NEW FOR 2024: FARM-ORIGINALS, HEIRLOOMS, AND COMMERCIAL STANDARDS
These are our New Additions for 2024, and as always they include our latest on-farm breeding refinements, and some good proven varieties that organic growers have found reliable and adaptive.
We have chosen not to seek PVP or other intellectual property protection for our original varieties. We have studied, argued, consulted, and meditated on the relative virtues and hazards of IP protection in the food sector of life. We've tried recently to contrive some variation on the use of Creative Commons 'Copyleft' or Open Source Software models to provide open forum use of crop genetics, without fear that corporate entities will Patent what others have freely offered. This turns out to be extremely complicated, completely untested in the courts, and fraught with real world differences between creative intellect, software code, and new seeds for food crops. To begin with, seeds are alive, and the rest is not.
On April 17th 2014, Wild Garden Seed joined with High Mowing Seed and public breeders at three Land Grant Universities (Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin) to release seeds of our own breeding under the auspices of the Open Source Seed Initiative, OSSI. The purpose of OSSI is to create an ethically bounded genetic commons. The OSSI Free Seed Pledge does by public intention what only endless contracts can do in law. See this OSSI essay more details.
Regardless, these new crop cultivars, their genetics, and the traits they express are freely offered to the Public Domain, and they are not intended for any kind of privatization or ownership by others, though others may use them in their breeding, farming, or garden-related enterprises. Wild Garden Seed appreciates recognition for its breeding work by those who use it.
New Vegetables for 2024
Green Sandwich Cos Lettuce
  From a cross of romaine and crisphead comes this nicely proportioned lettuce perfect for a sandwich or burger. The length and width of the hearting leaves are pretty equal, and the texture is just what we want on our lunch. Sweet and crunchy, doing its sandwich part to perfection. Farm Original Variety!
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Balls Afire Lettuce
The original working name for this project was “flaming tennis ball,” which captures pretty well the appearance as it stood out among hundreds of more staid heads. This is a small compact crisphead wrapped up in burgundy red leaves that are deeply dissected and crisped with tiny teeth. Maturing rosettes are densely pigmented and easily gathered as salad leaves. The mature head is densely convoluted into a solid heart, blanched by the red wrappers and slow to bolt. The best tasting lettuce of the summer. Farm Original Variety!
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Karen's Fave Lettuce
Karen is a lettuce’s harshest critic. Two years ago she asked me what this lettuce was... “It’s the exceptional family R, dear, why do you ask?” She said it was her favorite. That was all it took to label this dark red head with the bright green insides. Full size heads with an open habit that makes harvest easy by the leaf. Toothsome and crisp, each leaf is glossy and muscular from its wine-red tip to its apple-green base. ‘Karen’s Fave’ says it all. Space these at 12” apart in the row. Farm Original Variety!
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Pequena Fave Lettuce
This is a small version of ‘Karen’s Fave,’ in the midi realm. These can be spaced at 9” apart. Heads are deep wine-red on the exposed parts, bright apple-green inside. Farm Original Variety!
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Blushing Torch Lettuce
This lettuce is difficult to describe. The leaves are sea green, wavy edged with large teeth, and nearly triangular in shape. Heads begin as compact rosettes of imbricated leaves lofted by their toothy margins. With maturity and exposure to sun the toothed margins become pink-tinged and somewhat erect, like reaching flames. A very interesting and unique lettuce. Farm Original Variety!
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Standing Waves Lettuce
From the population created by crossing ‘Wavy Dory’ to ‘Red Ball Jets,’ comes this family of wavy lanceleaf lettuces in greens, reds, and variously splattered and speckled bicolors. There’s a lot of variation in leaf texture, length, and head conformation; savoy to flat, short to long, straight and upright to curved and compact. Great salad or lettuce mix component. Unbelievable variations in this genetic pool. Farm Original Variety!
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Morton's Secret Lettuce Mix 2024 Lettuce
Lettuce seed from this season’s breeding projects and interesting off-types from new releases. Crisp leaf, crispheads, romaines and lanceleaf types from seven different populations. Shades of green, dark reds, splashed and spotted leaves with distinctly dissected, toothed, and wavy margins. Unique lettuce mix from productive compact plants. Farm Original Variety!
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New Flowers for 2024
Be sure to check out our entire collection of flowers as well.
Crystal Beauty Celosia
A vigorous crested type with iridescent peachy/sherry combs forming 2-4” wide heads atop upright stems, 3-4’ tall. Well branched plants with many sturdy stems.
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Apricotta Cosmos
Another new addition to the cosmos color palette. Taller than ‘Apricot Lemonade’ and more useful as a cut flower. Unique color from a beautiful blending of apricot and pink shades on plants 3-4’ tall, well branched and sturdy.
