23 Rare Seeds I'm Growing in 2019

OK, I went crazy on my self-imposed "holiday break" and busted out the seed catalog. Here are the 23 new seeds I'm experimenting with this year. Have you grown any of these? If so, let me know in the comments below.

2019 SEEDS

Mizuna, Beni Houshi
Red Ursa Kale
Dishcloth or Luffa Gourd
Little Gem Lettuce
Garden Huckleberry
Oriole Orange Swiss Chard
Sanguine Ameliore or Strawberry Cabbage Lettuce
Batavian Full Heart Endive
Chinese Multicolor Spinach
Hida Beni Red Turnip
Job's Tears
Red Malabar Spinach
Chinese Python Snake Bean
Purple Lady Bok Choy
Temptation Strawberry
Red of Florence Onion
Landreth Stringless
Marshmallow
Chinese Shawo Fruit Radish
Chinese Pink Celery
Beni Kodama Watermelon
Desiree Dwarf Blauwschokkers Garden Pea

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[chidohoubraken]

The endive variation you picked is actually quite common in The Netherlands (amusing to see it as a 'rare seed' :-)). It can even be planted in fall and still produce a reasonable crop (I live in a 9A zone).
Our traditional way of consuming it as a winter food (called 'mash pot'):
- cut up and wash the endive
- make mashed potatoes
- Spoon the raw endive through the hot mashed potatoes (the endive dwindles, so be sure to have enough)
- Fry some small diced bacon and spoon them through the mash, including the meat juice
- Serve with warm smoked sausage

Fry some garlic last minute with the bacon for extra flavour.
You can serve it with piccalilly, chutney or dried onions on the table.

A vegetarian variant is to replace the bacon with small diced Gouda (or Edam) cheese. Spoon it through the mash just before serving, so it's a little, but not completely melted.

And I'm going to try lufa! Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

[intergalacticinterloper]

Loofah is actually edible and delicious! Peel and slice and add to soups at the end. A very mild cucumberish flavor and amazing. It will grow and spread like crazy so give it space. The homemade dried loofahs make cool gifts too. Good luck!!

[talialicat]

I grew those purple peas in my garden this year, they were so purple it was like ink... mouths and lips stained blue, you could bite the end off one and write with it! They weren't the best tasting snow pea but certainly still tasted good.

[WholesomeRoots]

Jobe's tears is something I just have to try! That Python Bean is definitely going in my garden, on a cattle panel!! I am growing or have grown most of your list! I LOVE Baker Creek!

[countryfrau]

Oh man do I wish we lived near each other because we could have split our seed order. We have ordered a lot of the same seeds. I've had to carry my theme from last year over to this year as I didn't do it well enough--that theme is "Use What You Have." It's a problem with seeds because, like you, I find it so hard to resist experimentation. My seeds are overwhelmingly from Baker Creek this year, too, but I also like to pick up some new varieties from my regional seller, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I'm in Virginia. Here's what's going to be new for me this upcoming summer that you didn't mention: Purple Teepee Bush Bean, Moonshadow Hyacinth, Chinese Red Noodle, Urizun Japanese Winged Bean, Kalibos Cabbage, Mountain Peak Celtuce, Morris Heading Collards, Cherokee Gourdseed Corn, Rosita Eggplant, Scarlet Kale, Castel Franco Chicory, Madhu Ras melon, Bidwell Casaba, Bradford Watermelon (!), Nancy Watermelon, Green Wave Mustard, Green Beauty Snowpeas, Arroz con Polo pepper, Szentes Pepper, Topepopgiallo Pepper, Gambo Pepper, Chinese Red Meat Radish, Sichuan Red Beauty Radish, Spaghetti Squash, Tokinashi Turnip, Gilfeather Turnip, Takane Ruby Buckwheat, Zloty Lan Chamomile, Varigated Cockscomb, Velouette Cosmos, Salmon Sunset 4 O'Clocks, Sugar Stars Phlox, Flanders Poppy, Florest Pepperbox Poppy, Blue Monday Sage, Mexican Torch Tithonia, Sunspot Dwarf Cola Sunflower and Short Stuff Sunflower, Pink Senorita Zinnia, Redman Super Cactus Zinnia, plus many of those you mentioned. See the extent of my illness? To vindicate myself-ha-I have to say I have two big honking gardens. I'm like you--I definitely splurge on seeds. And this isn't counting all of the regular and not-new seeds I already have. Good Lord! I grow stuff with abandon and then if I like it I grow it more carefully in terms of distance and so forth the next year. Best to you for a fabulous garden in 2019. I'd love to hear from anyone who has grown any of the new things I've listed.

