Allotments 4 All

Sweet Pepper Mini Bell Chocolate

Plants grown from seed originally from Happy Green Shop. These are short, bushy plants with small snack sized fruit. Exact breeding origin is not clear. I forgot to take a picture so I'm using one I found online.

Cucumber Miniature White

I can't find any romantic origin story for this cucumber but here's a description:

Popular yellow-white miniature eating cucumber. Best eaten when fruits are less than 3" long. Mild sweet flavor, no need to peel. Productive vines rarely exceed 3' in length; suitable for container gardening.

I haven't had much luck growing cucumbers outside but this variety grows very well in a large container using a one metre obelisk for support. A firm favourite with my tortoise. Plants grown from seed originally from the Incredible Seed Library.

Hollyhock Halo Red

I can't find out much about this one. It's a selection from the Halo series. I like it because it isn't too tall and doesn't need staking, even in my windy seaside garden. It has beautiful, silky petals. I forgot to take my own picture so I've attached one I found online. I've also found it to be rust free unlike every other hollyhock I've tried here.

Plants were originally grown from Thompson and Morgan seed.

I'll start with my list, giving whatever information I can find, photos (if I remembered to take some!) and personal impressions.

Dierama Pulcherrimum Blackberry Bells, grown from seeds originally from Plant World Seeds. Very easy to grow, germinates easily but I recommend sowing immediately with fresh seed as it's a very good candidate for winter sowing. Once germinated, the seedlings look like little blades of grass. The downside is they can take a few years to flower, but I've found them trouble free in all the years I've grown them. Here's what say about it:

Family: Iridaceae
Common name: Angel's Fishing Rods,
Dierama pulcherrimum 'Blackberry Bells

This vigorous hybrid was bred here between 'Cosmos' and Dierama robustum, inheriting some of the darkness from the former flower, but with much larger, deep purple-maroon flared trumpets on very tall, strong springy stems, arising from thick, strong, blade-like leaves. This fabulous plant, coming almost 100% true from seed, makes a strong, solid clump as it matures over the years!

I have so far not included a description of tomato De Pinto and for Climbing French Bean, Ruth Bible.  Mainly because I forgot to take photos. 

Tatiana's tomatobase to the rescue. https://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/DePinto

"First offered in the Seed Savers 2001 Yearbook by Sharon Vadas-Arendt of Longmont, Colorado (CO VA S), who got seed from M. Schulyz of Monroe, Washington (WA SC M)." 

My seeds came from Sharon,  who literally saved this Italian family tomato from the de Pinto immigrant family to USA, from extinction, after nobody of that family carried on gardening. (Similar to her rescue of family bean 'Cousin Oliver' we had in the circle a while ago). Sharon grew and then offered these indeterminate tomato seeds far and wide, including in Seed Savers Exchange, the Heritage Seed Library equivalent in the USA.  It is a classic Italian family tomato, round, very slightly oblong, excellent flavour, smallish salad type that is equally suitable for tomato sauce and for freezing. 

Ruth Bible is an Appalachian bean, somewhat similar to Frank Barnett, but matures later.  Very high yielding and the seeds are not as a rule cut-short like FB.  My seed donor was Vetivert, who generously shared her packet.  The original source OS is MacMex, aka George Mc Laughlin of Oklahoma USA.  Here is an SSE article about George and his seedsaving experiences right from childhood.   https://seedsavers.org/stewardship-stories-george-mclaughlin/

George also hosts his own gardening and seedsaving group with a very informative entry about the Ruth Bible bean.  https://seedsavingnetwork.proboards.com/thread/309/notes-ruth-bible-pole-bean

Whoops - slight hiccup this evening ...

https://jerrasgarden.myshopify.com/cdn/shop/products/dragontonguemustard1.jpg?v=1675086784&width=2048

Markfield R, is your Dragon's Tongue like the one in this photo? There seem to be one or two possibilities, for example a rocket variety with that name too. This one is a mustard, although I'm not sure that that term doesn't cover quite a range of things.

That's great, Juliev. Thanks for the very helpful info on your seed sources. The Incredible Seed Library is new to me and does indeed seem incredible. It's difficult to know how they gather enough seeds to supply all takers or perhaps I've missed something. It's wonderful that they can succeed in such a worthwhile endeavour.

I've grown a variety called Montezuma's Red which came from HSL. I'm guessing that it's the same and the Red has been dropped at some point. I grew it as a semi so interested that you found it worked as dwarf. Lovely deep red seeds.

Great reporting on the taste test too.    It's interesting that Desert Spirit Landrace continues to be a bit grainy. Vital Seeds says that Buttercup and Oregon Homestead Sweetmeat were among the parents of the landrace and they're both good tasty varieties. I'm wondering where the less appealing texture comes from and why a more grainy variety was included. 

Tomatoes:
Garnet, Thompson and Morgan
Sunfired Flare, Vital Seeds, very pretty, grew well in the polytunnel.

Winter squash:
Desert Spirit Landrace, Vital Seeds and Seeds of Scotland

Sussex flax (linseed), originally from Real Seeds

Peas:
Mr Bound, Incredible Seed Library, tall variety, quite late to dry out
Boddington, Incredible Seed Library, tall variety

DFB:
Mor Kristin, Beans and Herbs
Montezuma, Incredible Seed Library. Listed as tall bush/semi climbers but I have grown them without support for two years and they didn't look any taller than their neighbours.
Wieringer Bohne, Beans and Herbs

CFB:
Bonne Bouche, Incredible Seed Library
Tiger Bean, Beans and Herbs
Montegusto, Thompson and Morgan

All the peas and beans listed were direct seeded and left to get on with it until harvest.
ps: I should probably add that precious seeds get a bit more TLC... 

Quote from: JanG on December 05, 2024, 16:44:12Did you detect any difference in flavour or texture in the different types? I guess they were fairly young when you ate them.

They were fairly similar, the smallest wasn't as dry as the other two but it was the last fruit to form.