My #5 annual flower for the kitchen garden --Nasturtium

This choice was easy-- the common garden nasturtium is easy to grow, colorful and edible.
But while researching the history of nasturtiums I did learn an interesting fact. The common name nasturtium comes from the resemblance between the peppery flavor of the leaves of this tropical annual and several kinds of European kitchen garden greens in the cress genus, Nasturtium. Like so many other plants discovered by European explorers it was given a common name based on a feature that reminded the explorer of home --in this case  high tea with cress sandwiches!
The Latin name of the flower know as nasturtium is Tropaelum majus. I've grown them for more than twenty years, in colors from peach through deep red, with foliage with dark tones and variegation, and plant forms from compact to trailing. They germinate easily and early, and grow fast, providing bright flowes and edible foliage by July, continuing through frost. A quick chop back of worn foliage in midsummer can also result in fresh fall growth.
But naturtiums do have needs, and they like to be well fed and well watered. This fall we've had drought and my late nasturtiums have sufferred.
Here are some pics from last fall, when the self-sown nasturtiums of October were exceptional: