Regions: Himalaya & the hills

The garden chrysanthemum of the north-Indian winter, sold by the crate at Diwali.

Edible flowers and leaves, and a magnet that pulls aphids off your vegetables.

A Himalayan ginger relative with scented white flowers and aromatic rhizomes.

Plant single cloves in October and lift whole bulbs in March.

A hill millet that tolerates waterlogging better than any other grain.

Grown for seed rather than leaf; magenta heads over the whole monsoon.

A Himalayan pseudo-grain that flowers white and feeds every bee for miles.

Bush beans for winter troughs; pole kinds for a balcony net.

A tough small-grained millet of the southern and Himalayan hills.

Quick winter roots for the plains, and greens while you wait.