Best New Edible Plants of 2014

February 1st, 2014

Just in time for your plant-planning pleasure is my annual four-part series on best new plants debuting in 2014.

I’ll start today with the best new veggies, herbs and fruits, then pick up next week with best new annual flowers of 2014, then move on to best new perennials of 2014 the following week, and finish off with best new trees and shrubs of 2014.

Here you go:

Basil ‘Try Basil.’ This is a new potted plant mix from Burpee Home Gardens that puts three different basil varieties – a smooth, Italian ‘Genovese’ type, a crinkled green-leaf type and a purple-leaf version – in one pot.

It’s Ann Hoffman’s favorite new edible coming to Black Landscape Center in Upper Allen Twp. in spring.

“What took so long for someone to think of this wonderful idea?” she asks.

Artisan™ tomatoes. Lots of new twists await tomato aficionados this year, but this line of sweet/small/striped varieties from an independent California breeding farm is most curious.

The ‘Tiger’ series of Artisans is oblong in shape, while the ‘Bumble Bee’ series is more rounded. The seven total varieties range in color from yellow-green to orange to pink to purplish-red.

All keep producing all season until frost, and they’re about as good-looking as good-tasting.

Seed is available from Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Totally Tomatoes.

‘Indigo’ tomatoes. Oregon State University last year brought us a break-through new tomato color – true dark purple – in ‘Indigo Rose.’ It’s that color because it’s rich in anthocyanin, a disease-fighting antioxidant.

New anthocyanin ‘Indigos’ debut this year in blends of dark red, blue/black and dark purple, including ‘Indigo Apple,’ ‘Indigo Blue Beauty,’ ‘Indigo Blue Berries’ and ‘Indigo Kumquat Hybrid.’ These are all cherry types and small fruiters.

‘Indigos’ are no slackers in the taste department either, based on early gardener feedback. Seed sources include Totally Tomatoes, Harris Seeds and Territorial Seed Co.

You’ll also find three other new varieties of ‘Indigo’ tomatoes in grafted plant form through Burpee Home Gardens’ new Bumper Crop™ tomato line. That line also features a “Big Collection” of four grafted, large heirloom varieties and an “Early Collection” of three grafted, fast-maturing varieties.

Tomato ‘Chef’s Choice Orange.’ This newcomer is one of two tomatoes to win All-America Selections honors in nationwide university trials.

‘Chef’s Choice Orange’ is a hybrid bred using the orange-fruited heirloom ‘Amana Orange.’ Like that one, it’s bright orange in color.

‘Chef’s Choice Orange’ produces average 12-ounce fruits about 75 days after planting in the garden – significantly earlier, and also more disease-resistant, than ‘Amana Orange.’

Tomato ‘Fantastico.’ This is the other AAS tomato winner, and it’s a red-fruited grape type.

‘Fantastico’s’ attributes are: early to ripen, heavy in yield, resistant to late blight, resistant to cracking and compact in size, making it a good choice for container use.

Bean ‘Mascotte.’ The first bean to win an AAS award since 1991, ‘Mascotte’ is a bush filet-type green bean that grows a compact 18 inches, making it a good choice for pots as well as in the ground.

I test-grew this one last summer and found that the beans were longer and slimmer than most (a skinny 6 inches) and totally stringless.

The yield was good. One other side benefit was that the beans formed high and toward the outside of the plants, making them easy to see and pick.

Squash ‘Green Tiger.’ This was my favorite new veggie that I test-grew last summer – a compact zucchini that produces attractive dark- and light-green striped fruits.

But beyond that, two practical advances impressed me more.

One was how fast ‘Green Tiger’ got busy, producing ready-to-pick fruits just 5 weeks after I direct-seeded in mid-May.

The other is how this variety refused to die under the usual squash vine borer attack. Even though the bugs nearly wiped it out, a couple of ‘Green Tiger’ stems kept fighting to produce enough fruits for regular picking until frost.

I got my seed from Harris Seeds, but W. Atlee Burpee Co. and Jung Seed are others that carry it.

Goji berry Big Lifeberry® and Sweet Lifeberry®. The healthful fruits of this sprawling, viney shrub have long been popular in its native China, but goji berries recently become trendy in grocery, health-food and nutrition stores.

“Now this antioxidant super-fruit is available to home gardeners,” says Bryan Benner, a grower at Dillsburg’s Quality Greenhouses, which is supplying two new goji berry varieties from Proven Winners.

Big Lifeberry® was bred for its larger-than-the-species red fruits. Sweet Lifeberry® was bred for its sweeter-than-the-species flavor.

Both grow 5 to 6 feet tall in full sun to light shade and benefit from some tying or trellising to corral the plants’ floppy growth habit.

The oblong, pea-sized fruits ripen continuously from early summer to fall, flower purple and produce with just a single plant (cross-pollination not required).

I think the taste takes some getting used to, but apparently birds and deer are just fine with it.

Blueberry BrazelBerry Blueberry Glaze™. Finally, here’s a new blueberry that looks like a fruiting boxwood.

“This is like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” says Josh Howard of Oregon’s Fall Creek Farm and Nursery, which bred the whole line of cutting-edge BrazelBerry fruit bushes. “Blueberry Glaze™ has really dark berries – nearly black – and a boxwood-like habit. It’s got glossy, glossy leaves, and you can shear it like a boxwood.”

The fruits are high in antioxidants, the 2- to 3-foot size is compact enough for pot growth, and fall leaf color is a rich burgundy.

David Wilson, marketing director for Overdevest Nurseries, also likes this newcomer for its spring flowers. “The plant really comes into its own with masses of gorgeous pink, fading to white, tubular flowers that are produced all over the 2- to 3-foot mound,” he says.

Just give Blueberry Glaze™ acidy soil and at least one other blueberry nearby for pollination purposes.

(For a look at some of my favorite new annual flowers of 2014, visit http://georgeweigel.net/favorite-past-garden-columns/best-new-annual-flowers-of-2014.)

(For a look at some of my favorite new perennial flowers of 2014, visit http://georgeweigel.net/favorite-past-garden-columns/best-new-perennial-flowers-of-2014.)

(For a look at some of my favorite new trees and shrubs of 2014, visit http://georgeweigel.net/favorite-past-garden-columns/best-new-trees-and-shrubs-of-2014.)