Perennial Veggies

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

...I had some runner beans come up from last year's roots and they are covered with blossoms and beans (the plants actually look better than they did last year). ...

Me too! My runner beans have reached the top of the arbor and are covered with flowers. I tried one of the flowers and it tastes beany.

[Jeannine Anne]

Elizabeth, just a thought. If you want a particular rhubarb you may be better off getting a root. Seeds have a habit of not coming true. You will still get rhubarb but it may not be like the parent plant. You may get a varied lot of plants from seed.

XX Jeannine

[Elizabeth]

Hi Jeannine, It would sure be easier that's for sure, but rhubarb can be iffy as a long term perennial in So California as it can't go dormant properly and the roots rot. The longest I have had one last is into the 3rd spring, but it died over that summer. Some suggest you don't even try growing it here, others say go with seeds, especially of varieties that you can harvest the first year (like Glaskins Perpetual). My hubby sometimes has kidney stone issues so I wanted to get a low oxalic variety and Glaskins is the one that is always mentioned. I have wasted too much money on roots that die before I get a harvest so it's looking like seeds or nothing as far as rhubarb goes for me from here on. If I can get them to last a couple of years I will be pleased, but it may be that I will have to grow them as an annual (sigh). I hope the seeds some out fairly true as I would really like the low oxalic acid trait. I may have to just plant a bunch at a time to be sure I get enough low acid plants - if I plant too many...oh well, I'll just have to make more pies and preserves.

[Jeannine Anne]

Thank you Elizabeth, it never entered my head about the weather and how interesting to learn that. Now you have my brain working overtime..in pots maybe then fridged for the winter. Does very gentle harvesting help, you know the old English saying don't pull rhubarb after June as it need the strength from the stalks to go into the tuber otherwise it will weaken.. what a challenge.

Good luck, I cannot imagine life without rhubarb.

I grew mine my current plants from seed, it was seed I brought with me from mu UK garden after spending 9 years there.

Good Luck

XX Jeannine

An extra thought, what about lifting the tubers as you would dahlias and fridging them for a while.

[Elizabeth]

I know we have a fantastic climate here, but it does create some gardening challenges When I read most garden books, magazines and seed packets I often have to shift planting times and sometimes methods. A lot of the things you probably grow in the spring and summer have to be fall planted and late winter harvested here to do really well and avoid bolting and disease (brassicas, peas, lettuce, carrots, beets and stuff). I have a couple Southern California specific garden books that help, but I'm always wanting to try things outside of their recommendations...like growing rhubarb, parsnips, and even melons here in the marine layer zone so I see what I can get away with by trial and error.

From past experience it seems to be the extended summer warmth combined with the lack of winter cold that does the rhubarb in, so I'm not sure your idea would work, but I might try it with some roots of particularly nice ones if they seem hardy enough to lift in the Fall. My poor family, if it's not parsnips and rutabagas, it's flower bulbs, and now maybe rhubarb roots hogging up fridge crispers!

Even if I have to replant rhubarb each year there are definite benefits to gardening here...I have a couple of tomato plants out there that I started from seed last August 1st that are producing again after taking a short winter break....perennial tomatoes, now we're talking!

[plainolebill]

Has anyone grown scorzena/black salsify - it's supposedly a perennial? I planted some a few days ago in a large container. I hope it will make some size before winter.

[Jeannine Anne]

Yes, I have scorzone and salsift growing. Scorzona is perennial but not salsify.

It comes up looking like grass.

XX Jeannine

[plainolebill]

Thanks Jeannine, The salsify is up and I can confirm it looks like grass.

[Jeannine Anne]

Funny I was just typing and lost the thread...

I was saying..

Bill, the one youhave is scorzona not salsify, it is called black salsify as it looks the same othjer than the colour of the roots, scorzona are black, salsify is white.

They are similar but also quite different.

Salsify is not perennial but your one is.

You can also eat the leaves through the winter and in the spring you can eat the flowers.

