Let's talk about Rocket - is it Wild or not?

[veggiechicken]

I like rocket, always have some in the GH and it self seeds easily. The catalogues are full of different rockets with fancy names, some have jagged leaves, some are smoother, spoon shaped. I thought that "Wild Rocket" was the original Rocket and that Salad Rocket had been bred from it.

How wrong I was!

Sorting through my old seeds, and reading the Latin names instead of the catalogue names, there are 2 different genera, and, several species of each - that's before we come to the Variety name!!

The important thing to know is that one genus is perennial and the other is annual. ...........and not all packets give the Latin name.

As a guide:-
Diplotaxis tenuifolia = perennial = Wild Rocket
Varieties - Selvatica, Dragon's Tongue, Olivetta, Voyager, Trizia, Wildfire

Eruca vesicaria sativa = annual = Salad Rocket = Arugula
Varieties - Salad, Discovery or just plain Rocket!, Apollo,

Rocket "Wasabi" seems to have the retailers confused - some say its Diplotaxis and others Eruca.

If you can add to this list, please do.

[burnie]

They all taste minging to me, so I will no longer be growing it. I do occasionally eat some whilst out fishing with my "piece", I much prefer Sorrel though.

[Thelma Sanders]

I quite like the sharp taste of rocket, mixed in a salad - the annual one that self-seeds in the greenhouse, but the perennial 'wall rocket' tastes disgusting IMO so won't be growing that one ever!

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Thelma. I wondered how different they were in taste. The perennial one is described as "stronger" and the leaves should be eaten small and young - but they say the same about the annual one.

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Now I love "Rocket" in whatever shape or form it comes in!

They all taste minging to me, so I will no longer be growing it. I do occasionally eat some whilst out fishing with my "piece", I much prefer Sorrel though.

No way Burnie!

I grew some red veined sorrel last year and it was "Rank"

[Zelenina]

There's also sweet rocket, Hesperis matronalis, which is yet another genus and is grown as a sweetly scented flowering plant, though it is still a brassica.

I like tame rocket, but even that tends to get much too strong in my garden with the hot weather. So I'm on the lookout for particularly mild varieties.

I recently got seeds for one called dentellata, described as a classic salad rocket with a mild flavour which makes it suitable for children. But it has deeply indented leaves which look more like wild rocket, so that's a bit more confusion.

[Thelma Sanders]

Talking of different tasting leaves....... I've been given some Chervil seeds. What are your thoughts on that?

[Zelenina]

I grew some red veined sorrel last year and it was "Rank

I agree with you, Deano. It doesn't taste very nice, but could be better cooked. It looks pretty and is hardy and it self-seeds, so I'm happy to have some of it around, but ordinary green sorrel is much nicer for eating.

Again they are two different species, although in the same genus. There's also sheep's sorrel or field sorrel which is a closely related edible wild herb/invasive weed of acid soils.

Ordinary sorrel = Rumex acetosa
Red-veined sorrel = Rumex sanguineus
Sheep's sorrrel = Rumex acetosella

[veggiechicken]

.......and
Buckler leaf sorrel = Rumex scutatus

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...growing-sorrel

[Zelenina]

Talking of different tasting leaves....... I've been given some Chervil seeds. What are your thoughts on that?

I haven't tasted it yet, but I'm tempted by the descriptions I've read to try growing some.

I've also got some seeds of the much more unusual turnip-rooted chervil, but they're supposed to be hard to germinate. So I also managed to get 4 roots of it from a market that had lots of unusual stuff, which I'm going to plant and let go to seed.

They actually look more like small stumpy parsnips or dirty whitish carrots than turnips. And again, in keeping with the theme of this thread, they are not only a different species from actual chervil but a different genus too, though both are in the carrot family, Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae).

Chervil - Anthriscus cerefolium
Turnip-rooted chervil - Chaerophyllum bulbosum

[burnie]

Wood Sorrel Oxalis Acetosella is the one I find wild locally, but you mustn't eat too much of it, another wild salad I find in early summer is Sweet Cicely, both the leaves and the seeds are nice with a "butty".

[Thelma Sanders]

I've got the pretty pink version of wood sorrel/Oxalis in the garden - where it spreads by seeds it is only ever white flowered Weird!

[Zelenina]

Ah yes, wood sorrel that's totally unrelated to the other sorrels, and doesn't even look like them, but does have the same kind of taste due to oxalic acid. I've got the weedy yellow-flowered oxalis in my garden. At first I left it alone because it looked pretty and small and harmless, but now I think it's my most hated weed. I'll check its Latin name for everyone and edit it in.

OK, I think it's Oxalis corniculata or creeping wood sorrel, though there seems to be some confusion between all the different kinds of Oxalis. It's the one that turns a bronzy purple colour in bright sunlight, and has wiry perennial roots and exploding seed capsules. And it loves growing in chinks and cracks in concrete where it's impossible to remove, and from where it can distribute it's seeds. It's the one plant that tempts me to use very strong weedkiller. Bindweed is only in second place compared to it.

[KevinM67]

Rocket is the salad leaf of choice in our household - wild rocket.

The easiest salad leaf to grow and in my experience, pretty much slug resistant.

I read last year that it was a perennial - but come November, it gets very 'stalky' and not that great to eat.

As a side note - my better half hates anything to do with gardening, however rocket is the one crop she happily went out in the back garden last year, every evening, with a bowl, picking it like a crazy lady.

[burnie]

Have you tried nettles and dandelions, they will be coming into season soon, nettles need cooking , Dock Pudding is an old recipe, not tried it, but ok in an omelette.