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We have a range of heritage varieties available to buy. Some of these are old favourites listed by Vilmorin in his book ‘The Vegetable Garden’ published in 1885, others are varieties that were available in our early catalogues dating back to 1896-1898, and other heritage varieties which were in our 1928 catalogue. The varieties are listed below with their product codes.
 
Vilmorin List – 1885
Artichoke Purple Globe – 10102
Aubergine Long Purple – 10401
Beetroot Detroit Globe – 10509
Cabbage April – 10901
Cabbage Brunswick - 10915
Cabbage Wheelers Imperial – 10907
Savoy Cabbage Vertus – 14107
Carrot Chantenay Red Cored – 11105
Cardoon – 15211
Cauliflower Snowball – 11207
Celeriac Giant Prague – 11302
Chicory Brussels Witloof – 11601
Cress Plain – 11903
Fennel Sweet Florence – 12202
Kale Red Russian – 10608
Marrow Custard White – 12801
Onion Ailsa Craig – 13201
Parsley Root Berliner – 13303
Parsley Plain or French – 13305
Potato Duke of York – 35009
Potato International Kidney – 35047
Potato King Edward – 35020
Potato Sharpes Express – 35055
Radish Black Spanish Long – 13716
Spinach New Zealand – 14404
Squash Golden Hubbard – 12314
Squash Turks Turban – 12309
Rhubarb Victoria - 91006
All of the herbs in our catalogue were listed by Vilmorin.
 
Kings Catalogues from 1896 – 1898.
Asparagus Connovers Colossal – 10201
Leaf Beet Swiss Chard – 10516
Broad Bean Aquadulce Claudia - 30103
Broccoli Purple Spouting Early – 10702
Cabbage Red Drumhead – 10934
Carrot Early Nantes – 11109
Carrot James Scarlet Intermediate – 11112
Carrot St. Valery – 11117
Cauliflower Autumn Giant – 11202
Celery Red Giant – 11401
Cress American or Land - 11901
Cress Water - 11904
Cucumber Telegraph Improved – 12010
Dwarf French Bean Canadian Wonder – 30207
Horseradish – 91030
Kale Cottagers – 10612
Kale Dwarf Green Curled – 10602
Leek Lyon – 12510
Leek Musselburgh – 12506
Lettuce All the Year Round – 12601
Lettuce Tom Thumb – 12610
Marrow Long Green Bush – 12803
Melon Blenheim Orange – 12901
Onion Paris Silver Skin – 13216
Onion White Lisbon – 13217
Parsley Moss Curled – 13304
Parsnip Hollow Crown – 13403
Parsnip Student – 13406
Radish French Breakfast – 13702
Radish Black Spanish Round – 13717
Radish China Rose – 13718
Runner Bean Painted Lady – 30415
Salsify – 14001
Scorzonera Long Black Maxima – 14201
Seakale Lilywhite – 14301
Turnip Snowball - 14905
 
 
Kings 1928 Catalogue
Leaf Beet Perpetual Spinach – 10517
Broad Bean Bunyards Exhibition - 30105
Cabbage Greyhound – 10911
Lettuce Lobjoits – 12627
Lettuce Webb’s Wonderful - 12621
Potato Kerrs Pink – 35018
Pumpkin Hundredweight - 12303
Radish Sparkler – 13711
Runner Bean Prizewinner - 30419
Tomato Ailsa Craig – 14801
Turnip Golden Ball – 14901
Turnip Milan Purple Top - 14903
 

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June has arrived and hopefully warmer days will be with us soon, although it has started cool with a mixture of sunshine and showers. This is a busy month planting out for the summer ahead and the risk of frost should now be long gone.
 
1.    This month's Sweet Peas are starting to bloom, pick the stems regularly to prolong the flowering period otherwise they will set seed and stop flowering.  The changeable weather and cool nights can cause bud drop this month, don’t worry if this happens, as the plants will soon settle down once the weather becomes more settled and warm.
 
