What new plant will you try in 2025?

Every season I enjoy trying something new to me.  This year I'm growing
Malabar spinach: I've heard it's great, and I've heard terrible. I thought I'd give it a try. My family loves their veggies, so why not.
Swiss chard perpetual spinach: I grow Swiss chard, it grows year round here. It's pretty bitter in the summer heat, so I feed it to the chickens, they don't mind a bit. This is supposed to taste more like spinach, I can't wait.
Fennel: I'm not a big fan of licorice flavor, so have never tried it, but my daughter wants it, so it's on the list.
Tumeric: last year I struggled to grow ginger. All of YouTube says how easy it is to grow, but I had a very different experience. Finally at the end of the summer I got some to grow. I planted it in the center of a raised bed that had loofah, and  a large tomato. It hardly got any sun, and seemed happy that way. In our intense heat, it seems it needs to be an understory plant. So I hope to actually get it to grow and I'm going to apply the same for tumeric.
The next list are not exactly new. Last year I tried and failed.
Moringa: I got it to late. It didn't get big enough to survive the winter. I will start them early in the spring, so it will be established, and maybe I can get it to survive the winter.
Butterfly pea: another "easy" on that didn't grow. Totally my fault. I built a raised bed with a trellis. I work for a co-op. We were cleaning the chick tanks, and I took the wood pellets from the tanks home for the compost. For some stupid reason I decided to put it in the beds. I'm pretty sure it was just to much because all the peas sprouted, and grew about 2" and that was it. I think poor soil, and planting to late so it was to hot kept them from growing.
Hyacinth beans: same as the butterfly pea. Bad soil and to late. I removed a bunch of the wood, and replaced it with compost. I hope this and the time to break down added a much earlier planting will make the difference.
Of course I'm always trying different varieties of tomatoes, peppers squash and melons.
What new plant are you trying? Maybe I'll add it to my list.

Jen, since I'm in the same zone as you and our gardens seem to mirror each other....

Jen Fulkerson wrote:
Malabar spinach: it's great, resists bugs, but spreads like the dickens through berries that birds love. Keep an eye on the flowers and avoid those berries, or you'll be drowning in it.
Fennel: plant it in winter, and cook it, it's one of my favorites. also the animals like to eat the leaves.
Tumeric: my experience is the same as yours- it (and ginger) grow on their own time. Tend to struggle in the heat and do better in winter.
Moringa: I've killed so many moringas, if that makes you feel better. Now have a 5m tall one that desperately needs pruning but I'm afraid to touch it....
Hyacinth beans: I use to love them, grow white and purple, they do tend to take over everything and are a bit finicky to prep for eating though. As dried beans they take foreeeeever to cook and nobody likes the flavor....  I've decided to permanently replace them with Thai long beans instead, which at least are more edible, see how you like them.

For us, this summer has been the hottest and wettest on record, and nothing is behaving as expected.
I'm letting the pumpkins run wild, since at least they seem happy, but as soon as the weather turns I'm thinking this year I'm going to let at least half the garden sit fallow during fall and winter (trench compost and let it sit to rejuvenate).
This year everything was looking stunted, not sure if it was the lack of sun or soil quality. probably lack of sun, but I could use a good soil renovation, I think. The rest of the garden I'll plant heavy with daikon radish and fennel, as I do every winter, and then start again next spring.
The strange weather has done a job on everyone, all the gardeners I talk to are just at wits end. To be fair, I didn't even think I'd be gardening this summer, so I probably shouldn't complain.
I am also thinking I might start chickens and get my rabbit operation really going. Prices here are really starting to go nuts, and my work is slowing down, which is a bad combination. It might be the right time.

I currently have onion seedlings growing, and a bunch of mulberry cuttings from a tree with known yummy berries. The cuttings are new-from-last-year growth, with tiny little buds, and are green on the inside. I stuck half in water and half in some soil dug up from my garden. It's my first time doing cuttings of any sort, so we'll see if it works.

My youngest daughter has an avocado seed she's trying to grow in a cup of water too.

What a wonderful thread.

The addition that I am most excited about are my Potato Onions this year. I have acquired seeds from two separate sources and am attempting to germinate them indoors currently.  I have had some success, but the germination rates are low utilizing my normal go-to techniques so I am experimenting with heat and light.

Like Timothy, I am doing potato onions, along with 4 other types of perennial onions.
Also, skirret, maypop and okra. All are from the Experimental Farm Network.

I've also got a few types of native flowers that I got at our local seed exchange.