Usually one would plant them much earlier, I do mine whern I do my parsnips in the early spring but is is OK as the beauty of them is that of the roots are not big enough after one seasons growth just leave them in till the next year.

They are fiddly to prepare but are hardy plants and taste good.

XX Jeannine

[plainolebill]

Jeannine, we planted some salsify as well and that was what I was referring to, the scorzena isn't up yet. My wife found some salsify growing wild and harvested the seed. The winters here are wet and cool but not extremely cold usually, so maybe we can get some roots before they bolt? Are the tops of salsify edible too?

Thanks, Bill

[Jeannine Anne]

I lost all my notes about my perennial garden when my laptop died and I had to give up me community garden when my husbands illness got much worse so I lost my plants too. I am back to square one and trying to rebuild a perennial bed at home now. I just found this old post which fortunately I had saved info on so I am bumping it.

I am starting from scratch again, I hope some of the original posters are around and some new ones join in.

I have Daubenton Kale growing again and I have just 1 Nine Star perennial cauli plant on the go but a few more seeds are on the way to me. I still have Eeuwig Moes, I have new rhubarb planted, and last year I actually had runner beans grow from the tubers left in the ground.

I need to start collecting all my leeks and various onions again plus my fave shallots.

So pleased I found this old thread, it will help a lot to get going again

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Jeannine Anne

Thank you Elizabeth, it never entered my head about the weather and how interesting to learn that. Now you have my brain working overtime..in pots maybe then fridged for the winter. Does very gentle harvesting help, you know the old English saying don't pull rhubarb after June as it need the strength from the stalks to go into the tuber otherwise it will weaken.. what a challenge.

Good luck, I cannot imagine life without rhubarb.

I grew mine my current plants from seed, it was seed I brought with me from mu UK garden after spending 9 years there.

Good Luck

XX Jeannine

An extra thought, what about lifting the tubers as you would dahlias and fridging them for a while.

I've been considering the lifting idea. Mom is from northern MN so I grew up eating a lot of rhubarb in CO and when we would visit relatives in MN.

[aftermidnight]

Jeannine, have you had any experience growing Sea Kale? I grew from seed last year, I only kept 5 and gave the rest away, the 5 plants came through the winter just fine but they will still be too small to harvest anything from them this year. I attempted Skirret, gave most of the plants away but lost almost the rest, they dried out while I was away. I ended up saving a couple of plants but at the moment they're pretty pitiful looking, I'll nurse them along and see what happens . If not I still have some seed left.

I planted 5 Broome Longkeeper potato onions this spring so I'm hoping they will produce for me, these are now near impossible to find so have my fingers crossed. I have a couple of top setting varieties, Catawissa and McCullar's White, still looking for Fleener’s, it seems to be hard to find too.

I'm growing 3 different varieties of Yacon this year, all in tubs as I have run out of space in my veggie garden which isn't that big. So far I have 12 tomato plants and a couple of dozen bean varieties taking up most of the space, I'm mostly interested in growing heirloom varieties but I do have a few that aren't.

Last year I grew over 40 varieties of beans ( my main interest) mostly pole types, some were only samples in tubs but managed to get a fair amount of seed from them. Some were from the UK, like the white seeded Cherokee Trail of Tears, Barry Island, District Nurse, Mrs, Fortune's and I just received a few Bridgewater in the mail, if I can find a bare bit of earth I'll put up another pole. Two pole beans I'd love to be able to find are 'Sarah's Old Fashioned Black' and 'Bob And Mary' as these two were grown on Vancouver Island in the past. The HSL in the UK has them but I think they are not offered often, besides you have to be a member .

Annette

[coldframer]

Do you have a seed source for these plants?

[aftermidnight]

coldframer, I got mine from different sources, Sea Kale and Skirret seed from Restoration Seeds, Yacon from Peace Seedlings and a trade. I also grew Oca and Crosne which I picked up at a Seedy Sunday. The onions in a trade. Cultivariable has a large selection Yacon and other tubers too.

Annette