A fantastic looking ornamental chard that's ideal for adding a splash of colour to your vegetable plot or patio containers. With dark green and bronze leaves and rainbow stems ranging from white and orange-yellow through to pinky red and purple, it is a real stunner, as well as being delicious to eat and packed full of vitamins, minerals and healthy fibre. Cropping prolifically over a long season, it is a true 'cut and come again' variety; the leaves will regenerate 1-2 weeks after harvesting the whole plant (leaving 2.5-5cm base), or remove just the outer leaves and allow the heart to grow on. The plants are robust enough to withstand light frosts and will continue to give good quality leaves until the colder winter weather sets in. Harvest from July to November and if protected over winter will produce an early spring crop. This versatile veg has a lovely mild, sweet flavour when picked as baby leaves for salads and garnishes, becoming slightly bitter when left to mature and delicious when lightly steamed or stir-fried to retain colour, flavour and nutrients. There will be plenty to pick all through the season, so any excess can be blanched and packed in an airtight bag for the freezer, where it will store well for up to a year. Fully deserving its coveted RHS Award of Garden Merit, you can be sure that this is a proven garden performer, guaranteed to be suitable for UK gardeners at every level of experience. You can therefore plant this in the garden with confidence, enjoying an excellent harvest of tasty chard. Supplied as 12 plug plants, ready to plant out once the risk of frost has passed, growing to 50cm in height and 40cm spread.
This exciting RHS AGM leaf beet, produces a rainbow of coloured stems that are crowned with large leaves of green or bronze. The flavour is deliciously mild and packed with nutritional content. Leaf Beet 'Bright Lights' can be harvested from mid-summer to late autumn, and after a normal winter, it will re-emerge to give an unbelievably early spring crop! Guaranteed lo brighten the vegetable patch, or why not grow this colourful swiss chard cultivar in ornamental borders. Height: 50cm (20). Spread: 40cm (16)
For ?midi size? ( for sq. metre gardening) and ?babyleaf? which commercial growers have expressed interest to add colour to supermarket packs.
Ready to harvest in just 60 days from sowing, these amazing, brightly coloured beet stems, have a mild flavour and are great for salads or steaming and are packed full of nutrients. Height: 50cm (20). Spread: 40cm (16).
The beautiful, broad golden stalks of Swiss Chard Bright Yellow are a striking and colourful addition to the vegetable garden and the flower border or containers. The sweet stalks can be steamed as a vegetable or, when young, eaten raw in salads. Swiss Chard Bright Yellow is slow to bolting and has good winter hardiness. Cropping from mid-summer to late autumn. After a normal winter, it will re-emerge to give an unbelievably early spring crop
Probably the best tasting Red Chard. The taste is mild, juicy and delicious with no harsh aftertastes unlike most Red Chards. Ideal for successional sowing through the spring and summer for both 'baby leaf' or as mature plants. High tolerance to downymildew
Gently wavy, dark green leaves boast prominent crimson stems that make a superb colour contrast and pleasing flavour. This vibrant vegetable can be harvested at all stages of maturity, giving each plant a long cropping period.
A rainbow mix of vibrant stem and leaf colours maintained as an Australian heirloom. An excellent value crop as the juicy, mild flavoured broad stems (chards), and the leaves (as spinach) can be eaten. Both are best steamed, but as baby leaves the stems and leaves can be added to salads. Decorative vegetable perfect for borders and containers
Enjoy this versatile and increasingly popular vegetable as salad leaves when young, or when more mature, the nutritious leaves can be steamed and used like spinach. The broad, white stems can be chopped and cooked like celery or used to add crunch to salads and stir fries. Harvest May-October.
Green Wave' resembles a perpetual spinach beet, but is more productive and with more slender, milder-tasting stems and leaves, which are delicious in salads and stir fries when young. Use mature leaves in the same way as chard and spinach. Stands in good condition without bolting.
A much more prolific form, Swiss Chard Lucullus produces an abundance of large, tasty leaves and wide, white mid-ribs. Cook the succulent mid-rib like asparagus and serve with melted butter. Easier, and some consider tastier, than spinach. If the plants of Swiss Chard Lucullus are left to flower, the flower stalks can be cooked and eaten like sprouting broccoli. Cropping from mid-summer to late autumn. After a normal winter, it will re-emerge to give an unbelievably early spring crop