It's a big, new property and a new zone for me so there are lots of things to try and get established!

I'm really narrowing my focus to perennials and fruits this year; all of my garden annuals are going to be stuff I'm familiar with and that I know I can sell/ trade locally.

I've got a ton of seed from Wanderlust Nursery and Experimental Farm Network cold stratifying right now, plus pits and seeds I saved from fruit I ate.  So far I've got sprouts happening with two types of seaberry, black goji berry, some kind of grocery store pear whose variety I didn't record, and quince.  I've tried growing all from seed before with limited success; they made it to the planting-out stage, but then either failed to thrive or were eaten by deer.  I'm also trying blueberries, Himalayan dogwood, Cornelian cherry, honeyberry, a variety of plums and cherries, Sichuan pepper, magnolia vine, plus a bunch of other stuff I can't remember.  

I'm looking forward to eating sochan (my mom's had this plant for 25+ years and I never knew it was edible) and fuki (flowers if I can get to them in time, and leaf stems later) for the first time this year, too.

I wanna go hard putting in seaberry plants.
Finding out that they have 7-11% oil content is what is driving my interest

I'm going to plant some honey locust pods in the backyard where we're moving.  I'm also ready to try bell peppers with seeds from produce.

trees here are the ones started from seed this year.  Foreground is Caltapa, top left is ash from really big ash and top right is aspen.  The germination rate for the caltapa was absolutely incredible

Other goal if I get the raised bed built for them is I want to try Polana raspberries to see if they will handle my extremes of weather.  Supposed to be zone 3 and slower to come out of dormancy.  I am heavy clay soils so I have to get the plants completely out of my soil thus the need for some sort of raised bed.  And I am border line zone 3 with regular cold snaps following warm up periods in the spring thus killing nearly all the 2nd year wood.

Other goals are daikon radish to produce seed for soil building with the eventual goal of soil building, sugar beets because they are supposed to break up clay soils.  

want to try a number of beets with the goal of pickled beets.  Want a beet that handles clay soils that either harvests early well or doesn't get woody if it gets big as I have major texture issues with eating the normal big beets.

Then one other one we raised growing up that I haven't done in almost 20 years is golden delicious winter squash.(orange hubbard style with with a soft mild flesh that will store till mid Jan.)

I got Potato onion and parsnip seed from Going to Seed both new plants to me but the one that I think will excite the grands most are the seeds for the Alpine Strawberry Pineapple.  I have never even thought of growing strawberries from seed but I needed one more seed packet to finish out a seed order...

Jen Fulkerson wrote:Every season I enjoy trying something new to me.  This year I'm growing
Malabar spinach: I've heard it's great, and I've heard terrible. I thought I'd give it a try. My family loves their veggies, so why not.
Swiss chard perpetual spinach: I grow Swiss chard, it grows year round here. It's pretty bitter in the summer heat, so I feed it to the chickens, they don't mind a bit. This is supposed to taste more like spinach, I can't wait.
Fennel: I'm not a big fan of licorice flavor, so have never tried it, but my daughter wants it, so it's on the list.

I wish I could grow some of those perennial greens that are supposed to taste like spinach since I actually like spinach ... But I'm in zone 6 so none of them make it.  At least chickweed and sorrel like me.

Also, if you hate fennel you can always just let the swallowtail caterpillars eat it all.  They love the stuff!

I'm not trying anything too revolutionary in my garden but I am going to be planting yard long beans this year since they're supposed to be more heat tolerant and mild tasting.  We'll see.

I'm also going to try honey berries.  I successfully killed some in-ground blueberries last year and I'm not going to fight with my soil pH.  I'm just going to try a different plant.

I'm having a heck of a time starting seeds this year. I have been saving for a while and some of my seeds won't germinate. Even some seeds I collected last year seem impotent.
Anyway, I planted some saffron corms and blueberries for the first time.

The saffron corms are in the round container, the other two are garlic beds.
These both got heavy mulch over the top and around the containers for the winter.



The four types of blueberries got shipped dormant and went into the ground with heavy mulch around the bases. The plastic buckets were to protect them a little from frost over the winter.

Have you tried adding beneficial bacterial inoculant to your soil? Especially in new beds or beds that have been topped up with lots of soil, everything in the pea and bean family needs the beneficial bacterial that lets them convert atmospheric carbon to nitrogen on their roots. I forgot this last year and had a new raised bed right next to an established bed. The same variety of beans did great in the ground but not in the raised bed. Other things did quite well in the bed, just not beans.

