‘Cos’ is the name for lettuces with upright heads of crispy leaves. They don’t make much of a tight ball, so you can take leaves off a few at a time as you need them.
“Roden” Red & Green Ruffled Lettuce - LIMITED GUEST VARIETY FOR TRIAL
A beautiful ruffled lettuce that has large loose heads - the base colour is light green with a blush of red over the top. It looks amazing, but is hard to photograph. Just a few packets for now to see what you think of it!
Guest varieties are promising new ones we haven't tested fully yet. As a crowd-sourced trial, this is your chance to help find out what does well all across the UK, so let us know what you think of them - they'll only be in the catalogue in future years if lots of people email in to say it was really good.
300 seeds £2.69
Australian Yellowleaf
A very large open-headed lettuce, with bright, bright green-yellow leaves that are gently frilled. Good flavour and crunchy texture. Very decorative, and slow to bolt. It makes huge lettuces – you only need three or four to keep you in salads for ages. This is still Ben's favourite.
Large bright yellow loosehead.
350 seed £2.49
Dark Roden
A new super-dark-red romaine lettuce, bred from 'Roden' but selected for even darker leaves, that really does appear almost black in the sun. This one grows quickly and not only looks great in salad, but also in the garden as it is such an unusual colour.
Very good as a spring or autumn lettuce. It doesn't like the peak of summer heat, as those black leaves really absorb the sun, so this one works best sown in early spring or late summer, when the temperatures are a little cooler.
350 seed £2.69
Devils Tongue
A great upright lettuce with glowing red/purple oval leaves.
It was very quick, as well as beautiful, in our 2008 trials, and attracted a lot of attention from visitors. We liked it because it stood well without bolting, and didn't get bitter in the heat.
One of the few lettuces that has both white and brown seeds, so dont panic when you see them mixed in the packet.
350 seeds , organic. £2.78
Rossa di Trento
A lovely new lettuce from the mountains of northern Italy . It makes large heads are loosely wrapped, with a proper red blush to the edge of each leaf.
Absolutely gorgeous, it really is that red & green together, fantastic in a salad bowl.
400 seed £2.69
Super Red Ruffles
This is a new one that is very exciting, from Wild Garden Seeds' collection. It starts out quite pale, but then develops a really good bright red colour as it gets bigger. The leaf base and midrib stay bright green, so the contrast looks amazing in a salad.
Incredibly limited supply from our breeding stocks. Just 200 packets this year.
200-250seed seeds, organic. £3.40