VEGETABLE SEEDS Aubergines Beans - French Beans - Runner Beetroot Broad Beans Broccoli & Rapini Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Carrots Celery, & Celeriac Chilli Peppers Courgettes & Summer Squash Cucumbers, Gherkins & suchlike things Fennel Flowers Grains Herbs Kale Kohl Rabi Leaf Greens for Cooking Leeks Lettuces Melons & Watermelons Mustard Greens ( for cooking) Onions - spring sowing Onions - overwintering Onions - special types Oriental Greens for cooking & salads Parsnips Peas Pumpkins & Winter Squash Radishes (salad, & cooking types) Root Parsley Salad Vegetables Sweet Corn Swedes Sweet Peppers Tomatoes : Bush Types Tomatoes : Vines - Cherries Tomatoes : Vines - Larger Tomatoes : New Centiflor types Tomatilloes & Groundcherries Turnips Unusual Tubers: Oca & Yacon

~ LETTUCE Seed ~

We are looking in particular for new colours and textures to add to your salads, but of course with bolt-resistance and good flavour as well.

People sometimes think only of lettuce for their salads, and we have some really good ones here. But there are many other plants that are equally nice and just as easy to grow - so check the rest of the catalogue for things like:

• the Endive - useful when the lettuce hasn't started yet,
• Mizuna (in the Oriental Vegetables section) which is both pretty & delicious,
• and the Land Cress makes an interesting all year round addition to your salads.
• The Salsola Soda is very nice raw in salads,
• and the West Indian Gherkin in the Cucurbits section is also a prolific salad-ingredient producer.

Anyways, on to the lettuces! We've listed them by the types of head they make.

Sow short rows often, to keep a good supply through the season, and not be overwhelmed.
If you end up with too many, make lettuce soup!

(Note: If you really can't decide which to get, at the very bottom is our Secret Mix of lettuces.)

~ Crisphead Lettuces ~

'Jack Ice'
This fantastic lettuce has dark green, crisp iceberg leaves forming a loose rosette, with spiky, toothed edges. It is very resistant to disease and cold weather.

Does well sown in spring/summer but also good for use as a winter lettuce, as it is tolerant of lower light levels.

Toothed crisp leaves

Order LeJa - 250 seed £1.84

It stands well for a long time - making big tight heads quickly, and is nice and sweet, with good tolerance of cold and wet conditions.

Dark red iceberg, very pretty

Order LeRi - 250 seed £1.92

'Reine des Glaces'
This has been hugely popular since we first added it to the list. The name means 'Queen of the Ices' and it is a fantastic crisphead lettuce - green tightly wrapped crisp iceberg heads, with incredibly frilly & toothed leaves around them. This one has been a real attention getter in the garden every summer.

Actually about 200 years old, this strain has recently been reselected for home gardeners, and the seed we have is really vigorous.

Here in the picture it is being modelled by our neighbour Mika, who was 13 at the time.

It has had fantastic feedback from all over the country, but offering it to you is difficult bceause it makes very little seed. (Right now there's only about 5lb of seed in total anywhere on the planet!)

So we sometimes struggle to keep it available to you all, as everyone seems to want it in increasing numbers every year. Our solution for 2012 has been to pack it up in smaller amounts - which we normally don't like doing - but 150 seed should give you a decent crop of lettuce if you start them in trays and prick them out when bigger. Save your own seed for next year using the instructions supplied!

Toothed iceberg, incredible, fantastic lettuce but rare seed in very short supply. Can also be grown as a Winter Lettuce.

Order LeRG - small packet of 0.5g approx 150 seed £2.26

~ Openhead Lettuces ~

Really Red Deer Tongue
An amazing lettuce that is rarely available. This has large rosettes of long pointy leaves, & it is such a dark red that it appears almost black in the early morning light.

Red Deer Tongue is a traditional variety, and this special strain has been recently re-bred and reselected for really super-dark leaves. It is an incredible sight in the garden or the salad bowl - try growing it next to a bright yellow one or green one for a stunning contrast.

Order LeRR - 250 seed £1.79

'Australian Yellowleaf'

We've had lots of really nice feedback from people on this one, including one person who was very happy but said we need to stress the size of it more - it outgrew their 40" wide raised bed despite being beheaded several times! Actually, ours don't usually get that big, but then we do eat a lot of salad . . .

