Asparagus

Asparagus Officinalis has many closely related family members, up to 60, many of which are often called ferns. Some of them are even grown as pot plants such as;- asparagus Plummosa and Springerri, but actually they all belong to the lily family although botanists are continually reclassifying a large number of plants including these.

The edible qualities of Asparagus have long been known and it is believed that it has been cultivated since before the time of Christ. Coming from the Mediterranean area it is surprisingly frost hardy and another bonus feature of the plants is they they will live up to 20 years and more.

Asparagus is of course an expensive luxury vegetable often served with dripping melted butter in the better class restaurants and as such can give the enthusiastic gardener a well worthwhile, profitable crop to eat at home, that he may not otherwise ever taste. Good crops come from experience and take time to develop. In fact you have to leave new plantings for a couple of years to allow the "crowns" to develop before you can take your first harvest. Asparagus can be grown from seed, but crowns are frequently seen on sale in garden centres these days and will crop much sooner. If plants are left uncut, they will grow tall, have a fern like look and the female plants will even produce red berries if left long enough, that will seed down.

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