What it is
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) is in the Tropaeolaceae (Nasturtium) family. A peppery edible flower that thrives on neglect — every part is edible, it lures aphids away from your crops, and kids love it.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it low — lean soil, and give it poor, well-drained (rich soil = all leaves) soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.5. Space plants about 10–12 in apart. Expect roughly Flowers in 50–60. Warm-season annual.
How it's used
Nasturtium is used: leaves, flowers, seed pods.
🔎 How to identify it
- Round shield-shaped leaves
- Spurred orange, yellow, red flowers
- Trails or mounds
Edibility
How to grow & propagate nasturtium
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate nasturtium
Nasturtiums grow from big, easy seeds sown right where they'll grow once frost has passed — soak them overnight to soften the hard coat and they come up fast. Give them poor, lean soil; rich ground gives you lush leaves and few flowers. They self-sow, so one planting often returns on its own.
Growing nasturtium in Texas
Give it full sun and poor, well-drained (rich soil = all leaves) soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly flowers in 50–60 before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting. The part you're after: leaves, flowers, green seed pods.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.