Varieties bearing the Winter Garden tag have successfully overwintered in at our location near Sweet Home, Oregon – USDA Zone 8b, with average winter lows between 15-20˚F. We often use row cover for protection when temperatures are forecast to be below 25˚F, but have found many varieties are hardy down to at least 20˚F with no protection.
Please note that inclusion here is not a guarantee of success with overwintering! Many factors, including plant size, the presence of snow or other insulation, and gradually decreasing temps vs. an abrupt cold snap, to name a few, contribute to a plant’s winter hardiness. Varieties that do well some years may not survive others.
Most varieties listed here are planted and grown to maturity (or near maturity) during the main garden season and harvested during the winter months.
For more information about winter gardening, check out The Big Willamette Winter Gardening Chart. This is a compilation of notes on fall, mid-winter and overwintering crops made in collaboration with our good friend Nick Routledge. It includes lists of crop types, sow dates, hardiness, approximate harvest times, and notes on varieties gathered through years of experience. Even if you don’t live in the Willamette Valley, this info is sure to help any winter gardener where lows are above 10-15˚F.
Showing 65–96 of 135 results
Brassica napus. 25 days baby, 50 days full. An extremely frilly red Russian type. Appears to have frills on frills upon frills. Seems to be more resistant to aphids and heat than other kales. Good for making high volume bunches easily. Also great for salad mix before the frills start truly frilling. A reintroduction of…
Brassica napus. 25 days baby, 50 days full. Red Russian type with broader leaves, lighter red coloring and more jagged leaf edge. Very hardy and extremely rare. Possibly the most vigorous napus kale, it looks very healthy all winter. As the name suggests, bolting in the spring is weeks later than other kales, filling the…
Brassica napus. 25 days baby, 55 days full. We present to you – Simone Broadleaf! Our second release coming out of the Gulag Stars kale population. Simone Broadleaf has a strong thematic character containing all tasty broadleaf plants of various colors and leaf edge waves. Some plants are dark green and glazed, others are light…
Brassica oleracea. 60-70 days. Unique flat-leaved green kale from Sutherland, in northern Scotland. Many growth tips with small- to medium-sized, tender, sweet leaves on 3′ tall plants. Very hardy and tolerates the worst maritime winter weather, from freezing sleet and cold, to 70 mph winds. Makes the sweetest kale raab in the spring through the…
Brassica napus. 25 days baby, 60 days full. A Siberian type that was recommended to us by Dr. Alan Kapuler of Peace Seeds as a highly productive, hardy kale. A variety that is becoming harder and harder to find. Resembles other Siberian kale types and you can see its relationship with red Russian kale, which…
Brassica napus. 25 days baby, 50 days full. A selection made by Tim Peters of Peters Seed and Research in Oregon for the most cold hardy kale available. Tim selected Western Front from the 10% of survivors of hard freezes that killed most other kales, including Scotch, Russian and Siberian types. It has some variation,…
Brassica oleracea. 60-80 days. Instead of the usual variety description, and because we are in love with kohlrabi and The X-Files, Sarah has written a mini-ode to Superschmelz. Enjoy. Oh Superschmelz Kohlrabi, how I adore thee. The best part of broccoli (the stem) – at least to me. I didn’t think it possible, but somehow…
Allium ampeloprasum. Large, hardy winter leek with dark blue-green leaves. Some plants have purple hue to leaves during cold weather. An old heritage variety from Liège (Luik in Flemish), a province of eastern Belgium. Variety given to The Seed Ambassadors Project in 2007 by Belle Epoch Seed Company, Belgium.
Allium ampeloprasum. Selected for over 15 years for winter hardiness down to -10°F in Mechelen, Belgium. Not an especially long leek, this variety puts its growth energy into growing fat instead of tall. Thick giant leeks are very highly regarded in Belgium and are an important winter food. A selection of the heirloom Blue Green…
Allium ampeloprasum. Excellent, quick maturing summer leek. Blue-green color with beautiful broad leaves. Pancho Leek is known for its speed, as it can be sown in March and harvested in August. A great variety for organic farmers that was nearly lost from the trade when hybrid leek seed arrived. It is just as good, if…
Allium ampeloprasum. Our best leek if you want beautiful, tall, white stalks from the fall through winter. Of the Swiss giant type, Verdonnet is a landrace variety that has been improved by an unknown Swiss farmer/breeder. Swiss giants are typically great summer leeks, but these large, bright-green, tasty leeks stand all winter and into the…
Lactuca sativa. Bronze Romaine. 30 days baby; 55 full. Similar to Bunyards Matchless with more compact growth, slightly frilled leaf margins and dark green, crunchy leaves with bronze tips. Excellent sweet flavor. Plant breeder and author, Carol Deppe, says it has the best flavor of any lettuce she’s ever tasted. (!!!) Very cold hardy, needing…
Lactuca sativa. Bronze Romaine. 30 days baby; 60 full. Large, open heads are dark green with some bronze tint. Similar to George Richardson, Brown Goldring, and other Bath Cos types. Crunchy with distinctive nutty, sweet delicious flavor. This English heirloom is both cold and heat tolerant. Scored higher overall than most other lettuces for both…
Lactuca sativa. Red Oak Leaf. 30 days baby; 55 full. A fantastic and strange oak leaf lettuce, like some kind of traveling circus. Lime greens and pinks swirled together on leaves pointing in all directions come together to make Carnival very unique. Narrow leaves are similar to Canary Tongue but with a nice red blush….
