Rare plants worth discovering

Unusual edible plants, grown to be rediscovered.

Explore perennial vegetables, forgotten herbs and historic crops — including plants that once belonged in everyday kitchen gardens and others you may never have heard of.

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Plant of the month

Ewiger Kohl

Its name means “everlasting cabbage” — a perennial kale that can crop for years without being resown.

Discover what makes it special →

Grown on a small scalePropagated here rather than bought in as mass stock

Free tracked UK deliveryCarefully packed and sent directly from the nursery

Know what you’re growingHistory, growing advice and uses for every plant

Popular discoveries

Plants people discover… then wonder why they’d never heard of them.

Some were once ordinary kitchen-garden plants that quietly disappeared. Others simply never became mainstream. Here are a few favourites to start exploring.

Awaiting restock

Caucasian Spinach

Hablitzia tamnoides

PerennialShade lovingClimbing edible

A rare perennial climbing spinach that actually likes shade and can produce edible shoots and leaves for decades.

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In stockFrom £12.99

Ewiger Kohl

Brassica oleracea var. ramosa

Perennial“Everlasting cabbage”Cut-and-come-again

Its name means “everlasting cabbage” — a perennial kale that can crop for years without being resown.

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Awaiting restock

Good King Henry

Chenopodium bonus-henricus

PerennialHistoric spinachEdible shoots

A once-familiar cottage-garden vegetable with spinach-like leaves and spring shoots sometimes called “poor man’s asparagus”.

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In stock£9.99

Lemon Sorrel

Rumex acetosa subsp. acetosa

PerennialCitrus flavourSun or part shade

A perennial leaf with a clean lemony tang that can brighten salads, sauces, soups and fish dishes.

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In stock£8.99

Lovage

Levisticum officinale

PerennialCelery flavourHuge harvest

One established plant can become a towering perennial supply of bold celery-like leaves, stems and seeds.

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Awaiting restock

Meadowsweet

Filipendula ulmaria

PerennialFragrant flowersMoist-soil lover

Creamy white flowers with a sweet almond-like scent and a long place in old drinks, desserts and herbal gardens.

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Grow for the conditions

Gardening through a dry summer

Long dry spells do not have to mean giving up on edible growing. Discover established perennials and drought-tolerant plants that cope better when rainfall becomes unreliable.

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AlexandersBiennial • Roman-era edible ChicoryPerennial • Edible leaf & root English PlantainPerennial • Drought tolerant PurslaneAnnual • Drought tolerant

The Forgotten Garden

Plants that have slipped out of ordinary gardens.

Some were once familiar sights in cottage and kitchen gardens. Others have long histories elsewhere but never found a permanent place in the modern British garden. The Forgotten Garden exists to keep these useful, curious and sometimes downright strange edible plants growing.

The older site described the aim simply: rediscover rare edible plants, explore what people used to grow, understand why those plants mattered, and find out which of them can still earn a place in gardens today.

Explore what gardeners grew before us →

Growing guides

Grow something you’ve never grown before.

Straightforward help with sowing, planting, perennial care, harvesting and seed saving — including a searchable sowing reference for the unusual plants in the collection.

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