townhouse is well protected by many soaring high rises that also generate a fair amount of heat. Do you know if any perennial nasturtiums will survive on a western fence attached to my house?

  7. Garden Mentors on

    Jerry,

    Thanks for writing in. Mashua should be fine during the summer. It may not bloom in autumn if you get an early frost. But, you can dig up the tubers for winter. Those you don’t eat, you can store to replant in spring. Thanks for writing in & enjoy!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *