Plants for Amazing Salads

‘Bianca Riccia da Taglio’ Salad Endive

Endive is in many ways easier to grow than lettuce. Pretty pale green leaves used just like oakleaf lettuce - this unique variety was bred specially for cut & come-again salad use, and does well in practically any climate. Good flavour, sow spring, summer or autumn. 

Botanically speaking, this is Chicorium endivia. Plants pictured were sown in Wales in March in a polytunnel - we really appreciated it in our spring salads!

Rare oakleaf salad endive. Especially good for very early & very late sowings.

300 seed £2.32

‘Fine Leaved’ Shungiku for Salads

Originally from Japan, a very easily grown plant that is great added in small quantities to add interest to a mixed salad.  It even makes pretty edible yellow flowers as well. This is very popular in the far east - and related to the decorative Chrysanthemum we all know from the flowerbed. It is also nice shredded in with a stir-fry. 

Very quick & easy (30 days from sowing) and good for cut & come-again.

Chrysanthemum coronarium. Nice tangy salad-addition.

300 seed £1.39

Stock: Out of stock, sorry.

‘Magentaspreen’ Giant Goosefoot

There’s really no excuse for plain old green salads now!  This is a very attractive and easily grown plant, used both for salads and cooked greens. 

This variety has bright green leaves, which are frosted with a sparkly magenta colour when young. It is very pretty in salads, or you can use it as a cooked green too.

This is quite easy to grow, but it needs cool nights to germinate. Therefore early spring sowings (up to end March) are fine under cover, but make later sowings outdoors so they don't get too hot.

0.75g hundreds seed, organic. £2.03

‘Mild’ Cultivated Rocket

If you don't know rocket, its a small salad plant with a unique taste - slightly peppery and reminiscent of sesame oil dressing. Very pleasant as long as its not too strong. 

Normally Ben can't stand rocket, but this strain, which is less strong than common rocket, is really very nice! He's even been spotted pulling off leaves and munching on them absentmindedly while weeding the seedbeds . . .

Very easy to grow, sow Feb - Oct for continuous harvest. (Will need fleece protection in the winter)

about 1000 seed £2.33

‘Romanesca Cutting’ Salad Endive

A non heading oakleaf type, this Italian endive was bred to be used in salads. Only very slightly bitter as long as weather is cool, and excellent grown overwinter in a polytunnel or greenhouse. This is very good shredded and drizzled with balsamic vinegar under a pile of sliced beetroot.

Especially useful sown in autumn for overwinter salads.

hundreds seed £1.72

“Palla Rossa 3” - RED HEADING CHICORY

This popular, tried and tested chicory has been chosen for its nice round red heads and bright white ribs. A modern reselection of the traditional Palla Rossa variety - it starts out as an open shape but then heads up later into a tight ball, and is bolt-resistant.

Note that it is only a proper deep red colour in cool weather conditions, in the autumn. If grown in hot weather it stays green.

At least 1000 seed £1.57

Chinese Violet Cress

Meet the beautiful and easily-grown 'Chinese Violet Cress', also known as the 'February Orchid'. It's very easy to grow as it is actually from the brassica family, and it makes pretty bushes that eventually get to about waist height, with intense purple flowers.

For growing outdoors, sow from March - June with early sowings best in trays/modules, later can also sow direct. But also very sucessful sown in late August & grown overwinter in a polytunnel/greenhouse or even under cloches, making an excellent winter salad, & bringing a welcome splash of colour in spring.

Start to pick once plants are established, both the leaves and flowers are edible & great in salads.

90 seed, organic. £2.93

Stock: Out of stock, sorry.

Claytonia a.k.a. “Miners Lettuce’ or ‘Winter Purslane’

Do try this one! Claytonia is an easily grown green, with rounded crunchy leaves; it grows very quickly with minimal effort, & you only need a few plants to get lots of salad ingredients all winter. 

Ideal sown as an autumn or early spring crop in a tunnel, but also grows well outside, surviving light frosts. The photos are from February in our polytunnel. 

Great as a fesh green in salads, but also really good cooked like spinach. To harvest, pick small bunches, the plants will grow back if you leave part of each one.

Very easy.

400 seed, organic. £2.39

Corn Salad (also known as Lambs Lettuce or Mâche)

We've chosen an old traditional variety called "Coquille de Louviers" which has interesting spoon-shaped leaves, is easy to grow, and is quite cold-hardy.

If you don't know it, Corn Salad is a low growing plant that is useful for winter production of fresh salad greens. Its about 4 inches tall and is quite flexible; most commonly sown in late summer / autumn outdoors, for use in winter salads about 12 weeks later. (It can be sown in spring too.) Sow in shallow drills or rows, but you can also sow in modules and transplant out.