Jen Fulkerson wrote:Every season I enjoy trying something new to me.  This year I'm growing
Malabar spinach: I've heard it's great, and I've heard terrible. I thought I'd give it a try. My family loves their veggies, so why not.
Swiss chard perpetual spinach: I grow Swiss chard, it grows year round here. It's pretty bitter in the summer heat, so I feed it to the chickens, they don't mind a bit. This is supposed to taste more like spinach, I can't wait.
Fennel: I'm not a big fan of licorice flavor, so have never tried it, but my daughter wants it, so it's on the list.
Tumeric: last year I struggled to grow ginger. All of YouTube says how easy it is to grow, but I had a very different experience. Finally at the end of the summer I got some to grow. I planted it in the center of a raised bed that had loofah, and  a large tomato. It hardly got any sun, and seemed happy that way. In our intense heat, it seems it needs to be an understory plant. So I hope to actually get it to grow and I'm going to apply the same for tumeric.
The next list are not exactly new. Last year I tried and failed.
Moringa: I got it to late. It didn't get big enough to survive the winter. I will start them early in the spring, so it will be established, and maybe I can get it to survive the winter.
Butterfly pea: another "easy" on that didn't grow. Totally my fault. I built a raised bed with a trellis. I work for a co-op. We were cleaning the chick tanks, and I took the wood pellets from the tanks home for the compost. For some stupid reason I decided to put it in the beds. I'm pretty sure it was just to much because all the peas sprouted, and grew about 2" and that was it. I think poor soil, and planting to late so it was to hot kept them from growing.
Hyacinth beans: same as the butterfly pea. Bad soil and to late. I removed a bunch of the wood, and replaced it with compost. I hope this and the time to break down added a much earlier planting will make the difference.
Of course I'm always trying different varieties of tomatoes, peppers squash and melons.
What new plant are you trying? Maybe I'll add it to my list.

Joshua States wrote:I'm having a heck of a time starting seeds this year. I have been saving for a while and some of my seeds won't germinate. Even some seeds I collected last year seem impotent.
Anyway, I planted some saffron corms and blueberries for the first time.

The saffron corms are in the round container, the other two are garlic beds.
These both got heavy mulch over the top and around the containers for the winter.



The four types of blueberries got shipped dormant and went into the ground with heavy mulch around the bases. The plastic buckets were to protect them a little from frost over the winter.

Have you tried soaking your seeds in a solution of molasses overnight? It did help some of my old seeds.

After doing extensive historical research regarding the types of plants and foods the natives used to eat here in Central Florida in zone 10a, I discovered that the Ais Tribe and an older tribe of unknown name found at Windover Pond did not mess with agriculture. They ate the myriad small critters and fish and oysters and the occasional gator and manatee that are in abundant supply here. They also ate from the perennial plants that grow here.

This research supported what I’ve observed from growing in the same patch of land for 15yrs: this area doesn’t want to grow the fragile annuals which comprise the typical veggie garden. This area wants to be a scrubby forest.

And so, I’ve cut back on my veggie area to expand my organized food forest. I picked up a Jujube tree and a Kerry Starfruit tree at ECHO in Ft Myers last month, an Oro Negro Avocado tree, and just got 2 Bababerry Raspberries and 10 Black Butte Blackberries in the mail today. Want to get two persimmons this year to plant between my sidewalk and fence. This pic is the trellis I plan to build next to the sidewalk for my thorny blackberries to keep people away from my new muscadine grapes and the higher value fruit. I’ve had bad luck with people stealing fruit from my yard before. Let them try to cross a thorny blackberry hedge

Caraway, Job's tears, winter savory, some other more common perennial herbs, Lupine, bells of Ireland and a couple of extra large varieties of Lagenaria which I have not grown yet but I always grow some type as they are my favorite. I also put in arctus rubus at the end of the season this year which hopefully is still going to make it.

Parsnips from “Going to Seed,” maybe some celery also.