Lactuca sativa. Bronze Romaine. 30 days baby; 60 full. The crunchy, dark-green leaves of D’Hiver de Sainte Marthe lettuce are beautifully tinged with bronze. A cold tolerant fall and winter romaine that is fairly slow to bolt, sweet and delicious. Similar to Bath Cos type lettuces such as Brown Goldring and Bunyards Matchless, but with a…
Lactuca sativa. Green Romaine. 30 days baby; 60 full. A solid, medium-sized, bright green romaine lettuce. Forms crunchy leaves and tall heads. Many of the heads will form multiple hearts. We thought at first that we should select away from this trait, however we found it to be a fantastic trait for romaine heart production…
Lactuca sativa. Red Butterhead. 60 days. Winter hardy, light-red butterhead originating in Hungary. The 12” green heads are splashed with red-pink. Very tender and delicious. Quick to bolt in the heat but perfect for spring and fall rotations. When growing for market, we liked to plant a late rotation in September to produce dense, 6”…
Lactuca sativa. Red Leaf. 30 days baby; 50 full. Unconventional red leaf lettuce that is very red and very rumpled. Leaf texture is similar to Bloomsdale spinach, but deep dark-red and lettucey. Great for salad mix and head lettuce. Very hardy, partly due to its red color. The antioxidant anthocyanin causes the red color and…
Lactuca sativa. Green Romaine. 30 days baby; 60 full. Very big, light green romaine heads. Good heat and cold tolerance with a crunchy sweet flavor. It performs excellently and is a variety we’ve heard many farmers swear by. We swear by it too! This was our romaine of choice when growing for market, and our…
Lactuca sativa. Green Butterhead. 50 days. Beautiful, light-green butterhead that was popular in the 1950s in English gardens and farms. Quick to produce a medium-sized head. Cold and damp weather tolerant and resists bolting until the summer gets hot. Originally sold by Finney’s of Northumberland, England, before 1950. Given to The Seed Ambassadors Project by the…
Lactuca sativa. Red Romaine. 30 days baby; 60 full. A deep red version of Winter Density with very dense heads that are slow to bolt and have both heat and cold tolerance. The red color darkens up early making it a very good salad mix variety. Can be planted densely like Little Gem and harvested…
Lactuca sativa. Red Leaf. 60 days. A delicious and hardy loose leaf lettuce. You know what you’re getting by the name: Red-Tinged Winter lettuce shows a tinge of red on its ruffled green leaves. Though it is clearly noted as a winter variety, we find it to be a good lettuce much of the year….
Lactuca sativa. Speckled Crisphead. 60 days. A large, crisphead type lettuce. Olive green with a nice bronze blush and covered in beautiful red speckles. In passing, it could be mistaken for a Castelfranco chicory but with close inspection it is all lettuce. Sweet crunchy flavor even in the heat of summer. Slow to bolt. Seems to…
Lactuca sativa. Green Pink Leaf. 30 days baby; 50 full. Apple green leaf lettuce tinged with pink. White Seeded Samara has a unique style, a little like a savoyed butterhead but without the tight heads. Flavor and texture is great, providing a sweet loftiness with a slight crispness. Grows vigorously and survives cold, wet weather…
Lactuca sativa. Green Romaine. 30 days baby; 60 full. A serious lettuce classic. We do not carry many common varieties but when we do, it is because we really love them. Winter Density Lettuce is halfway between a romaine and a butterhead. This old reliable variety is productive and disease resistant. Perfectly proportioned leaf shape…
Claytonia perfoliata. 30-55 days. This cool-weather salad green is native to the West Coast of North America, and Native Americans there have long valued it for food and medicine. Small plants prefer to grow autumn through spring and will regrow after multiple harvests. Leaves grow in pairs that slowly fuse together as they mature. Satisfying…
Cichorium intybus and Cichorium endivia. 30-60 days. Inspired by the delightful Sagra di Radicchio in Seattle, we bring you Bitter Is Better! This seed blend is a celebration of the Cichorium family of delicious, sweet, bitter greens and includes a diverse selection of chicory, radicchio, escarole, and endive. Leaf types vary from frisée to broad-leafed,…
Brassica rapa. 20 days baby, 40 days full. Mizuna and Tatsoi are some of our favorite mustard family salad greens. Combine the two and you get Mizspoona and the awesomeness increases exponentially! Very mild mustard flavor is delicious when eaten raw in salads and is also quite tasty cooked. Mizspoona Salad Select inherits the vigorous…
Brassica juncea. 20 days baby, 40 days full. Hands down the most beautiful red mustard for salad mix. The leaf color is green and purple, hard to describe, and reminiscent of the 1990s fractal posters that Sarah had in her room as a teenager. Very slow to bolt in spring, it has the perfect balance…
Brassica juncea. 20 days baby, 40 days full. At this point in our farming careers, it takes a lot for a spicy mustard to impress us enough to add it to the catalog. Frizzy Lizzy did just that – in the winter of 2014 (lows to 5°F), we trialed ten B. juncea mustards in a…
Brassica juncea. 20 days baby, 40 days full. This is our favorite winter mustard. It grows vigorously for us throughout the winter, bouncing back easily after one winter’s exceptional low of 8°F. Very hot when raw, the heat all but disappears when cooked and leaves you with a good balanced mustardy flavor. Excellent pickled, simply…
Brassica juncea. 20 days baby, 40 days full. A mix of gorgeous mustard greens perfect for salad mix. Or maybe it’s “georgeous,” which, to quote Urban Dictionary is “a transcendent beauty that forever consumes the hearts and minds of any who gaze at its stunning perfection.” Yes, that is a little hyperbolic for describing a…
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