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I had a set of artichokes I grow from seeds.  But the purple ones did not survive winter 2010-11.  -16 was too much for them.   One green one survived.

Mine were in my heated propagator for about three weeks before I got some movement, I then had them on the kitchen window to acclimatise a bit before moving them to my (now!) frost free greenhouse. Interestingly, when I went in to water today another crop of seedlings had come up! So I can't work out if I was growing them too hot, or they have a really long germination time, or was it the higher light levels they preferred? Anyway, I now have plenty of seedlings so I will have to see how hardy they turn out to be...perhaps I was mollycoddling them too much! ;D

Little beauties are up already. Yipee!

x sunloving

I planted mine outside yesterday  ;D..in rain.. ::) I got fed up with lack of room in GH's and had to start shifting plants outside. At least they get well watered now.. ::)

Quote from: artichoke on April 21, 2012, 09:57:09
I have grown artichokes for years and years, from offshoots of bigger plants and from seed, but I have never achieved those gigantic heads we can buy, grown in Brittany.

Does anyone know the variety? And where I could get the seeds? I love the tender little buds but also hanker after the giants.

Here in Britanny the variety is Vert globe, or Green globe. That is the variety I planted from seed - last year I got a very tiny artichoke as it was just a baby plant! but it did resemble the big Breton artichokes, which are what I get on my main plant. The "Violet" ones are the Italisn types, that you tend to trim and slice and cook in dishes rather than for eating on their own. I now have two of those too  ;D  I love artichokes.

For those who said that they had trouble surviving winter, put some straw or manure around them in really cold weather. Even if they partially die off, they are almost sure to come back in spring, here they are treated very roughly and always come back. They are very hardy.

Thanks for answering my question, antipodes, but I am still puzzled as I have green globe and they never look quite like the Breton ones I so admire - something about the lovely flat, neat edges to the sepals, and the gargantuan size. Maybe I should feed mine better....and also plant out offsets from the best.