Here on our homestead in Southern California, we are making a lot of changes. We removed some trees, from the food forest because they either had died, didn’t produce or was ornamental. Instead I am splitting my Nain Banana up to transplant, so I don’t have more than 2 banana trees in each cluster. I am also adding an ice cream banana, a cashew free, 2 more mulberry trees, that I propagated from the one we already have. We are also planting black pepper vines, a Surinam cherry, a Barbados cherry, shampoo ginger, cardamom, coffee, pineapples, artichokes, horseradish, Banana berry, arrowroot, society garlic, rams, toothache plants, and corn. These are all plants we haven’t grown before. All of these are in the food forest garden.
In the raised bed garden, we are also making some changes. Last year, I grew a 2 year supply of winter squash and pumpkins, so I am only growing summer squash this year. This gives me room for things we normally don’t grow, like corn and grains.
Corn and grains are new to me, but feeds for chickens and ducks are getting more expensive, so I want to grow more of what we feed them. Right now I am feeding them a lot of collards, which they love.
Right now we are in the middle of spring harvesting and bed preparation, so I can start transplanting in April. New ones are the toothache plant, Kiwano jelly melons, Chinese chives, cinnamon basil, huckleberries, sugar beets (for making sugar) and several types of dandelions.
Another new thing I started this year, is adding mushroom grain spawn to my raised beds. My reasoning for adding them was two fold. I wanted to see if it would help my plants growing stronger and faster, and I wanted to see if, I would get some mushrooms out of it too. I started with three beds around new years, and it has been a dramatic success when it comes to the plants I planted in those beds.
Usually my cabbages are small, prone to pests, and not ready until April. This year, my Chinese cabbages was ready 2 weeks ago, each one 3-4 pounds (70 pounds in total), we have started harvesting my green cabbages, and those are fantastic too. 3-4 pounds each and minimal pest damage. My red cabbages will need a little more time, but are already much larger and further ahead than ever before. The lettuce, leeks and collards, I also grow in that bed, are also huge compared to what we normally get. With this success I have bought more mushroom grain spawn, so I can add them to the rest of my raised beds. Hopefully it will work great for those beds too, and give us some mushrooms to eat as well.

My garden pre- and post-hurricane Helene.
The bad thing is I lost 4 years of building excellent soil, most of the infrastructure, a huge pile of compost & mulch, and many plants. My fruit trees were completely flattened. And right through the middle of my garden are thick deposits of sand. I’ve probably removed 75 wheelbarrows & I’m still not done.
But the good thing - if that’s possible - is that I can reconfigure the beds & paths. Make the garden function better. And position the cattle panel arches so that any future flood waters flow through them rather than broadside them.
Since I lost so many of my cattle panel supports & trellising I’m rethinking where I’ll plant tomatoes and climbing veggies such as cukes, pole beans & peas. I’m going to experiment planting tomatoes inside my arches as I read that some afternoon shade is good for them.
I’m also going to plant different types of melons

Sunchokes!! I'm super excited!

Also, like several others mentioned, Potato Onion...which is good to see because I recall reading that they are well into a state of decline as a species. Was enuf to make me want to try and get some established.

We're thinking of trying harder for rhubarb. We have a plant that has sort of produced for us but it's getting old (like me.) So I bought some rhubarb seeds which I'll try sprouting, and also probably get some starter plants at our local nursery since I hear it take a couple of years to get a crop from seed.

We'll repeat our "wild forest" garden. I just let whatever grew last year, grow again but also put in some cherry tomatoes (The Incredible Wife loves the little yellow pear tomatoes.) I get a kick out of starting tomatoes from seed. Then lots of tomatillos, seed and volunteers. Peppers especially Jalapenos, cukes, etc. For some reason I'm the only gardener in the world who does not get buried in zucchini or yellow squash! Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

We noticed that we really didn't have a lot of pests with multiple mixed flowers, cosmos, marigolds, borage, etc. Maybe it worked--the plants brought in the predators? That would be cool...

I want to do a mushroom kit, since I've never done mushroom growing before.  I feel like once I do that then I can try doing it the less expensive and more DIY way.

Wow I'm learning so much. I'm going to have to look up lots of plants I've never heard of.
Gauri I think it's amazing you can go through so much and still have a positive attitude. You are truly an inspiration.
I also started celery. It's growing slow, but I guess that's what it does. I have cauliflower growing . I have never tried it before. I'm not sure about it, it's pretty small, seems like it should be a decent size head by now.  Time will tell.
Thanks for the interesting choices. Good luck I hope we all have great success.

Nothing new in my world, plant-wise. I think I will be aggressively scaling up more of the same old. Volume of calories will be of the greatest importance. Because I can, I must. Not for me, but for others. These are interesting times.

Jim Small wrote:We're thinking of trying harder for rhubarb. We have a plant that has sort of produced for us but it's getting old (like me.) So I bought some rhubarb seeds which I'll try sprouting, and also probably get some starter plants at our local nursery since I hear it take a couple of years to get a crop from seed.

