Senga's Blog
Eco-chic Outdoor Living & Exterior Design
January 18/2010 – The Planning Stage: Heirloom Edible Nasturtium 'Empress of India'
When I think of Nasturtiums I think of France and specifically one of the most beautiful gardens in the world. The famous painter Monet lived in Giverny, France and his gardens there (right picture) inspired many of his famous paintings. (left Monet let large swaths ramble along his main walkway to his house. At different times in their history, they’ve been considered a vegetable, an herb, a flower, and even a fruit! The name nasturtium comes from the Latin words for nose (nas), and tortum (twist), referring to a persons’ reaction upon tasting the spicy, bittersweet leaves. Renaissance botanists named it after watercress, (Nasturtium officinale in Latin) which tastes similar.
The garden nasturtiums we grow today descend mainly from 2 species native to Peru. The first, brought to Europe by Spanish conquistadors in the late 15th to early 16th century, was Tropaeolum minus, a semi-trailing vine bearing spurred, lightly scented orange-yellow flowers with dark red spots on the petals and shield-shaped leaves. In the late 17th century, a Dutch botanist introduced the taller, more vigorous Tropaeolum majus, a trailing vine with darker orange flowers and more rounded leaves.
Empress of Indian – A Classy Victorian
A classic Victorian ‘Empress of India’ nasturtium with dark blue-green foliage. has deep regal-red-flowered heirloom offset by frosty blue-green foliage. It makes a wonderful billowing, cascading plant for terraced beds or walls. Mass plantings of this nasturtium will reward you with a 2 foot tall, knock-your-socks-off display.
Although it is sometimes reported that nasturtiums were introduced to the US by the Philadelphia seeds man Bernard McMahon in 1806, they were recorded here as early as 1759. Thomas Jefferson planted them in his vegetable garden at Monticello from at least 1774 onward. Interestingly, in one entry in his garden book, he categorized it as a fruit amongst others such as the tomato, indicating that he ate the pickled seeds. Most nasturtiums grown at this time were the tall, trailing orange variety. Over the course of the 19th century, breeders produced smaller, more compact types that mounded neatly into containers or formed a colourful, less sprawling edge to flower beds. Cultivars with cream and green variegated foliage appeared, as well as the vermilion-flowered Empress of India, with its strikingly contrasting blue-green leaves.
Botanical name: Tropaeolum majus "Empress of India" 
Common name: Red trailing nasturtium
History: Empress of India is one of the oldest nasturtium varieties still in cultivation and harkens back to Victorian Days .
Country of Origin: England
Description: Large, open trumpet like shaped scarlet flowers and silvery green foliage.
Best harvested: Before seeds ripen and leaves when young.
Time to Sow Seeds: April 1 outdoor (around last spring frost)
Where to Sow and Grow: Start outdoors when all danger of frost is past and weather is evenly in the 50’s. They can thrive in sun or part shade. Nasturtiums actually prefer poor soils and drier soils to thrive. Overly fertile soil will produce leaves as opposed to flowers.
Maturity: 55-65 Days
Tip: Do not fertilize your plants as this encourages lush foliage growth, but not flowers.
Taste: The flowers and leaves are peppery in flavour.
Uses: Leaves can be eaten in salads; unripe seeds and flower buds can be pickled and served as a substitute for capers. (We know now that these pickled flower buds are high in oxalic acid and therefore should not be eaten in large quantities.
Companion Planting: It repels whiteflies, cabbage loopers and squash bugs and attracts many beneficial insects, making it a good companion plant for the vegetable garden.
Place in Square Foot Garden: As a companion plant and as an edible. In addition they will make a beautiful ornamental addition to the edible green roof. I will also be using them for accents in my edible containers on the ground. Therefore I will be using them to as edgings around some of the vegetable beds and adjacent other vegetables that will benefit such as the Black Krim Tomatoes, Armenian cucumbers, and brassicas being planned in the garden. By month’s end I will have this nicely slotted into a master plan of the vegetable garden and post it on my blog.
