I'm thinking about starting again with asparagus this year. Can anyone recommend suppliers and/or varieties? I bought 2 yr old crowns last time round and they did well but got swamped by weeds and were in the half of my plot that I gave up. I've seen some on ebay but it seems a bit early yet.
I grew some Convers colossal from seed and planted some Glenlim? from Marshalls... I'm sure there are better specialists but they were a present... :)
http://www.asparagus-in-kent.co.uk/
Purple Pacific and Convers Colossal are what I grow and I prefer the PP which is very tender even though the stems can get quite thick. They go green when you cook them.
Another thing I quite like is they are hard to see until you're up close so the 'help yourself' lot don't spot them :)
I looked at 2 varieties to spread my harvest season a little, cant remember off the top of my head. But......... I held off buying this year as I read an article in December that trials are coming to an end for an asparagus variety that crops May-Oct so I am holding out this year to see what happens. ;)
As Robert said for supplier - Asparagus in Kent and variety I have Ginglim and 2011 is year 3 so looking forward to a decent harvest ;D ;D
I grew Cito in the UK and was very very impressed with it. It cam very early and had a good window..
I have grown several over the years but this one was far superior to anything else |I had started.
XX Jeannine
We got our plants last year from the kent suppliers as Robert's link. The crowns were lovely and healthy - not in the least dried up like in the garden centre.
We planted them late spring and they all grew - no cutting last year....
I'm so looking forward to this year, our very own asparagus. Please please let them have come through the bad weather!
Alison
Modified to add we planted both Ginglim and Backlim varieties