Several years ago we grew an ornamental carrot ‘Purple Kisses’ in the Genus garden. I can take absolutely no credit for its success. I don’t remember planting it or sowing seed, but there it was in all its umbelliferic beauty, a wonderful performer continually sending up new stems crowned with purple flowers punctuated by a central galaxy of white stars (pictured). It flowered to three feet high and kept going for well over two months, nearly three. Among the Knautia, Geum, Delphiniums, and Lupins, it was the perfect frothy foil, the effect almost like the old trick of putting vaseline around a camera lens to soften romantic images. Considering its impressive beauty I’m surprised I’ve never grown it since.
On a recent visit to The Burford Garden Centre in Gloucestershire - that shrine to good taste and everything horticultural - I came across a packet of the ornamental carrot ‘Dara’ from KEW - The Royal Botanic Gardens no less! My mind immediately went back to 2019 and the wonderful display we had at the start of June from that one plant. I now had the opportunity to grow not just one but 100 of these fabulous plants. ('Dara' is not identical but very similar to 'Purple Kisses') The packet promised ‘lace-like flower heads…ranging from the deepest chocolate-burgundy and dusty rose to soft pink and creamy white’. My £3.99 was swiftly handed over - 2026 was starting well!
Back home and faced with the stark reality of a wet February morning I decided to spend time in the greenhouse. There was plenty to do but I had this packet of seeds burning a hole in my back pocket. Perhaps mistakenly, I ignored the advice to 'sow directly where they are to flower’ and sowed the seeds into cells, one or two seeds in each. I'm very aware that many plants that have a central tap-like root resent being moved or pricked out so my feeling was that if the young plant was kept within its rootball before potting on or transplanting, all should be well. It's a risk I know. Rather than mollycoddling them in a warm greenhouse I took the advice from the experts at Chiltern Seeds and put them outside with just the protection of an open cold frame. “Seed dormancy is broken by a period of exposure to cold so best sown in autumn or before the weather warms” they advised, so for once I followed orders.
It was at this point I discovered an issue. I had always assumed carrots, ornamental or vegetable, to be biennial. KEW promised me annual flowering plants. Chiltern however labelled them as biennial, The RHS and Ms. Raven too. Would I really have to wait until 2027?
I’m hoping that this early sowing will give them every chance to build up enough reserves to give me a display this summer, but I have a feeling I may be nursing them through another hot year before enjoying them in 2027. Let’s hope I’m wrong and I’ll be reporting back in June with pictures of a wonderful border bursting with froth, exuberance, and a plant that I've promised won’t be absent from my borders in future.
