Old varieties

[TilburgTim]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

After a discussion with a friend now in his 70's I am thinking of dedicating a part of my allotment to varieties that are not easily found now. I'm particularly interested (to start with) in just the basics. tomatoes, spuds etc.

Anyone know where I can find information over varieties that were popular in say the 40's and 50's?

Any other tips or ideas?

Let me know.

Thanks

Thanks

[Tam]

I think you might find this of interest - Organic Heritage Vegetables - The Helpful Gardener

[TilburgTim]

Thanks. looks like a good site.

[sarraceniac]

A lot of 'heritage' fruit and veg is far older than that Tim. I love old varieties (being old myself) and the cucumbers I grow are a Victorian variety, my favourite fruit tree is my Medlar, popular in the 16th century but now rare and my apple trees are mainly Cox's which everybody nowadays decribes as 'difficult, prone to disease and low fruiting', I never found it so. The European Commission banned the sale of a lot of our heritage veg and fruit a few years ago but if you keep up your search you can still find old varieties, sometimes even from, say, US sellers on eBay so keep searching and good luck.

[quark1]

You may also like to keep an eye out in the old book and charity shops for unwanted older gardening volumes - even somewhere like E-B*y/Ama**n might have a few from private sellers. Those printed around the dates you're interested in will definitely contain the varieties of fruit, veg and flowers popular in the era.

[Two_Sheds]

You may also like to keep an eye out in the old book and charity shops for unwanted older gardening volumes .

Buy anything by Percy Thrower

[Galileo]

Try Welcome to Irish Seedsavers They have a lot of old hard to get fruit and veg seeds.

[StephenH]

Try The Real Seed catalogue, or Thomas Etty.

[Sue]

Hi
I'd second The Real Seed Catalogue, everything I've had from them is growing well. You get more seed for your money too and its all non F1 so you can seed save.
You could also join the HDRA and subscribe to the Heritage Seed library for a choice of old varieties each year.

Sue

[Florence Fennel]

I've got a copy of the Daily Express book "The Garden for Expert and Amateur" published in the 1920s/30s which was 20p at a car boot sale. It's really useful to see how things were done and what was grown at that time.