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Blue Glitter Eryngium
Flower stems are iridescent sapphire blue with 30-36” long stems. Attractive and unique appearance in arrangements
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White Glitter Eryngium
This is the frosty white version of sea holly. Looks like an exotic construction of fine powder-finish metal.
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Grace Salmon Godetia/Clarkia
The Grace series includes varieties of all the colors comprising Grace Mix. The colors are so bright they defy the camera’s ability to render them. This variety grows 20-30” tall, with a dozen or more stems per plant. Sow seed 6 weeks before transplanting date. Space 9” apart, and pinch back when 6-8”tall.
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Katy's Picotee Larkspur
Our friend Katy Stokes is one of our local masterful gardeners, and this blue/white picotee larkspur originated in her garden of wonders. The color intensity is somewhat variable, and white types continue to appear, but this is a beautifully mutable cut flower, and so favored by bumble bees. Makes an interesting pairing with the mutably red ‘Splish Splash.’
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Splish Splash Larkspur
A completely unique color pattern for larkspur in splashed-about streaks of red, pink and magenta on an off-white background. Another good example of transposons (“jumping genes”) having their way with petal pigmentation, creating endless iterations of color presentation. If you like red, white, and blue floral displays, pairing this with Katie’s Picotee will give it in tie-dye appeal.
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Tall Pink Larkspur
I have always favored pink larkspur when I see them in mixes. I selected this one from a mix for it’s 48-60” height and darker shades of pink that reach into rose. Larkspur is at it’s best and biggest when direct seeded in autumn, and least likely to topple in the wind when grown in firm soil, whether direct seeded or transplanted. Seeding into 50-55 degree soil is optimal for germination, and seedlings are winter hardy in nearly all planting zones. Close spacing (down to 1” apart) makes for tall unbranched stems that stand firmly against the wind. Farm Original Variety!
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Lemon Tree Nicotiana
A different look in Nicotiana, bushy dark green plants abundantly draped in lemon-green tubular flowers. These are unscented, being pollinated by bats rather than moths in their home range ( Brazil). But regardless, Armitage cites them as “probably the most interesting of all tobacco species” (2001) due to the intensity of their chartreuse-green color which is “magical, consorting well with all other colors in the garden.” Plants are commonly 2-3’ tall, growing to 4’ when paired with taller species that stretch its growth. Seed is very fine, but germinates readily when pressed into the planting mix without covering. Space 12-18” apart at transplanting. Self sows reliably.
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Coral Nymph Salvia/Sage
The species is native to Mexico, found growing wild across northern South America, the Caribbean, and SE United States. Grows from 1-3’ tall; full sun is best in the North, partial shade is preferred in the South, and Armitage suggests that afternoon shade is beneficial in any case. The native forms are scarlet red in flower (Blood sage is a common name), but the Nymph series comes in white, salmon, pink, and this white/red bicolor--the ‘Coral Nymph.’ Flowers are gracefully spaced along slender stems and are highly attractive to hummingbirds. Germination is easy, but requires light, so seed should be pressed into the starting medium. Transplant at 1-2’ apart.
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Sculpit Silene
One of the many Silene species, this perennial is used as an aromatic salad leaf in Italy, and a seasoning in egg and risotto dishes. In bloom, it makes an airy contribution to bouquets with graceful 2’ stems topped with lobed white petals atop a showy inflated pink calyx. Flowers are followed by ornamental urn-like seed pods. A useful plant in all it’s life stages. A favorite of pollinators, especially bumble bees. Easily germinated. Transplant out at 12” spacing. Also called stridolo or bladder campion.
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Fiesta del Sol Tithonia/Mexican Sunflower
This is a dwarf version of the towering Mexican sunflower that grows 2-3’ tall (rather than 6-7.’) Abundant orange flowers are 3” in diameter, densely borne, and are fine for cutting. Attractive for bumbles and butterflies, and unharvested seed heads become autumn bird feeders. An All American Selection from 2000 that can fit into any landscape. Enjoys full sun and heat. Plant directly into warm soil or transplant 12-18” apart.
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Mixed Colors Xeranthemum
Purple, pink, and white blossoms with papery petals held erect on wiry 18”stems. Suitable for fresh cuts or drying. Plants tolerate poor soil and dry sites. Carefree and very productive.
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Oklahoma Salmon Zinnia
Tidy compact blooms are 1½-2½” in diameter on sturdy stems. The salmon/coral color is gorgeous and blends well with any bouquet palette. Powdery mildew resistant plants are 30-40” tall and extremely productive. Direct seed into warm soil or start 4 weeks before transplant date, spacing plants 9-12” apart. Pinch at 12” tall to increase flower number and make a sturdy base.
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