Best Lettuce IYHO, (in your humble opinion)

I have fallen head over heels in love with growing lettuce, it grows easily, is relatively free of pest and rewards even the slighest bit of attention. However as a new gardener, I am overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of lettuce cultivars available in the catalogs, so I wanted to pose the following question.
Which of the many, many lettuce cultivars is your personal favorite and why?
Are there seasonal lettuce you prefer? Usage preferences such as I like this one for __ and prefer ___ for...?

Lettuce Share,
Misty
Edited to add, so far I've grown leaf lettuce and that worked out OK.

This message was edited May 1, 2008 12:50 AM

My favorite crisphead lettuce last year was Summertime. It stood until August.

I have a couple of favourites,

one's heritage, named 'Deertongue', a nice upright head lettuce, romaine-ish flavour, sturdy rippled leaf, with a nice crisp rib tapering to a tip. good green colour, mild, stood all summer, tolerated heavy leaf picking. I allowed it to bolt to seed late August.

red romaine, beautiful deep red colour where the sun hits it. produces well when outer leaves kept harvested.... mine never got to the 'harvest the whole head' stage, I grazed/picked from them constantly

there's also a nice red buttercrunch that was nice.....

grew swiss chard, beets, and turnip greens for salads, too. YUM!

This is going to be my first year planting lettuce too, but I bought a mixed seed packet. I can't stand the taste of iceberg, but am in love with those expensive bagged lettuces that you get from the grocery store, the exotic mixes, etc. So I perused the seed packets and picked one out that had the most variety. I'll try it out this year, see what happens, and hope for the best!

Thanks for your responses. I plan to try the Deer Tongue, esp after drivenbonkers description.
I'm going to research the Summertime. Turnips in salad seems like it might be interesting.
I saw the mixed lettuce pack at the store recently, might try it too. I planted Romaine two days ago, so it won't be too long before we enjoy those salad greens.
I am almost embarrased to write that I have never had Swiss chard. I'm not sure what it is. That also appears on my things to research list.

Here is a series of articles on salad greens:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/456/

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/469/

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/481/

I have Deertongue seeds saved from last year, would you like me to send you some? dmail me your address and I'll pop them in the mail.

I planted the 'bright lights' Swiss chard for the first time a couple of years ago. It's in bright colours (stems are more concentrated colours, red, orange, yellow, white or green) with the leaves echoing the colour in the stem. pretty enough to put in the flower border, lol

the baby swiss chard leaves are delicious (similar but much nicer than spinach, imo) and are very colourful in green salads. I use the larger leaves sliced crossways in narrow strips and dropped into homemade soups at the last minute. really kicks a simple chicken vegetable soup in the flavour!

We've enjoyed black seeded Simpson, which also works well on sandwiches, and for two years now I've planted mesclun, which is just a mix of various greens. What a treat they are! Red oak leaf, green oak leaf, something I'm not sure of the name of that's a bit spicy, rather like watercress, arugula, and several others. The seed packet was just called "mesclun," so if you see that at the store grab one.

Yes, what mgpaquin said. Black seeded simpson but planted early for your spring crop: it didn't like the heat last year.

Deertongue sounds interesting.

I like Loma and Cherokee cause they have a "thick leaf" and hold up well to salads with grilled meat. I like Tango cause it is so frilly and pretty with other salad greens. I love "Tom Thumb" cause its such a sweet little butter lettuce. I love the idea of the "mixes" but in my experience red lettuces grow slower and I am happier mixing as I cut. Like Jericho cause it handles heat better than other romaines. Just like lettuce and other green stuff. Mizunas, mustards, swiss chard, bulls blood beet greens, baby kale, bok choy, chinese cabbage etc are all bonus goodies for salad IMHO. They are also bonuses in stir frys and soups. And alot of this good stuff is ready to star picking in just over a month! What a blessing a garden is. And then there are the fresh tomatoes!

Oh my goodness... bok choy YES! I'd completely forgotten about that. The first time I'd ever had it my college roommate used it in a chicken soup (from scratch) and it was very very good. Darn, I'm running out of garden space! Must expand!

Expand? I have to buy additional property! (LOL) This started out as a let's add a little color to the front and has since morphed into, I know there's a door here somewhere. Perhaps it's behind that climber. (LOL) I'm about to put out a missing house alert. Help. Can someone please find my house! Arrgh, and I love every moment of this experiment gone wild.
I purchased the Bright Lights last night. Mmmm, colorful veggies, that ought to make me eat healthier.
Actually all of these discussion is wonderfully motivating and I appreciate your comments.
On behalf of my 'mini forest' a heartfelt thank you!
Misty and all her petals, blooms and blossoms

I like mesclun mixes (spicy and mild), spinaches of different kinds as salad greens, and red sails for color - in addition to the others listed above. I really like to mix it up. Buttercrunches are still nice and sweet, and this year, I have plans to plant some that say they are good for hot climates, too. We also like good ole' Romaine.


Then there is something or other that reseeded itself and is the best looking lettuce in my garden, so far. Letting things go to seed and drop is fun, too.

T
Theresa

I love a good mesculun mix. Have some started now and will keep adding seed all season long for a tender mix green salad. (need to thin this out tomorrow..but it sure looks good. Pic taken this afternoon.

Looks yummy. I am also growing the spinach for salad.Gotta try a mesclun blend since all of you say it's so good. You have my curiosity piqued.