In winter , plants given a bit of cover like a cloche will carry on growing on sunny days, providing valuable fresh greens for your winter salads. If sown in spring, you can grow it underneath taller plants such as tomatoes because it is short and will tolerate some shade.

at least 1000 seed £1.85

Horn of Plenty / Doucette d’Algiers

A delicious tender green - this is really easily grown salad forming a compact bush about 1ft across. It's a distant relative of corn salad but with larger leaves, & is very useful as it thrives in mid-summer heat when other salads can be scarce.

The huge numbers of lilac flowers are pretty, and very attractive to bees as well. Native to Europe, Horn of Plenty was first detailed in Gaertners’ 1778 book “De fructibus et seminibus plantarum”

The huge numbers of lilac flowers are pretty, and very attractive to bees as well. Native to Europe, Horn of Plenty was first detailed in Gaertners’ 1778 book “De fructibus et seminibus plantarum”.

100 seed, organic. £2.61

Ingegnoli’s Self-Blanching

A lovely chicory from the seedhouse of Ingegnoli in Italy, with loose-heading plants making crisp tasty leaves that aren’t bitter. 

Easy to grow - pick the young leaves for salads, or allow to head up. Better than lettuce in burgers and hotdogs as it does't go limp when warm.

We trialled lots of chicories, and we reckon this one is a real star.

600 seed £1.86

Stock: Out of stock, sorry.

Land Cress

Land Cress is mainly used in salads, but is also be eaten cooked as 'creasy greens'. 

This is useful all year round salad plant that forms small rosettes of lobed green leaves. The leaves have a crunchy texture, with a slightly spicy watercress flavour. Definitely a good addition to early and late salads! If given some protection (eg fleece), it will maintain supplies throughout the winter. We like to always have some on the go throughout the year.

When? It can be sown at pretty much any time but is best known for its incredible cold-resistance. It is therefore best sown in August for supplies of greens over the winter. You can try in spring too if you like.

Catherine says that this was her best salad crop in the very cold winter a couple of years back - it sat under 2 inches of snow without suffering at all, and was still thriving in Mid March.

Slightly spicy salad for all year use

1.5 seed, organic. £2.09

Luisa Chicory - NEW

A very pretty mild salad chicory that starts out upright but later makes a head, with red-tinged flecks and edges to the leaves.

Nice addition to salads, sow in summer for harvest in autumn.

600 seed £1.29

Stock: Out of stock, sorry.

Minutina (Erba Stella / Buckshorn Plantain)

A very easy green that produces all season, this is the domesticated plantain. 

It makes a dense clump of long leaves that are forked a bit like the horns on a deer, hence the name. The plants get to a decent size - that's a pencil for scale in the picture. 

They are very nice both raw in salads and cooked. Easy – so much so that one gardening advice column said if you can’t grow this, you should give up gardening.

Very easy, great plant.

lots of seed £2.19

Purslane

Purslane is an incredibly useful - and very easily grown - plant that is used both as a salad and a cooked green. A low-growing succulent plant that grows well in most soils and conditions, and has been cultivated for thousands of years. 

Used in salads - also used cooked as spinach or in pastries or soups.

Tasty, easy,add to salads for extra crunch and interest; and very rich in essential fatty acids.

lots of seed £1.45

Salad Burnet

Another useful perennial, salad burnet has a slightly herbal, cucumber-y flavour, and is a good ingredient in early spring and autumn salads. It's very easy to grow, and if the leaves get old & bitter in summer time it can just be cut right back and will produce another generous flush of new tender growth.

Perennial early salad, easy.

1g (lots) seeds, organic. £1.95

Stock: Out of stock, sorry.

Sculpit

Sculpit - aka Stridolo, and a cultivated larger version of the wildflower Bladder campion - is well known in Italy, but rarely grown in the UK. It's hardy and easy to grow - sow from mid spring either direct or started in modules - and crops throughout the summer well into autumn. 

Botanically speaking, this is Silene vulgaris / S. inflata. It has an interesting 'herbal' flavour with a slight bitterness, and is often used to flavour egg and rice dishes, though we also really like it in a mixed salad. 

Good flavour - ideal in omlettes, risottos as well as salads

50 seed, organic. £2.25

Suglarloaf Chicory

There's been a recent resurgence in popularity for chicory as a salad ingredient, thanks to very mild varieties such as this one, which makes an upright cylindrical head. The pale green leaves are crisp and juicy, and as the name suggests, much less bitter than normal chicory. In Italy it is also steamed or boiled and used as a green vegetable as well as a salad.

A great winter salad addition.

500 seed £1.69