2.    Around the second week of June, I make my last sowing of Runner Beans. For this later sowing I choose a white flowered variety such as White Lady or Moonlight. White flowered varieties are more tolerant to heat and will produce you a bumper harvest, which will often continue well into October, depending on the weather.
 
3.    This month you can finish planting your Summer Bedding plants into borders and containers. Hanging baskets can be hung out. Once completed you can sit back and enjoy your display for many months ahead. One word of caution due to the wet spring this year there is a high population of slugs and snails out there waiting to feed on your plants so some form of slug control may be beneficial to use around your plants.
 
4.    As June has arrived all those tender Vegetable crops can be planted out. Sweetcorn, Courgettes, squashes, Runner and French Beans and outdoor tomatoes can all be planted outside on your plot.
 
5.    As space comes available on the vegetable plot, or if you have some spare containers fill these areas up with further sowings of summer salads like Rocket, Lettuce, Radish, Beetroot, and mixed salad leaves.
 
6.    Make a sowing of Carrot Eskimo this month under Enviromesh and these will be ready to pull as finger carrots for your Christmas lunch.
 
7.    This month the soft fruit bushes will be producing a bumper crop of fruit, so it is important to erect some protection nets over the bushes, to stop any birds having a feed of your Raspberries, Blackcurrants or Strawberries before you do.
 
8.  Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers growing under glass in grow bags and pots need regular watering.  As soon as the first fruits set on Tomatoes and Peppers these can be fed once a week with a high potash feed. As soon as fruits start to appear on Cucumbers, start feeding once a week with a teaspoon of dried blood (a high nitrogen feed) sprinkled around the root, but away from the stem and watered in. 
 
9.    As gardeners we are always looking ahead, and June is the ideal time to sow Wallflowers and Sweet Williams for your autumn bedding display. These can be sown in an area, direct into the vegetable plot and be  grown on until large enough to lift and transplant to your flower borders this autumn. Toward the end of June sow pansies and violas under glass and prick out into pots or trays, ready for autumn displays. When sowing pansies and violas at this time of year and if the weather is warm and temperatures are above 20C it can inhibit germination. So a handy tip is to put the seed packets in the fridge the night before sowing them as this will chill the seed down and aid germination. The same trick can be used when sowing Lettuce seeds at this time of year.
 
10.    Keep a close watch out for black fly on broad beans, which if seen can have the tops removed as long as beans have already set, or the plants can be treated with a suitable insecticide. Also, keep a close eye on bedding Dahlias, Nasturtiums and Salvias as black fly also love to take up residence on these plants as well. It is always best to keep a close watch over your plants and if these pests are seen, they should be dealt with as soon as possible, otherwise, they can quickly take over and make your plants a mess and reduce their performance.

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Andrews Top Tips for May

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Regarding the size of the seed potatoes, this is an area which is easily misunderstood. Seed potatoes are generally sized 35x60mm. This means that the smallest seed potatoes in the sample will not fall through a 35mm square. If they balance on the square (at any angle) then they comply. The same sample must all pass through a 60mm square (at any angle). We have enclosed some photos of this procedure, which hopefully illustrates the point clearly (please note this uses 35x55mm size as an example, but it’s the same principle).
We always do a thorough quality inspection before accepting seed potatoes from our growers; therefore we are confident that the seed potatoes conform to this size specification.

For the record, accurate sizing is a legal requirement of seed potato certification and the standards are very strict.
Scottish seed potatoes are often sold as size 35 x 55mm. This means the tuber must not pass through a 35 x 35mm square but be able to pass through a 55 x 55mm square.

There is a common view amongst gardeners (particularly very experienced gardeners) that seed potatoes should be “golf ball” or “hens’ egg” size. Historically, some seed potato crops would have been grown as “dual-purpose” stocks, which means that after certification, the largest potatoes in the seed crop would have been consumed and the smallest potatoes would have been used as seed potatoes. This explains where the “hen’s egg” size originated. These days, seed potato production is very specialised and dual-purpose crops are a thing of the past. As a result, when ISJ agree contracts with our suppliers, we must market all the seed potatoes produced to maximise the return to the supplier, otherwise we will not have any growers prepared to plant specialised varieties. Hence, we purchase and supply 35x60mm seed potatoes.

