jane wrote in message
...
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:40:17 +0100, "anne"
wrote:

~
~jane wrote in message
...
~ On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 10:04:10 +0100, Janet Tweedy
~ wrote:
~
~ ~
~ ~Someone asked about buying vegetable plants.
~ ~This site seems to be a parent company supplying vegetable plants to
~ ~garden centres etc.
~ ~The range seems to be organic if that's any help. Though they don't
list
~ ~the range they do list the garden centres and nurseries that they
~ ~supply.
~
~ not sure they're 100% organic, unless it's the garden centre near me
~ that adds blue slug pellets...
~
~ But they are good, especially for getting good modern varieties. If it
~ hadn't been for them, I'd never have found the extremely disease and
~ bolt resistant (and tasty!) leek variety I now grow from seed.
~
~ ~http://www.gardenerskitchen.co.uk/index.htm
~
~
~Which is?

Verina F1. I get it from Unwin's as Autumn Mammoth Verina. It's not
found in shops - one of their mail-order only varieties. It's labelled
as rust-resistant (to which I'd say it gets rust, just not as badly as
Musselburgh) and good for organic gardening. I grew a patch of these
and one of Musselburgh next to each other a couple of years ago, and
the Musselburghs all bolted by early spring, and the Verinas were
fine.

I pulled one two days ago that was 2" in diameter at the base and a
foot tall before the leaves start to spread, with very little bulbing
and which may have started to bolt inside but not obviously from the
outside. I'm pulling the rest this weekend, just cos I need the bed.

Downside is Unwin's still haven't got into the 21st century and don't
have anything online apart from a 'find a stockist' page.
~
~I've had trouble with leeks two years running now, same variety each time
~and supposed to be very hardy, but they tended to rot with the wet and
~frost. The soil was very cold, wet clay though. I've since moved and have
~completely different soil this time - dry, stoney stuff.

Mine's dry and stony too. They don't seem bothered by it. Carrots are
hell to grow, though!


Thanks!

Musselburgh is the variety I've been growing aswell. Yes carrots are a pain,
but the odd shapes that turn up make them worth growing just for the laugh
maybe ;-)




--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!