Garden Centre

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Best performing annual plant this year ...

Amaranthus caudatus, because it’s beautiful and because it has one of the most impressive sets of common names ever – the best known in the UK is Love-lies-bleeding, but it’s also known as pendant amaranth, tassel flower, velvet flower, foxtail amaranth, and quilete.

It’s a very simple annual, which grows easily and nearly all parts of the plant, but especially the leaves and seeds, are edible and have been used as staple ingredients in South American and across India. The plant grows anything from three to eight feet in height, and produces the best tassels in full sun, but it can cope with both humid and arid conditions. In less clement climates, plants can be started indoors in early spring and transplanted outdoors after the last frost but I just chucked my seeds onto a patch of raked soil in May and they seem to have thrived on my general neglect!

Labels: amaranthus, annual plants from seed, love-lies-bleeding

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:28 AM 0 Comments

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