Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Romaine heaven
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced just a month ago that it had confirmed 138 cases of E. coli in 25 states, with the most recent one occurring on December 1. The good news, on January 15th of 2020, the CDC believes the outbreak over.
But here’s even more good news. Grow your own romaine!
And the National Garden Bureau suggests a window delight. It’s called Lettuce Bronze Mini Romaine. It’s a petite little beauty that’s slow to bolt and grows to just 8 inches tall. It’s red tinged and tasty and perfect for container plantings. Bonnie Plants offers this cultivar.
Lettuce Bronze mini romaine is a 2020 introduction. But wait, there’s more, in fact, plenty more!
Seed savers offers heirloom and organic varieties like ‘Forellenschluss’.
Better yet, gobble down this pretty romaine that is green mottled with maroon!
Another romaine they offer is called ‘Crisp Mint’ lettuce, Also known as Erthel, (don’t ask me why) this standout lettuce is one of the best romaine varieties.
The tender lettuce leaves look a lot like mint but make no mistake, the leaves have excellent lettuce flavor and classic romaine crispness. The compact heads grow upright to about 10″ tall.
Blush Butter Oak is a compact head that’s a combination of a butterhead and an oakleaf lettuce.
This variety has outer oak leaves that are tinged bronze or blush, surrounding a loose butterhead. NGB reports a buttery taste and does well in containers. Grow this variety for a patio lettuce that you can harvest throughout the season. This is a 2019 introduction.
The point is, these lettuces are perfect for our climates and are very easy to grow, they just need sunlight. The caveat is that bunnies like them too! PS, I use Plantskydd to keep the bunnies at bay.