I have had good luck in growing Imperial Star artichokes from seed (although they did NOT produce the first year, even though I attmpted to chill the seedlings for 6 weeks before transplanting). I'm considering trying one of the pretty purple varieties -- either buying a plant or seeds. I've only seen them on the internet. Are they as tasty as other artichokes? As ornamental as I hope? Any recommendations on variety? These are the ones I've seen lately:
Peaceful Valley sells a bareroot "Amethyst Artichoke" -- they do not have a picture of it, unfortunately!
http://groworganic.com/item_FV270_Organic_Amethyst_Artichoke_bundl.html
Johnny's Selected Seeds sells seeds for a purple-tinged Tempo artichoke -- $12 for 10 seeds, ack!
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7754-tempo-f1.aspx
I've also seen solid purple Violetta and mostly purple Romanesco on eBay, but not at any of the regular seed suppliers. Is this because they are hard to grow? Less good to eat? Unproductive?
Please share your thoughts and experiences!
This message was edited Feb 21, 2010 1:57 PM
Purple artichokes
I grew purple artichokes and learned the hard way that artichoke seeds are very variable. You might get something that looks like a real artichoke, and you might get something that's just a weird sort of thistle. I thought it was a problem with the seed supplier, but I researched it and found that this is normal for this plant. I started five plants and kept four. Of those, one was normal and the rest were weird thistles. By weird, I mean misshapen. They made a few very large flowers that bees loved, but I decided it was not worth the bother. The seeds I bought were from Franchi, seeds of Violetta de Something-or-other.