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Post by raymondo on Dec 8, 2010 5:24:19 GMT -5
With many wonderful common names like Damask Violet, Night Scented Gilliflower, Dame's Rocket and Sweet Rocket, this once popular border plant apparently tastes like rocket. Has anyone grown or is anyone growing it? (I thought there was a thread on this but I cannot find it.)
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Post by orflo on Dec 8, 2010 6:32:15 GMT -5
It's mainly used as an ornamental plant over here (and probably elsewhere, the names speak for themself). I have the white and purple flowering varieties, but I consider the taste to be somewhat bitter. You have to pick the leaves when they're really young and preferably mix them up with something else, if you don't like bitter-tasting leaves. A big advantage is that the plants are amazingly winter-hardy, and they take to my rather acid soil quite well, although I remember reading somewhere that they are lime-lovers. I had a taste of the flowers once, but didn't like these as well. But they're wonderful early blooming plants. Maybe there are some selections that have better-tasting leaves, but I've never searched for these. And, just taking a look at Cornucopia's page, seeds can be used for oil.
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 8, 2010 6:53:02 GMT -5
I've grown and eaten it. Pretty plant, mediocre taste. The really early crown tastes mild enough. You could probably blanch it, I suppose. Extreme Gardener had a post on this: theextremegardener.com/blog/?p=109 |
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Post by raymondo on Dec 8, 2010 16:35:11 GMT -5
Okay, sounds like more of an ornamental than anything else. Still, I like pretty things in the garden so might as well sow some. Thanks for the link Telsing. That must have been where I read about it.
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Post by seedywen on Dec 8, 2010 20:09:28 GMT -5
Have also nibbled on early spring leaves and flowers and found the taste not to my preference.
However treated as an early spring bedding plant, it fills the perennial flower borders with... color, scent and bees!
I let dame's rocket self seed every year, primarily in one large bed. As the plant grows(at least here biennually), I pull out oodles of small plants and just leave enough scattered around the bed to ensure a good show the following spring. Also transplant some of the plants, into other beds to grow the following year.
Just as the nearbye biennual lunaria(Moneyplant) is starting to fade, the rocket is starting to bloom, ensuring lots of purple flowers between the two plants for nearly two months. By the time they're done, the paeonies, astromeria, baby's breath, etc. take over the bed.
The scent, I liken to summer phlox paniculata only not as strong. During the day, usually can't smell it but towards the evening when the breeze generally dies down, the scent wafts into the air. Sometimes I do certain chores like tending the nearby raspberries at that time, just to smell the rocket. And when the spring sun shines, take my tea breaks by the rocket so to enjoy its bee magnetism.
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Post by flowerpower on Dec 9, 2010 5:37:52 GMT -5
Dame's Rocket grows wild in huge patches here. Yet I can't get it to grow in my garden. lol It does look really pretty.
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 9, 2010 8:29:23 GMT -5
Speaking of which, I've heard that lunaria is edible - not tried this and I'd verify the reference but it seems likely given its position in the plant family tree.
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Post by trixtrax on Feb 12, 2012 2:53:34 GMT -5
I enjoy eatting the leaves of Hesperis during the cold months when not much else is available. I have heard that soon old time English gardeners once kept certain types of Lunaria that had palatable tasting immature pods, similar to peas or rat-tail radish. Naturalized types that I have tried have had a mixed flavor from awful to something approaching edibility.
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Post by MikeH on Feb 12, 2012 6:08:16 GMT -5
Yep, we grow it. We've found that the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly loves it although I haven't noticed that my bees are particularly interested in it. Plenty else for them to forage on, I guess. And the scent at night is about as close as we can get to a night flowering jasmine. Well, worth growing, especially when you get it to naturalize. |
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 12, 2012 17:31:14 GMT -5
It's naturalized in the ditches around here. I have some forms I'd like to try and introduce here!
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Post by trixtrax on Feb 17, 2012 5:50:48 GMT -5
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 17, 2012 9:03:29 GMT -5
Pretty.
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