Anyone grow this? The description in the Chiltern Seeds catalogue makes
it sound tremendous but that's true of a lot of their seeds :-)

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 17:55 +0000 (GMT), (Steve
Harris) wrote:

Anyone grow this? The description in the Chiltern Seeds catalogue makes
it sound tremendous but that's true of a lot of their seeds :-)

Also known as tree spinach. I grew some this year, from seed
purchased on a whim (as one does) from a stall at a garden show. It
went up to about 5 feet as advertised. Quite attractive with its very
colourful foliage but may not have thrived as well in the pot that I
grew it in as it would have in a bed. I never got round to eating any
this year and it is still sitting in the yard, recently gone to seed -
I must go out and see if there is any left to collect so that I can
give it a better go next year. The problem with growing spinach-like
leaves is that there is a critical mass below which it isn't worth
bothering to harvest and cook them. Although you could probably
continue to harvest new leaves from these plants throughout the season
(it went for a long time before going to seed), I don't think a single
magentaspreen will ever yield enough for a family meal unless you cut
the whole plant. You can apparently also eat them as a salad leaf,
which might be a more practical use for a single plant, but we didn't
do that either.
--
Stuart Baldwin
news\at/boxatrix\dot/co\dot/uk

Thanks. I was thinking of it mainly as an ornamental. Five foot of red
in a season is quite unusual.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 11:28 +0000 (GMT), (Steve
Harris) wrote:

Thanks. I was thinking of it mainly as an ornamental. Five foot of red
in a season is quite unusual.

The leaves are never entirely red but have quite a lot of magenta
colouring at the stem end. I would think they would make an
interesting backdrop to a border. Individual plants go straight up
and don't get very bushy (or at least mine didn't) so you'd need a few
to make any impact. I have read that you can let them go to seed for
continuity as they are easy to pull up when they germinate in the
wrong place, but you'd better get a second opinion on that from
someone with practical experience!
--
Stuart Baldwin
news\at/boxatrix\dot/co\dot/uk