Large bright yellow loosehead.

Order LeAY - 250 seed £1.84

Optima

Optima is a special find. It has a good butterhead leaves,  but unusually for this type, also has really crunchy leaf ribs, so a single leaf provides this amazing contrast of textures in your salad.

It was a complete star in our 2008 trials - growing really well despite the cold and wet.

Order LeOP - 250 seed £1.77

~ Oakleaf Lettuces ~

'Emerald Oak' First-Early Oakleaf
A first-early, cool-weather oakleaf lettuce which grows quickly from an early spring sowing.

Semi-heading, it quickly makes small loose green ruffled heads that are tasty & crunchy, the right size for 1 or 2 people.

A good variety for the start of the season : sow several times in succession until the weather warms up.

Order LeEm - 250 seed £1.89

Flashy Butter Oak
This pretty lettuce is a big, vigorous oakleaf type, with fantastic markings - the large pale green leaves are patched all over with dark red splashes.

It is ideal for picking a few leaves at a time, for attractive and tasty salads. One that we always include in our own sowings for the kitchen.

Absolutely stunning - and tastes great too.

Order LeFB - 250 seed £1.94

~ Butterhead (tender-leaf) Lettuces ~

Grandpa Admire's Lettuce
A very pretty butterhead (tender leaf type) from the 1800's. Loose heads of pale green leaves, washed with two shades of bronze and red.

George Admire was born in 1822, and his lettuce was kept going by the family until 1977 when his last relative, 90yr-old Cloe Lowry, gave some to a seed-saving organisation. Slow to bolt, tender even in heat – with rave reviews from everyone.

Stunning bicolour butterhead

Order LeGA - 250 seed £1.90

~ Cos Type Lettuces ~
'Cos' is the name for lettuces with upright heads of crispy leaves. They don't make a tight ball,
so you can take leaves off a few at a time as you need them.

'Devils Tongue'
Here is a great new, large, upright lettuce with glowing red/purple oval leaves.

It was very quick to develop, 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.

This is one of the few lettuces that has both white and brown seeds, so don’t panic when you see them mixed in the packet!

Modelled here by Paul M.

Order LeDT - 300 seed £1.89

Crisp Mint

A unique colour and shape – it makes a nice display in the garden, and we thought it was particularly tasty and crunchy in salads and sandwiches.

Order LECM - 300 seed  £1.84

'Mortons Secret Mix' VERY MIXED LETTUCES
For those of you who want something new and exciting, we are offering this very mixed selection of lettuces.

This contains seed from all of Frank & Karen's current lettuce breeding programmes. A huge diversity of forms and shapes, and to be clear this is NOT just all our seed mixed up, but different varieties you won't get elsewhere.

Its a secret because much of this great seed has yet to be named or released; but you can try it now in this special mix, years before anyone else can grow it.

For 2013 we have added even more varieties to the original mixture, to extend the range of colours and types even further.

Reds, greens, brights, darks, splashes, blushes, crisps, butters, leafs, heads, and tongues. Some varieties soon to be famous? You might be among the first to find out.

Order LeSM - 300 seed £2.71

~ Winter Lettuce Seed ~

What's this you ask? Winter lettuce are simply very-cold-hardy strains, selected for sowing after mid-summer,
for harvest in autumn - and with a bit of protection, on into winter. Ideal if you have a polytunnel and want winter salads.

'Winter Marvel'
We have been trying out all sorts of different ways of getting more salads overwinter, and this lettuce always does very well.

It is a traditional French variety chosen specifically for sowing in late summer and early autumn. It is quite hardy and will do very nicely in an unheated polytunnel or greenhouse, providing salads in winter and spring when they’re most appreciated.

It is remarkably cold-resistant and carried on in the polytunnel long after other varieties had given up!

Photo taken 28th February in an unheated polytunnel in Wales.

Order LeWM - 300 seed £1.98

These lettuce, which are already listed above in the normal lettuce section, are excellent winter lettuce as well as being suited to sowing at other times of year.

Saving Lettuce Seed:

Here is volunteer Stephanie picking some seed from the Australian Yellowleaf.

Alternatively, on the right, you can see Ben has cut whole heads from the plants and let them dry, and is then stomping on them to knock the seeds out.