~ LETTUCE Seed ~
We are looking for new colours & 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:
- Endive - useful when the lettuce hasn't started yet,
- Mizuna and other Oriental Greens are really quick and easy
- Land Cress makes an interesting all year round addition to your salads.
- Salsola Soda is very nice raw in salads
Anyways, on to the lettuces! We've listed them by the types of head they make.
Sowing Information
(Note: If you really can't decide which to get, at the very bottom is our Secret Mix of lettuces.)
~ Crisphead Lettuces ~
This are a familiar sort with crispy leaves , like an iceberg lettuce. They usually make a wrapped-up head, so it can be harder to take just a few leaves at a time.
Red Iceberg
A really showy variety - tight round heads wrapped in deep red leaves. Inside is bright green so you get two colours for the price of one.
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,now exceedingly rare, apologies for the small packet but they make very few seeds.
200 seeds, organic. £
Fairy Tales (aka "Posavka") - BOLT-RESISTANT
A large heading variety from Slovenia, making a tightly wrapped ball of crisp green leaves, the edges of which are just touched with a tinge of red.
It’s really pretty! But the most remarakble thing in our trials was how bolt-resistant it was, it didn't run to flower or get bitter in the very hot spells we had, even when all the other lettuces gave up.
The intensity of the red colouring will depend on night-time temperatures and so varies with the season.
400 seed £
Sowing Information
Normally sown in spring but reputedly it also has some cold resistance so worth trying as a winter lettuce in milder areas.
"Maximo" Giant Iceberg - HUMUNGOUS!
This is an extraordinarily large iceberg lettuce , with a huge loose head and easily-detached plate-sized outer leaves.
For amusement you can use a whole leaf as a fancy base to serve a salad - it will cover an entire plate. Thin to 70cm gaps between plants if you plan to let them get full-grown!
Huge but still tasty. Very rarely available; we only have 120grams of seed!
300 seeds £
Jack Ice
This fantastic lettuce has crisp iceberg leaves in a loose rosette, with spiky, toothed edges.
Excellent as a normal summer lettuce, but also it is very resistant to both disease and cold weather, in the photo you can see a closeup of it covered in snow in our garden!
Toothed crisp leaves, cold resistant.
250 seeds, organic. £
Sowing Information
Does well sown in spring/summer but also good for use as a winter lettuce, as it is tolerant of lower light levels.
Reine des Glaces HUGELY POPULAR
The name means 'Queen of the Ices' and it is a fantastic crisphead - green tightly wrapped iceberg heads, with incredibly frilly & toothed leaves. It’s a real attention getter in the garden every summer.
About 200 years old, this strain has recently been reselected for home gardeners, and the seed we have is really vigorous. Fantastic feedback from all over the country, everyone seems to want it in increasing numbers every year.
Toothed iceberg, incredible, fantastic lettuce. Can also be grown as a Winter Lettuce, the picture here shows it unearthed from the snow where it was growing high in the Pyrenees.
at least 250 seed , organic. £
Sowing Information
It doesn't produce a massive amount of seed, so we've had to give slightly smaller packets - but it will be plenty, especially if you start them in trays or modules. Save your own seed for next year using the instructions supplied!
~ Cos or Romaine Type Lettuces ~
'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.
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 if you see them mixed in the packet.
250 seeds (very rare!) £
"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 £
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 £
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 £
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.
330 seed £
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. £
~ Oakleaf Lettuces ~
These are lettuces with quite an open head, and wavy edges to their leaves. They add a lot of interest to a salad, and you can pick a few leaves at a time as needed.
'Emerald Oak' - EARLY
Such a lovely and popular lettuce - an early, cool-weather 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.
about 250 seeds £
Flashy Butter Oak
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.
at least 250 seeds £
~ Butterhead (tender-leaf) Lettuces ~
Butterhead lettuces have a softer texture, the opposite of an iceberg lettuce. They're all about flavour rather than crunch.
Optima - SPECIAL
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.
250 seeds, organic. £
VERY, VERY MIXED LETTUCES
For those of you who want something new and exciting, we are offering this very mixed selection of lettuces.
The Mortons' Secret Mix
It is hard to explain just how wonderful this lettuce mix is. It's always tremendously popular - every harvest sells out, no matter how much we grow.
It started with seed from all of Frank & Karen Morton's 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. This is incredibly popular, and quite rightly so - its a real bargain.
Reds, greens, brights, darks, splashes, blushes, butterheads, oakleafs, crispheads, and deer-tongue types. .. so many different lettuces.
250 seeds, organic. £
Frank & Karen have now retired and we are taking on maintenance of this incredible genepool on our farm in Wales.
Flaming Oakhearts Mix
Another amazing creation from Wild Garden Seeds’ lettuce programme, which we have taken on for further development. A whole mixed family of beautiful oak-leaved lettuces splashed with red.
Incredibly limited supply from our breeding stocks. 400 packets and then that's it!
200-250 seeds, organic. £
~ Winter Lettuce Seed ~
What's this you ask? Winter lettuce are simply cold-hardy varieties, so while you can sow them in spring as normal, they also do well sown 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.
Sowing Information
'Winter Marvel'
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.
Remarkably cold-resistant and carried on in the polytunnel long after other varieties had given up!
350 seeds £
Jack Ice
This fantastic lettuce has crisp iceberg leaves in a loose rosette, with spiky, toothed edges.
Excellent as a normal summer lettuce, but also it is very resistant to both disease and cold weather, in the photo you can see a closeup of it covered in snow in our garden!
Toothed crisp leaves, cold resistant.
250 seeds, organic. £
Sowing Information
Does well sown in spring/summer but also good for use as a winter lettuce, as it is tolerant of lower light levels.
Reine des Glaces HUGELY POPULAR
The name means 'Queen of the Ices' and it is a fantastic crisphead - green tightly wrapped iceberg heads, with incredibly frilly & toothed leaves. It’s a real attention getter in the garden every summer.
About 200 years old, this strain has recently been reselected for home gardeners, and the seed we have is really vigorous. Fantastic feedback from all over the country, everyone seems to want it in increasing numbers every year.
Toothed iceberg, incredible, fantastic lettuce. Can also be grown as a Winter Lettuce, the picture here shows it unearthed from the snow where it was growing high in the Pyrenees.
350 seed , organic. £
Sowing Information
It doesn't produce a massive amount of seed, so we've had to give slightly smaller packets - but it will be plenty, especially if you start them in trays or modules. Save your own seed for next year using the instructions supplied!
Saving Lettuce Seed:
Another way -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.
