These 10 award-winning varieties are each recognised with the RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit. Chosen for their appearance, reliability and outstanding performance, these plants have proved themselves in rigorous RHS Plant Trials, which highlight the best choices for gardens of every size and style.
A popular choice of spinach
Spinach beet ‘Perpetual Spinach’ is a popular and dependable spinach that is ideal for a long crop of tasty leaves full of goodness. Sow at any time from early February to the end of August, to crop from May to the end of October. The bright, mid green, spear-shaped leaves can be used in exactly the same way as other spinach and the plants stand well without When a vegetable plant starts flowering and forming seeds, often prematurely, making the crop unusable – salad leaves may turn bitter and root crops fail to swell. Adverse weather or changes in day length can cause bolting in a wide range of vegetables, including lettuces, onions , carrots and otheer root crops.
Fast growing
Spinach ‘Missouri’ is a fast-growing leafy Biennials are plants that complete their life cycle over the course of two years. In the first year, biennials typically produce leaves and roots but no flowers. In the second year, they flower and produce seeds before dying. Some common biennials include foxgloves (Digitalis), honesty (Lunaria annua) and viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare).
Perfect to grow in the kitchen
The British-bred Pak choi ‘Summer Breeze’ is noted for its short and compact growth - an ideal size for the kitchen – together with its good heart, its prolific production of tender leaves and stems, and the fact that it stands well and rarely bolts. ‘Summer Breeze’ germinates well, and is also resistant to bacterial soft rot and white rust. Grows well even in our summers. Hardiness rating: H3.
Iceberg type lettuce
Lactuca sativa ‘Sioux’ is a leafy biennial usually grown as an annual. This robust crisphead (iceberg type) lettuce has smooth, crisp, red-tinted leaves and a green heart. This Gardeners often use the word variety when referring to a specific plant, but the correct botanical term is 'cultivar'. Whichever word you use, it means a distinctive plant or plants, given a specific cultivar name and usually bred to enhance certain characteristics, such as flower or fruit size, colour, flavour or fragrance, plant size, hardiness, disease resistance, etc. Additionally, it is worth knowing that, botanically, variety has another meaning - it refers to a naturally-occurring distinct plant that only has slight differences in its looks. For example, Malva alcea var. fastigiata differs from typical plants by having an upright habit.
Add to your salads
The bright, prettily cut and curled foliage looks good in the garden and is a valuable bitter addition to salads. If the taste of Endive ‘Wallone’ is a little too bitter for you, sauté it gently (don’t overdo it), or use it for soup. ‘Wallone’ is unusually vigorous and makes an especially large plant, it can be grown naturally and can also be blanched: simply upturn a dinner plate over the centre of the plant. It can also be used for baby greens. H3.
Deep colour
Chicory (radicchio) ‘Palla Rossa’ is another one of those veggies that has moved from the speciality greengrocer, to the supermarket to the allotment – although 30 years ago it was also used in Kew’s spring bedding, with dark blue Iris histrioides ‘Major’, as I recall. Deeply bronzed heads look great in the garden, strip away the outer leaves for a burgundy and white heart. Simmer in a little milk if the bitterness is too much for you, or oil well and cook on the barbecue. Hardiness rating: H4.
Super tasty
Curly kale (borecole) ‘Reflex’ is an impressive curly green kale, its fresh, rich and slightly bluish colouring is very attractive in the garden and tasty and nutritious on the table. Sown from April onwards, it has the additional advantage of a very long harvest window, extending into spring from a summer sowing, and even in the coldest conditions the foliage retains its colouring well. Each individual plant produces an exceptional crop so you need fewer plants compared with older varieties. Hardiness rating: H5.
One of the best
One of my favourite ornamental vegetables, the super-curly reddish purple foliage of curly kale (borecole) ‘redbor’ looks wonderful for many months at a stretch and steams well in the kitchen too. It produces new leaves over a very long period. Sow from April to June for planting from May to July and cropping from September through the winter; or sow even earlier for use as a summer foliage plant, although early-sown plants may need staking in winter. One of the best of all ornamental vegetables. Hardiness rating: H5.
Bright colours
This invaluable mixture now contains plants with stems in yellow, gold, orange, pink, violet, green, white, and red plus a few with stripes. The foliage on the paler types of Chard ‘Bright Lights’ tends to be green, that of plants with darker stems tends towards bronze tints. When intended for ornamental combinations A seedling is a young plant grown from seed.
Strong flavour
Chard ‘Fordhook Giant’ is a strong, vigorous and very productive dark green and leafy swiss chard with crisp white stems and a strong, earthy flavour. If sown in July, leaves can be harvested in the winter months through until March. A heritage variety introduced in 1934. Hardiness rating: H3.
