Exhibition Varieties

A vast improvement on the older varieties. Calabrese Ironman F1 possesses the usual advantages of a hybrid - vigorous habit with excellent uniformity and high yields of larger than normal heads. Producing excellent quality, uniform dense heads and a very good dome shape. Harvest late June to November.

Cabbage Brunswick is a fine flavoured, popular old variety. Cold hardy and drought tolerant It can be sown early and grown to huge proportions but is more usually sown in March to May for harvesting August to October. Used in soups or stews, made into sauerkraut or coleslaw.

Cabbage ‘Wirosa F1' is a very useful early variety of savoy Cabbage, with finely blistered leaves and a vigorous plant habit. Reliable and frost hardy, the cycle plantation to harvest is around 160 days. It can be sown early under glass for the earliest harvests.

Kale 'Black Magic' is an improved Italian Black Kale, bred to be more tender with better flavour. The winter hardy plants more cold tolerant, vigorous and slower-to-bolt than other Italian kales. They form an easy-to-harvest rosette of very dark, savoyed leaves with a flavour that is rich and mild.

Until recently Cavolo Nero, or 'Tuscan Kale', was one of Italy's best kept secrets. Simply adored, especially in the north of Italy, it has been an essential fare of traditional dishes for centuries. Cavolo Nero can now be found in garden markets, specialist greengrocers and trendy restaurants throughout Europe.

Leek Winter Giant 3 is an extremely hardy leek, it will put up with blistering gales and frost without a pause. Harvest from October to March. The solid, long white stems are exhibition quality with an outstanding flavour.

'Hollow Crown' is one of the oldest varieties of parsnip, with probably still the best flavour of all, with a depth and richness unmatched by most other varieties. It has been grown since at least the 1850's and is still very popular among gardeners in the know.

Imagine, You’re reading the paper and suddenly your eye is drawn to a picture of this giant orange thing about the size of a truck with a guy half its size standing next to it grinning like a lunatic. “I’d like to grow one of those,” you think.

Looking exactly like fairy tale pumpkins in children’s storybooks, Musquée de Provence is a gorgeous French pumpkin that is one of the only pumpkins that is eaten raw. Sweet with a light crunch and typical nutty taste, the very fine-grained flesh is considered by many to be superior to any other.

'F1 Autumn Crown’ is a new butternut crossed with a Winter squash, Crown Prince F1, which produces the shape of one parent and the buff colour of the other. More importantly, it has inherited early ripening from Crown Prince, setting fruits at least a month before the previously available fastest butternuts.

Blocky, deeply ribbed and extremely bumpy, for most of the season they are a gorgeous dark green to charcoal black, but in autumn 'Futtsu Black Early' mature in a fascinating metamorphosis, to a grey-bloomed dusty orange. Harvest in the midst of their transformation for funky autumn displays or wait for them to ripen completely for maximum flavour, nutty and sweet with hints of chestnut.

This very old Italian Heirloom rustic variety originates from near Venice and is considered the King of Italian Squashes. Round, short, and squat in shape, the dark green to grey-blue skin has slight, vertical ridging and is almost completely covered in bumps. When cooked, Marina di Chioggia squash is tender and sweet with nutty flavours.