Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are a North American wildflower whose ephemeral blue beauty lights up forest floors in mid-spring. These bluebells are not the bell-adorned spires of English idylls. This is an important distinction for two reasons: Virginia bluebells are edible, whereas English (and Spanish) bluebells—species of Hyacinthoides—are toxic; and then there is simply their native status. Virginia bluebells are woodland denizens ideally suited to tre-filled gardens or to container gardens with afternoon shade. Their clear, breathtakingly blue presence is a tonic for the winter-weary, and their flavorful leaves are a treat for tired palates.
Here’s how (and where) to grow Virginia bluebells, and how to eat them. A little goes a long way.
Photography by Marie Viljoen.
First, let’s talk flavor: Virginia bluebells have a fascinating culinary secret. Their soft, gentle-looking leaves pack a punch. And it is a surprise. A few seconds after you begin to chew a tender leaf, the surprise arrives: oysters. It’s uncanny. Sometimes it can be hard to identify—and harder to describe—the flavor of an unfamiliar ingredient, but when I first nibbled a raw leaf, there was no hesitation, despite the apparent weirdness. Absolute oyster, raw and briny. But in a leaf. It makes lettuce look very boring.
One of Mertensia virginica‘s relatives is M. maritima (and its subspecies). A high water-mark dweller on wind-swept, pebbled beaches, it grows natively in regions as geographically diverse as Northern Europe, Alaska, and New England; it is threatened and endangered in some regions. But one of its common names is…wait for it…oyster leaf. It is listed in Daniel Moerman’s fascinating ethnography Native American Food Plants: “Long, leafy stems boiled, cooked briefly, and eaten with seal oil.”
I don’t have seal oil, but I do have some ideas.
Despite their botanical and common names, wild Virginia bluebells are not confined to that state. They have a broad Eastern range in North America, from Ontario through Alabama, and west to the Plains. They are hardy from USDA zones 3 to 8, making them very cold-tolerant, and even more appealing (I think) in terms of culinary application. They beat rhubarb to the table by a month.
In terms of soil, like any other forest dweller used to emerging from fallen deciduous leaves, Virginia bluebells appreciate humus or compost, and deep watering in times of drought. Otherwise, they are very low-maintenance. Emerging in early spring, they bloom for about two to three weeks in mid-spring, become taller and lankier as they mature, and by summer, slowly, discreetly, they have disappeared.