Large seed potatoes have more “eyes”, (and more sprouts) therefore they produce more potatoes. For a First Early variety such as Arran Pilot, or a salad-type variety such as Charlotte, this is exactly what you want– lots of tasty potatoes, straight from the garden! If gardeners would like to see this in action, they should plant their seed potatoes by size – smallest to largest (or visa versa) - and then check the number of potatoes per plant as they harvest.

Small seed potatoes weigh less, so a pack contains more seed potatoes, which means gardeners should be able to plant a larger area. In addition, small seed potatoes have fewer “eyes”, therefore they produce fewer potatoes. What’s positive about that, you might think? Well, it means the crop will produce more, large potatoes and with a modern varieties such as Cara and Maris Piper, which can produce huge yields, this is ideal – a big crop of large, tasty potatoes to store through the winter. Commercial growers pay a premium for small potatoes, especially 25x35mm (these really are small!), for these reasons.
 
 
 

1. Example of sizing square

2. 35 x 55mm tuber will not pass through a 35mm sizing square

3. 35 x 55mm tuber will be able to pass through a 55mm square in any direction.
 
The principle is the same for 35x60mm seed potatoes, except the tuber must be able to pass through a 60mm x 60mm square
 
 Summary of Legislation and Procedures Surrounding Seed Potato Production & Supply

• All seed potatoes are fully traceable back to the original pathogen-tested, disease-free micro-plants. Without getting too technical, this is vital to ensure that, should there ever be an outbreak of disease, stock movement can be traced.
• All seed potato crops from Scotland are inspected by SGRPID (Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate) several times during the growing period and then prior to despatch from farm.
• All seed potatoes are issued with a plant passport prior to movement from the farm of growth and provided they meet the final inspection tolerances. Movement from farm is illegal until all inspections have been completed and a valid plant passport has been issued.
• ISJ are licensed to replicate seed potato plant passports for the horticultural sector and are regularly audited by SASA inspectorate (Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture) to ensure we comply with their conditions and meet the standards.
• ISJ replicated plant passports, which are the labels of the seed potato packs, show all the legal information required to ensure that stock is traceable. If your customer still has the labels, we can double check the details and will be able to trace the stock supplied back to the original field of growth. The Crop No. is a 6-digit number which allows us to trace the stock.
• The plant passport must also show the size of the seed potatoes. In most cases, ISJ supply size 35 x 60mm, although this can vary depending on the variety. We’ll explain this later.
• As an aside, ISJ are also ISO 9001 accredited – this is an international quality management certification, which demands we are regularly audited to ensure we comply with rigorous standards. This is not obligatory for seed potato providers, but we do it to give our customers confidence that we operate accurate and robust prepacking systems.

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The lighter evenings have finally arrived and after a wet March and wet start to April, hopefully the better weather will be with us all soon. Once the better weather arrives, the lighter evenings will give us all more time to spend in our flower and vegetable gardens. Happy Gardening!

1. As the weather improves and the soil dries out and gets warmer you can really get started on the Vegetable plot. This month you can make sowings of some of the smaller vegetable seeds like Carrots, Parsnips, Beetroot, Radish, Spring onions, Spinach, lettuce and salad leaves. You can also make further sowings of Peas & Broad Beans.

2. If you are planning to have a bumper harvest of Cucumbers, Courgettes, Marrows, Pumpkins or Squashes this year, then towards the end of the month is an ideal time to sow some under glass in a heated propagator at 21C (70F). I like to sow seeds into individual 9cm pots which are half filled with a good quality seed sowing compost. Once the seeds germinate and reach the top of the pots, I then carefully fill up the rest of the pot around the stems so the plants are sturdier and this will encourage further stem roots to grow. All these vegetables are of the same family so it is important when you sow them, always push the seeds in on their edge, rather than flat. This is so the water runs away from the sides of the seeds. This is important because if the seeds are sown flat, there is always a danger the seeds may get too wet and rot rather than germinate.

