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Wonderful Salad Plants

There's more to salad than just lettuce! We've found quite a few other easy salad plants over the years that taste great.

People often get in touch wanting to buy seeds as gifts. We think the salads are ideal for this- we offer a Salad Collection gift pack with a nice selection of different varieties.

We've always been a bit wary of some of the 'unusual edibles' people would have you try, but all those we list here are genuinely nice and really deserve a wider audience.

Note: Dark Green on the calendars = usual sowing & harvest time. (Pale Green = alternatives / extensions)



plant pictureplant picture

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. Originally from North America, it has been naturalised in Europe since 1749.


Small screen: Turn your device sideways to view sowing calendar.



= normal sowing & harvest time = also possible depending on conditions

1g (hundreds of seeds!), organic £

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Agretti or Salsola

Agretti (aka Salsola) has a beautiful 'candelabra' shape and crisp leaves. The whole plant is simply gathered in bunches when small , or the tips can be taken from bigger plants. Raw, it makes a really good addition to salads, slightly salty and crunchy, it's also delicious sautéd in olive oil with garlic, or steamed & served as a side vegetable.

Well known in Italy, but also popular in Japan where it is put in soups, stir-fries and spring rolls. An easy plant to grow, and a great addition to the vegetable garden.

Although the plants do get bigger later on, we think it is better to sow quite a lot and harvest young, so we give you quite a lot of seeds in the packet.

Growing it is easy. Germination is always a bit piecemeal because they are not 'proper' seeds, being actually little plants rolled up in a ball. Too much heat actually reduces germination - so sow early undercover , or outdoors later in the spring.

Nice both cooked & raw, easy.

100 seed, organic- £

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plant picture 'Belleville' Leaf Sorrel

We would really encourage you to try this rather fine vegetable. Very easy to grow, producing clumps of pale green leaves with a good sharp lemon flavour - great in salads, as a lettuce substitute in sandwiches (doesn't go limp) and also very good cooked in soups and sauces.

One of the earliest green crops to start in spring and perennial - once you've got a clump going it needs no attention other than when you want to eat it. Hardy, early salad. Lemony!

Hardy, early salad or cooking leaf green, very easy to grow.

about 1000 seed £

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plant picture 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 seed, organic £

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plant picture 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 (sorry, it's incredibly rare) , organic £

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plant pictureplant pictureMinutina (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 £

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plant picture 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

approx 50 seed £

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'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 £

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'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.

many seed £

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plant picture 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 £

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plant picture'Golden Frills' salad mustard-kale

A whole new class of vegetable here – a unique salad leaf from a cross between a kale and mustard. 

The plants make large but delicately lacey leaves with a golden-green colour, and a sweet, but only slightly spicy flavour.

It goes well in salads as the lacey leaves add a delicate bit of ‘zing’. Can also be cooked as a green.

Great new salad ingredient .

approx 200 seed, organic £

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When? Sow in early spring or after midsummer for best results

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plant picture'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 £

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plant picture '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.

hundreds of seed £

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plant picture '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, organic £

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= normal sowing & harvest time = also possible depending on conditions



plant picture 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 £

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Horn of Plenty / Doucette d’Algiers

plant pictureA 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”.

100 seed, organic £

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plant pictureRed Orach

Orach or Mountain Spinach grows quickly early in the year, supplying large tender heart-shaped leaves for salad, or it is delicious cooked. This variety has deep red leaves that look great in the garden and on the table.

You sow the seed from May onwards, for harvest over the summer.The plants grow to 1m tall (looking very pretty) , but are better picked when smaller as they are nice and tender when young.

This unusual plant makes both small black and larger tan seeds; sometimes we may pack one or the other, or both as a mix - but all give the same resulting plants so do not be alarmed when you open your packet!

about 100 seed, organic £

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Small screen: Turn your device sideways to view sowing calendar.



= normal sowing & harvest time = also possible depending on conditions




~ CRESS for salad or cooking ~

There are two slightly different plants called 'Cress'. One is for sowing in Spring, and one for sowing in Autumn.



Garden Cress, for Spring Sowing:

plant pictureplant picture'Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled' Cress

A fun summer crop that looks pretty in the garden and really lifts a green salad.

This variety was bred for its uniquely ruffled leaves which also look lovely on the plate. It also gives a nice 'bite' to the flavour of a salad, especially with a garlic dressing.

This species (Lepidium sativum) is the cress of 'mustard and cress' that you may have sprouted as a child.

Spicy salad for summer use, now almost extinct, we produce just a few packets whenever we can fit it in.

400 seed, organic £

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  When? Sow from early to mid spring, or try early autumn under cover - summer sowings will run straight to seed.

Small screen: Turn your device sideways to view sowing calendar.



= normal sowing & harvest time = also possible depending on conditions



Cold-resistant, Autumn-sown Land Cress:

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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

1.5g of seed, organic (lots) - £

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Small screen: Turn your device sideways to view sowing calendar.



= normal sowing & harvest time = also possible depending on conditions