[lindamoses]

When I was young we grew a huge garden on our 3/4 acre lot. Now I live in a townhouse and can't keep up being disabled. Your video cheered me to no end. I love to pass on knowledge to my kids and refer them to interesting videos. I still seed save a little bit because it is so fun! Thank you for the delightful video.

[intergalacticinterloper]

Great video BTW!!! I'm drooling over my Baker seed catalog at the moment and admiring your future garden!

[gvas]

Lol...you picked about 85% of the ones I picked. I can't wait to get growing.

[eggcluck]

Job tears is a grain. I use it to make an 'ezekiel' bread recipie and in soups. Arty people I know also use them to paint on for various projects.

[CustomGardenSolutions]

Kevin that's a pretty eclectic list of seeds. I have grown the red malabar spinach (one of my favorites) and little gem lettuce.
The red malabar spinach will take a little while to germinate and to start growing. So much so you may think that something is wrong but once it starts growing it vines like it's hair is on fire. Try mounting them a little and make sure you mark them to know where they're at.
Something I've noticed is you cant tell how experienced gardener is by the varieties of plants they grow. New gardeners tend to grow the standard red tomato, plain cucumber, etc. If that is the case then your wide variety of uncommon seeds mean you're a super duper gardener.😎😎😎😎

[psycophonic]

Damn you're going to have some proper psychedelic rainbow salads and stir frys. Going to look good. Dont think we have any zone 10 in the uk so be careful with them Strawberries. Am temptedwith luffa myself, not sure if they'll grow zone 8 though. All the best for the new year/season.

[timothyrowley]

I grew marshmallow as an ornamental many years ago when I lived in Oklahoma. It was fun and beautiful. I'm planning on growing the Chinese Shawo Fruit radish this year too. I'm in Minnesota so it should fit my climate pretty well. It may be a radish my picky eaters might enjoy.

[juliemcgugan]

I’ve grow on the amaranth/Chinese multicolored spinach. The whole family loved it, even my dogs, who are picky about their greens. Very drought tolerant, but be careful about letting it go to seed, as you will be weeding it out of your beds for years, even after you’ve decided you don’t want to grow it anymore. It self seeds very readily!

[paulayates]

Luffa are fun. If left to dry out on the vine a “trap door” at the bottom will open and drop seeds. They will self seed. Animals have carried off luffa from the garden and they self seeded in a wood chip pile at the edge of the yard.

[reibenny]

I also like the colorful ones as well as the exotics. I haven't done a major garden since 2014 but this year will be big. I got my seeds from Baker Creek as well. Back then I grew mostly tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. I had 9 varieties of tomatoes including Green zebra, Pineapple, Pink Brandywine, Indigo Ruby's, Red Cherry, Yellow Pear, Pink Calabash, Lemon Boy, Mr.Stripey and my all time favorite the White Beauty. If you have never grown or tried white tomatoes they are some of the mildest and creamiest I have ever had. They will dominate my garden this year. As far as cucumbers I had Lemon cucumber, Marketmores, Hmong, Straight 8's and the pickling. All excellent. Lettuces were mainly Romaine, Lolla rossa, Iceberg, Black seeded Simpson. Being adventurous I harvested from everything an decided to make some grilled chicken salads. It was one of the most unbelievable salads I have ever had. Every bite was almost a different flavorful experience. This year I am actually going to do mostly the same but am adding the Orangeglo and White watermelons as well. Hope everyone has a great grow season!

[Lightdancer]

Great selections - I've been looking at some of the pink and oriental varieties as well ... Want to try bitter melon, burgundy okra, pink mizuna ... Like you, I could break the bank on interesting plants!!

[bestcrossroad]

Interesting & great choices! Thanks for sharing. Purple malabar spinach loves hot weather. It’s been a staple in our garden (90-95F temp. most of the year) when I was growing up. We steam leaves, add fresh tomatoes 🍅 and lemon, salt ( or soy sauce) & pepper to taste. Wishing you great harvest in 2019!

[barbt.]

I grew the Luffa Gourd a few years back. It grew long vines and produced well. The instructions I had said to dry thoroughlt, until the seeds rattled when shaken. If I grew it today I would shave the outside of the fruit's skin from the fruit before it was full dry because it was very difficult. it took 2 weeks to get the peel off a smaller one, the rest I used for compost.

Also, the fruit is edible when picked at about 6 inches or less. I used it in stirfry.

[justmefolks]

I think you will love the malabar spinach. I grows really fast. It gets red berries on it that many people juice. We didn't eat much of it because of time issues but others enjoyed it. If you save the seeds you might want to wear gloves they stain the hands as bad as blackberries do. Some really good youtube videos out there. A local master gardener grew it here several years ago and that is where I got mine.

[YouCantEatTheGrass]

Seed shopping is what lets me survive my Canadian winter sane, lol