Whether your garden is a series of containers or a multi-acre spread, annual nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) are a must-have.  They are beautiful to look at, easy to care for, drought tolerant and even edible.  What more could you ask?

Most nasturtiums have a low, mounding habit, with five-petaled flowers in colors ranging from white and shades of cream and pale yellow to orange and darkest red.  Many have contrasting streaks or blotches.  The flowers compliment the shield-shaped, bluish green leaves.

Last summer I combined two antique varieties, the white 'Milkmaid' and  pale yellow 'Moonlight' with the flashier 'Peach Melba', which is yellow with red markings.  Positioned in the front of the border and spilling out onto a walkway, the nasturtiums were a triumph.  Once they were established they never needed supplemental water and they bloomed from late spring until frost killed them late in the fall. 

Climbing or trailing nasturtiums make a good choice for tuteurs, arbors or large pots.  I like the trailing 'Variegated Queen' mix, which contains flowers in an array of colors, all of which have green and cream variegated leaves. 

If you like red flowers, try the scarlet-flowered traditional favorite, 'Empress of India', or the dark red 'Mahogany'.

Nasturtiums, whose seeds can be sown directly in the ground come spring, love poor quality soil and flower better if you don't fertilize them.  I mulch around mine, as I do with the rest of my plants, but that's about it as far as maintenance goes.

Supermarkets sometimes stock their produce departments with packaged edible flower mixtures, which almost always contain nasturtiums.  Grow pots of nasturtiums by the kitchen door and next summer you can enjoy their peppery taste in salads without depleting your pocketbook.