We'll repeat our "wild forest" garden. I just let whatever grew last year, grow again but also put in some cherry tomatoes (The Incredible Wife loves the little yellow pear tomatoes.) I get a kick out of starting tomatoes from seed. Then lots of tomatillos, seed and volunteers. Peppers especially Jalapenos, cukes, etc. For some reason I'm the only gardener in the world who does not get buried in zucchini or yellow squash! Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

We noticed that we really didn't have a lot of pests with multiple mixed flowers, cosmos, marigolds, borage, etc. Maybe it worked--the plants brought in the predators? That would be cool...

**Let me know where you are and your planting zone AND if you have any success. I’ve tried for 3 years & lots of $$$$ spent on rhubarb plants & they all fizzle out over the course of the season. I’ve planted them in sun, in part shade. Always good soil. Nothing worked. We’re in western North Carolina.

We are in the Denver area. Climate zone? Funny. Climate Change means "every few days" in the high desert!

I have thought about rhubarb, but it's very hard to grow in my hot dry climate. It grows like a weed in western Washington where I grew up. If I liked it better I'd give it a try, but there are some many things I like better to fill the space. Good luck

Papaya Trees

Hi Munyaradzi - Welcome to permies! According to fruitexpert you can actually grow papaya in parts of the UK, but I strongly doubt our temperatures will be generally warm enough for them! Good luck with yours

Just as rhubarb is emerging for the season, you can easily dig it up and divide it. (Looks like pink, leafy balls emerging just above soil level) I took one ancient plant and divided it into probably 15, and I only dug up less than half of the original that had been its spot since well before we got here in 1976!  Nothing ventured nothing gained.  Do a search on how to do it; it's remarkably easy!

Gaurī Rasp wrote:

Jim Small wrote:We're thinking of trying harder for rhubarb. We have a plant that has sort of produced for us but it's getting old (like me.) So I bought some rhubarb seeds which I'll try sprouting, and also probably get some starter plants at our local nursery since I hear it take a couple of years to get a crop from seed.

I have most of the trees and shrubs I want, so now, I'm just augmenting.  I have some goji berries on order, along with schizandra vine and maypop (Passionflower/ Passiflora incarnata) seeds coming.  I also plan on trying ground cherries, Good King Henry, Daikon radish, New Zealand spinach, Sweet Cecily and NJ Tea.  I've heard that goji berries taste like rotting tomatoes when they're fresh, but after trying them dried from the local co op, I'm hooked.  They cost a fortune though, so I plan to take full advantage of the dehydrator I got last year.  Right now, I have a gallon of yogurt in it.  For the price of a gallon of milk, it's a lot cheaper and tastier than store bought yogurt.
Other than just plants, I plan to try something new for my vegetable garden as a whole.  It has a fence on three sides, but the fourth side used to be where a decrepit chicken house was and is now gone.  In its stead, I've planted peonies and bulbs along its length with an arbor in the middle planted out with clematis.  Of course, all sorts of wildlife comes in and eats, so I will be cutting hardware cloth in one to two foot lengths and putting it around the perimeter of the garden. My thought is that it will prevent most critters from entering, from chipmunks to rabbits...fingers crossed that this will be the year my vegetable garden flourishes!  Last fall, I tore out the landscaping cloth that had been down for probably 40 years on my pathways, and replaced it with a foot of wood chips.  I'm hoping that weed seeds don't grow rampant.  I put a considerable amount of chopped leaf litter over the top of where I plant for moisture retention and as a mulch, although it will be the third year of using leaf litter.  I also want to scatter some rock dust.  I ordered it last fall and it's waiting patiently on the front porch.

The genuinely new thing I'm most excited about is Rubus chingii var. suavissimus, otherwise known as Chinese sweet tea, a raspberry relative whose leaves contain a sweetener related to steviol glycosides. The leaves are very sweet! They also supposedly have a whole bunch of nice medicinal benefits, plus you can get berries out of the plants.

Other new things for this year are cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) and black elderberry (Sambucus nigra). I actually haven't managed to grow elderberry before, tried from seed which refused to germinate. Twice. This time I took cuttings, and every single one of them rooted... If I'd known it was that easy I never would've bothered with seeds.

Anna Hutchins wrote: I wish I could grow some of those perennial greens that are supposed to taste like spinach since I actually like spinach ... But I'm in zone 6 so none of them make it.  At least chickweed and sorrel like me.

