Andy’s Cinnamon Vine
This is a nice unusual edible , but grown more for amusement rather than as a staple part of your diet. Our favourite thing about it is the incredible cinnamon scent that fills the air when it is flowering.
The plants make 2 types of tuber - a huge underground one that is impossible to dig up, and small 'air-tubers' attached to the stem at the base of each leaf. It requires very little maintenance - the top growth dies back in winter but then resprouts in spring.
They also have hundreds of small white flowers, which give off an intense cinnamon scent, fantastic in your polytunnel.
On receipt, either start the bulbils in a small pot, or plant them into a well manured weed free site, somewhere you can give them a support to climb. Be patient - bulbils may take some time to sprout in their first year.
Plants take 3-4 years to reach full maturity - the big edible root can then be up to 3 foot long, going straight down vertically. Digging it up is an interesting challenge! (Some people have suggested hiring a JCB digger and they might have a point). More helpfully, other gardeners grow them in deep tubs, stacks of old tyres or similar, and this is probably a more sensible approach if you aren't very, very fond of digging.
6 little bulbils, organic. £2.99
