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Native to eastern Europe, Red Cabbage Kalibos is a beautiful carmine red colour with an attractive pointed head. High in sugar, Red Cabbage Kalibos is noted for its sweet flavour but it does not hold its colour or structure when cooked, it is however perfect for grating raw into salads where the distinctive colour adds beauty to the bowl. Can be harvested as greens or left to make a dense heart.
Kalibos is best sown late to mature in late summer and autumn. This east European heirloom variety makes a tasty and colourful addition to any vegetable garden.

Seeds per packet (approx.): 0.30 gm

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Indeterminate or cordon type, Chocolate Cherry makes an ideal salad tomato.
Chocolate Cherry produces heavy yields of extremely flavoursome tomatoes approx.70 days after planting.
Clusters of 6-8 tomatoes hang like bunches of grapes on this compact vine like plant as these miniatures ripen from green through lavender to mahogany. These little one inch gems boast the most delightful tomato tang and have a fresh home grown flavour and texture that no shop bought variety can match.
Chocolate Cherry is truly a gourmet delight and it keeps producing fruit all summer long.
Suitable for indoor production or can be cropped outdoors in a sunny frost-free position.

Seeds per packet (approx.): 30

Annual plant with aromatic leaves for cucumber souring. Dried leaves are good for salads, cottage cheese, fish, roast meat and sauces.
Basil came originally from India where it was used to cleanse and protect Hindu houses and temples.
The flavour is sweet but slightly peppery. It is used extensively in Mediterranean and Greek cooking, blending particularly well with tomato dishes, soups, pasta, risottos and eggs. It also goes well with pork and cheese dishes.

Seeds per packet (approx.): 325

Koralik is a determinate bush variety with high yields of small fruit.
Late maturing, Koralik has exceptionally high tolerance to blight.
Fruits weigh 12-15 gms, are an appealing bright red colour with a sweet flavour and all tomatoes on a truss ripen together.
Koralik will thrive outside in wet seasons where other varieties fail.
Grow in a container on the patio or in open beds. Use for salads or chutney.

Quote / growing advice from one of our customers - "These toms will have a real place in the future of my allotment as despite their small size they crop late and they crop so profusely that we make soup and other preserves from them. I would like to add some real advice to your customers from past experience. They grow as a bush, needing no after-care at all, but it might be useful to learn from our experience and grow them through plastic sheeting to avoid fruits from being spoiled by the soil. We tried this last year and it was a winner.
They are resistant to disease, surprisingly prolific, what people buy these days in large quantities and they are so versatile. We intend starting them off earlier this year, now that we have cracked their method of growth."

Seeds per packet (approx.): 30

Spanish Daisy is an easy to grow annual plant for hanging baskets, flower beds and rock gardens.
Originally from Central America, it has been growing wild in Southern Europe for many years and is now being hailed as one of the greatest horticultural discoveries of recent years.
The masses of small flowers are pink when they open, rapidly turn white, and finally as they mature change back to rose-red giving the plant an unusual and constant two-tone effect.
This compact jewel is beloved by bees and butterflies and will also make an outstanding contribution in a wildlife garden

Seeds per packet (approx.): 60

Castor Bean Plant is an annual with large purple leaves.
Native to Africa but now found growing all over the world.
If you need a big, fast-growing plant, Castor Bean is the one to choose.
This beauty quickly sprouts into a tall plant up to 5 ft. high with huge, exotic looking leaves which are often almost 3ft across.

Plant singly, as a screening plant, or in large flower beds in parks and bigger gardens.

Seeds per packet (approx.): 5

Plant Types - F1, F2 or OP
Varieties of plants from seed can be presented as different product types, which depends on their mode of propagation.

Open pollinated (OP) varieties: these are the most simple in concept. Plants are selected to have similar performance, for habit and flowering period. They are then grown together and allowed to pollinated each other. Uniformity of the variety is dependent on how well the stock is maintained - poor stock maintenance leads to variable varieties with indifferent performance. Our suppliers select and maintain their own stock seed for most of the varieties offered.

F1 hybrid varieties: these result from crossing together two pure-breeding parents. Generally, F1 varieties are more uniform and vigorous, with better overall performance than OP varieties. Parent plants are generally grown under cover with most species requiring hand pollination. Parent lines must also be maintained.

F2 hybrid varieties: seed collected from F1 plants is F2. Uniformity and vigour is less than the parent F1 variety, but can be better than equivalent OP varieties.

Seed Production
The production of seed, particularly for ornamentals, is a mix of gardening art and science. In order to produce quality seed many factors have to be combined together.

Parent stocks: these must be high quality and uniform. We maintain our own stocks, and much of our trialling effort goes into proving parent stock quality.

Isolation: in order to prevent cross-contamination between different varieties these have to be grown far enough apart to stop bees travelling between them. Many different locations are needed. Each crop is visited several times during the growing season.

Growing: both in greenhouse and field the crop needs to be well grown and kept weed-free. Stressed plants rarely produce high germinating seed.

Climate: the climate of the production area needs to be chosen carefully to suit the needs of the plants, combined with the choice of greenhouse or field production.

Harvest: harvesting when seed is properly ripe, and immediate post-harvest handling of the seed to properly condition it, are crucial to the final out-turn. For many species, including most F1 varieties, this phase is carried out by hand.

Seed Testing: seed is regularly tested in-house to ensure that only quality seed with good germination and vigour is supplied.

Growing Trials
A trialling programme is central to many aspects of quality control. It enables the trueness to type of a variety to be judged, the uniformity of production mother stock to be assessed, and as an aid to sales and marketing.

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