3. Once the soil dries out and is workable Early and second early potatoes can be planted, followed by main crop varieties towards end of month. Most Early varieties are ready to harvest in 11-12 weeks from planting as baby new potatoes.

4. Hopefully last autumn you left the old flower heads on your Hydrangeas. This was done to protect the young growth and buds during the cold frosty winter months, which is very important, if there is a winter cold snap. Towards the end of this month, it is the best time to cut off those old flower heads, and prune the plants into shape. I like to prune my Hydrangea down to 3-4 buds, as this helps to keep the plants at a manageable size and still rewards me every year with plenty of new flowers. Don’t be tempted to prune any lower than this otherwise you will get bushy plants but with a few or no flowers. Other plants to prune back at this time of year are the old growth of Penstemons and Hardy Fuchsias. These can be pruned back quite hard, down to about 15cm (6in) from the ground. This will encourage the new young shoots at the base of the plants to grow and replace the old woody growth you are cutting away.

5. If you are longing for a colourful garden this summer but gardening on a budget, then there is nothing easier or better value to grow than Hardy Annuals. There is a wide choice from Calendula, Cornflower ,Nigella, Godetia, Clarkia, larkspur, Poppy to name a few. These can be sown direct into the garden any time from this month up to the first week of June, as soon as the soil is dry and warm enough. These are easy to grow and will reward you with a glorious display this summer from very little time and effort as well as leave a few pounds in your pocket.

6. Towards the middle of this month, I will be sowing the last of my summer bedding in the propagator. This month is the time to sow African and French Marigolds, Cosmos, Phlox, Tagetes and Zinnias. These will quickly germinate and will be ready for pricking out into individual pots or trays in about 7-10 days’ time. If you haven’t got a propagator, you can still sow these flower seeds on a warm windowsill. Although sown later than a lot of summer bedding, they will still be ready for planting out at the end of May along with any other summer bedding plants.

7. If you are planning to grow some Sunflowers this year, either as cut flowers, to add height to borders or just some fun with the Children or grandchildren, then towards the middle of this month is a good time start. Sow the seeds into individual pots of seed sowing compost in the greenhouse or on a warm windowsill.

8. This month Perennials really put on a spurt of growth, so before they get too large, sprinkle some Blood, Fish & Bone fertiliser around the plants and work this into the soil. This will give the plants a boost, rewarding you with a bigger and better display this summer. As the plants grow add some twiggy sticks or a wire frame to support the plants as they grow. Putting these supports in early will allow the plants to grow through them, allowing there leaves to disguise them, still giving your borders that natural look.

9. Over the winter if your lawns have been sitting damp and, in the shade, or if your soil is not very well drained, then you may now have some patches of moss spoiling its appearance. This moss can be raked out (Scarified). You can either do this with a spring tined moss rake and a bit of elbow grease or use an electric Scarifier. Once scarified, mow the lawn again to tidy it up and leave for 1-2 weeks to recover, before applying a summer lawn feed.

10. As Summer and autumn Brassicas sown last month and the large onions sown in December under glass start to get larger, move to a cold frame to gradually harden off ready for planting out as soon as weather conditions improve. Gradually hardening off plants before planting out is always advisable, as this gradually acclimatises the plants to cooler outdoors conditions rather than shocking them, which would happen if planting straight from the glass house.

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March has arrived, and unfortunately the uoil is still very wet. Hopefully, we will get some dry weather soon to go with the longer  days. There are still a few jobs to do and now is the ideal time to start planning for the crops for the rest of the year. 
 
1.When the soil on my vegetable plot is dry and workable, I will be planting my onion sets. These will be planted into 9cm (3inch) deep drills, spacing each set 10-15cm (4-6inch) apart. But if the soil is still wet and cold like it is at present all is not lost! I have had very successful results over the last few years by planting onion sets into small pots filled with multi-purpose compost and grown on under glass or in the cold frame. This way they get a start and can be planted outside once the sets have green shoots on them and a good root system, at a time when the soil is in a better condition. This method helps you get started without you losing any growing time.
 