Did you look into Caucasian spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides)? It does just fine in zone 6, and manages quite a bit more cold than that too. It also tastes good, I personally think better than "real" spinach...

Jen Fulkerson wrote:I have thought about rhubarb, but it's very hard to grow in my hot dry climate. It grows like a weed in western Washington where I grew up. If I liked it better I'd give it a try, but there are some many things I like better to fill the space. Good luck

I have had success with growing rhubarb for many years. We are on the edge of the desert in climate zone 10b. Here are my tips for success.
1. Don’t transplant until the rhubarb had produced their third set of leaves.
2. Don’t harvest from them the first year, and after that only take 2/3 of the leaves and stalks
3. They love growing together with asparagus. The asparagus gives them shade during the hot season.
4. Plant where they will get shade from the midday sun or add a 50% shade cloth
5. They need a lot of water, do not let them dry out
6. Research varieties that are heat tolerant and need fewer cold hours. I grow Victoria.
7. They need compost and mulch to thrive.

I hope this help’s. It took me 5 years figuring out how to grow them successfully here in Southern California. Hopefully this saves you some time.

I went to Edible Acres website to get sea buckthorn.
I ended up ordering mint root and Myoga ginger!
I'm excited and nervous, it's more than I've ever spent on plants on one go.

Roselle for sure.  Also plan to start my runner beans as transplants because the seeds didn't mature enough before frost killed them last year.  Also a myriad of herbs and medicinal plants to try.  But I'm doing lots of flowers this year as I don't grow enough and want to encourage more pollinators in my garden.  

It's funny the assumptions I make; I was shocked to read that some of your plants were killed because of frost; I assumed that WV would have a long enough growing season!  I just want to point out that many fruit flowering shrubs and trees are great pollinator attractors as well as helpful for birds and their clutches of little ones.  One example would be a lower serviceberry hedge (Regent) that is always buzzing with activity from when they are in flower through their fruiting.  I am always entertained watching birds hop up and pull the berries!  I also planted a hawthorn tree which is also supposedly a wonderful wildlife attractor which helps to feed birds through the winter.  

All this is easy for me to say, being I have a lot of flowers interspersed among all of the fruit.  It seems you can never have too many!  Bulbs are also great as an early food.  In Vermont, my snowdrops often are blooming in February, followed by crocus, Glory of the snow, etc.  This year, they are still buried in snow, so I'm going through withdrawal but when the snow melts, it will be a fast and furious riot!  Many flower shapes are important to attract various insects. (flat like yarrow, tubular, etc.)

I tried Roselle one year, but our season is not long enough.  The herbs, if allowed to flower, will be a great magnet for wildlife.  Yay, you! Also, there are some repellers which help keep the bad bugs away.  This is one reason I have garlic and daffodils planted throughout my gardens. I think that they help keep the moles and voles at bay. Come spring, the lawn will look like something out of Dune, but the gardens are pretty unscathed, and I credit that to the "smelly" plants and bulbs!

Michelle Heath wrote:Roselle for sure.  Also plan to start my runner beans as transplants because the seeds didn't mature enough before frost killed them last year.  Also a myriad of herbs and medicinal plants to try.  But I'm doing lots of flowers this year as I don't grow enough and want to encourage more pollinators in my garden.  

I'm going to try growing fireweed from seed this spring.  I love tea made from their fermented leaves.  I'm also interested in trying the young shoots as a vegetable.  There is some growing wild in my county, but none on my property.  Would love it to be close by as it's such a beautiful and useful perennial.  I just need to pick the right spot as it's supposed to be wonderfully expansive.

I am practicing field grains for the table

Barbara Simoes wrote:It's funny the assumptions I make; I was shocked to read that some of your plants were killed because of frost; I assumed that WV would have a long enough growing season!  

West Virginia is hard to categorize as the terrain makes a big difference.  I'm in the central part of the state but at a higher elevation so my growing season is shorter than that of my parents 15 miles away.  My in-laws are five miles away and after a bad snowstorm a few years ago they had 8" of snow and we had over 2'.  It's like driving into another dimension sometimes.  My snowdrops are in full bloom now but a bit later than usual due to all the snow and freezing temperatures.  

Roselle will have to be grown as a transplant and fingers crossed I get it to bloom before frost.

Lotus! Which will be a challenge. I'm going to have to keep water in my tiny baby pool. I've moved to mostly dry gardening. Except for the two months of seasonal drought.

All about why I want to grow lotus. Edible!