Fennel help

[stevemac]

Hi,

I am looking at the possibility of growing fennel and wonder if anyone can help answer the following?

1, Does fennel come as both bulb and foliage? varieties?The reason i ask is the T&M have only these 2 kinds:


and


I know both the bulb and foliage can be eaten but wonder why the bulb is shown in one and the foliage of the "perennial herb" is shown in the other.

2/ I bought a packet from julien graves for cooking with.Can i use these for planting?

I would only be looking to grow a small amount as space has nearly ran out!!

[deezyb]

hi stevemac - i've had similar thoughts about fennel. anyway...I've got both bronze and green fennel growing and although the roots/bulbs look like they bulk up, they don't look like the stuff you buy in the shops! the frondy feathery stuff does though! maybe this link will help Fennel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

seems that you can buy Florence Fennel for bulbs/eating and the rest is herb like - could be wrong though

[stevemac]

Thanks deezyb

I have planted a few of the health shop seeds in a pot today so we will see how it goes
This is my first year of serious growing and i keep on finding more things i want to try!!

[Sweepster]

Google says:
'The edible, swollen stem of Florence or sweet fennel, or finnochio, is a true delicacy. This bulbous vegetable is a dwarf form of the common fennel cultivated in many herb gardens. As a herb, fennel reaches some five to six feet with feathery green or bronze foliage while Florence fennel grows only to two or three.'

I grow bronze fennel - it's beautiful, but be aware that it self-seeds and if you don't hoik the seedlings out quickly they send tap roots to the centre of the earth
You can remove the flowerheads to prevent this, but if you want to harvest the seeds (good with fish, apparently) you could put a paper bag over the developing seedheads, fixed with a rubber band, to catch them.