2. Peach trees are among the first fruit trees to flower, making them prone to frost damage. So it is a good ideal to keep a close watch over your plants, and watch as soon as the buds start to unfurl. To make sure you are not caught out, have some fleece or old net curtains ready nearby to hang over the tree to protect those buds if we get any frosty nights this month.
 
3.    An important job this month is to get on with pruning any bush Roses, as March is the traditional time for doing this job. Bush Roses can be pruned quite hard; I usually prune mine down to 3-4 buds, making sure the final cut is just above an outward facing bud. How hard you prune will depend on the age of your bushes. At the same time, prune out any old or diseased wood or weak thin branches from the centre of the bushes. After pruning, feed around the base of the plants with a good Rose fertiliser, and work this into the soil, then apply a good layer of well-rotted manure or compost as mulch. You can now sit back and wait for those glorious flowers.
 
4.    Autumn Bulbs are starting to bloom, as soon as you can get on the garden work in some Blood Fish & Bone fertiliser around the soil near the bulbs. This will help feed the bulbs as they start to dye down after flowering, and will put energy into the bulbs ready for next years display.
 
5.    This month is a busy time for my heated Propagator set at 21C (70F), or on a warm windowsill. It is the perfect time to sow Asters, Antirrhinums, Gazania, Salpiglossis, Verbena, Stocks, Mesembryanthemum, Nemesia, Salvia, Statice, Lobelia, Nicotiana, Ageratum, Dahlia, Cleome, Impatiens and Petunias. Sown now you will have good plants for planting out at the end of May, giving you colour all summer.
 
6.    To help get some early salads, I like to sow some salad leaves in long troughs or large pots filled with compost this month. Once sown, these can be grown on in a cool glasshouse or conservatory, and you will be amazed how quickly you will be harvesting your own home grown fresh salads. An early sowing of Radish in a trough indoors also works well.
 
7.    If the weather is poor make use of any spare time checking if any house plants are getting a little pot bound, and appear to be suffering. If so, now is a good time to re-pot them. Only move plants on into pots that are 1-2 sizes bigger than the original pot, and always use good quality potting or house plant compost.
 
8.    Around the middle of the month I will start to sow under glass into small pots my Brussels Sprouts and summer Brassicas. Sown now they will make good size plants for hardening off, ready for planting out at the end of April. Brussels Sprouts need a long growing season to ensure they produce some good quality tight buttons in time for Christmas. My first sowing of outdoor lettuce will also be sown. I like to sow a few seeds every 2-3 weeks and then prick these out into modular trays. Sowing regularly in succession will give plenty of fresh leaves to harvest throughout the year.
 
9.    On a dry day give your lawn a cut to tidy it up, but don’t make this first cut too short. After cutting the lawn, if you didn’t get around to scarifying or aerating your lawn last autumn, this can still be done now , provided the soil is not too wet. Simply rake over the lawn with a spring rake, pulling out any old dead grass (thatch) and Moss. Then aerate the lawn by going over the lawn and inserting a fork as deep as you can, this will help let air into the lawn and improve your grass. After doing this, if you have any bare patches these can be re-seeded next month when the soil is a little warmer.
 
10.     Once the soil has warmed up and hopefully dried out towards the end of the month one of the first vegetables I will be sowing direct into the soil are Parsnips. I like to punch a hole into the ground with a crow bar, fill this with some sandy compost and sow 3-4 seeds per station. Then once germinated they can be thinned out to an individual seedling, which will produce some spectacular long roots to harvest by the autumn. As Parsnips can take a long time to germinate I like to sow a few radish seeds in-between the parsnips to get an early crop and help identify the row, making it easier to keep the ground clean from weeds.

 

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Here's an explanation of symbols that are used on our website and in our catalogues.

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