Good King Henry

[SueSteve]

After seeing a plant called Good King Henry in cottage style gardens in Wales, Black Country Museum and Weald and Downland museum I decided that it might be nice to grow, but I have never seen the seed or plant until now.
I bought a plant at a Spring Garden Fayre a couple of weeeks ago for£2.
I dont know very much about it, except it can be used as a spinach substitute.
Does anyone else grow it?
What conditions does it like? Should one plant be enough for a meals worth of leaves? Any info welcomed.
Thanks,
Sue
(p.s. DH bought hops, so I will have to investigate that sometime)

[SueSteve]

[Uncle Joshua]

These may help....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Henry

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Chenopodium+bonus-henricus

[SueSteve]

Thanks Mick.
Sue

[jennym]

I  grow Good King Henry. On the heavy clay soil here, it forms a lowish (less than a foot high) mound, about 2  - 3 ft diameter. You eat the leaves when they are really young. One plant will give you more than one meal, it's ok, but not a terribly exciting tatse. The one big advantage is that it comes up year after year and is relatively free from pests and diseases. If you leave it until the leaves are older they can be a bit bitter, tough and chewy.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Chiltern seeds have it.

[Si]

It grows in all the hedgerows down here in Bucks.

[SueSteve]

Hi,
Thanks for the replies.
We too have a type of chenopodicae growing wild around here, but the GKH that I have bought is different to the wil one.
Thanks for the info on Chiltern seeds Robert. I see they sell sea foam (minature trees for dh railway!!).
Thanks Jennym, I will pick the leaves when they are young.

[cleo]

I`m growing it(well I have sown some seeds) for the first time in over 15 years. I used to have it on one of my allotments up in Leeds-I didn`t really rate it much but I thought I`d try again to see if my opinion had changed

[Mouseski]

We find it useful because it comes up before most other leaves, but does get tougher later on in the season.

[pigeonseed]

I sowed this but it didnt take. Then you read about people calling it a weed and digging it up. what did I do wrong?  ;)

[Barnowl]

It takes ages to germinate - I had no luck last year and queried this with Chiltern Seeds who wrote back as follows...

"With regard to the Good King Henry, these should be started off in the warmth and, as with all Chenopodiaceae, germination is likely to be slow and irregular and could take many months.   We would certainly never advise sowing the seeds directly into the ground as we feel the extremely high losses that can be expected are far too high and we would recommend starting these off indoors in seed trays/pots."

....and kindly sent me soem replacement seeds of which I've managed to germinate a few this year (by giving them heat and being more patient).

[saddad]

We set some seed last year and now have a respectable row... haven't eaten any yet. Apparently you can force the new shoots for an even earlier crop.. a bit like Asparagus but it would probably exhaust the young plants ....
8)

[pigeonseed]

That'll be where I went wrong then - I sowed them direct. Ah well. Let me know how tasty they are and if they're good, I might be tempted to have another go next year!

[saddad]

I've nibbled a few raw bits but I'm not impressed, will try some cooked after the open day... it is there for the sod factor like last years paracress!
;D

[bennettsleg]

Also known as/is a close relative to Fat Hen. Which grows rampant on my plot and is springing up all over the place as we speak.  Good.  As it's so small we tend to use it as an herb instead of a vegetable.  I've even manged to pursuade a friend to eat some raw leaves to get an idea of the green, peppery, lemony flavour.  Lovely stuff.