Here is a vegetable that our 2 youngest grandsons CANNOT live without! Were we to serve a lot of different vegetables at once…these would be “gobbled” up 1st! Go figure!

Folks from the southern states have found that broccoli as a rule will not form decent heads by them. Have found here too, that our hot summers will force the great heads straight into seed, if their roots are not kept cool & moist during the growing season. Many of the varieties listed below (if planted later into a cool long fall) will “form” large heads late in the season, despite a variety being known as a “spring” type.

Online for educational Purposes. Operating on a “Hobby” basis.

Occasionally we may have “extra” seed. Pkts. marked below. If nothing marked…then it is “N/A”.

1. Calabrese – (aka Italian Green Sprouting ) Popular in gardens since 1880. This tasty broccoli forms side shoots after the main head has been used, making it a perfect “cut & come again” variety. Excellent and healthy for salads. 60-90 days
2. Early Green Sprouting – cool weather variety that produces numerous flower head clusters when placed in a sunny spot. Start early indoors. Matures in 75 to 80 days.
3. Early Purple Sprouting –An English heirloom, bred for overwintering. By us produces lots of purple sprouts in the late summer and fall, altho known as a “spring” producer in areas of the south. There, grows slowly through the winter…very frost hardy. A great variety that is hard to find in N.A. Delicious!   
   
4. Romanesco Italia – A terrific broccoli (or is a cauliflower?) heirloom orig. brought from Northern Italy, offering the unusual lite green, spiraling budded heads (? ancestor? to the popular beauties found in specialty stores today…) Is a late season producer, forming larger heads when a long cool moist fall is offered.
5. Purple Peacock – another open pollinated variety! A broccoli and kale natural cross. Now you can get 2 for the value of one! Heads are composted of loose purple/violet florets. This same gorgeous color runs rampant through out the stems and leaves! Produces more single side shoots than regular broccoli “head formers”. Sorry to tell you, that unless you are prepared to eat it raw…cooking or steaming turns it green, too! 70 days  
   
6. Summer Purple Branching – nice surprise in my garden trials of late. Offered a lot more leaves, beside the “heads” than any of the other varieties, very useful for steaming. Another note: offered a large multi-branched “head” of many smaller florets, all season long. Was the last one to arrive in early fall, long after many others had come & gone. Plants grew from 4 to 5 feet! (Must have been the earthworm castings!) 80 – 100 days