family Celery

[digitS']

This could easily be broader than what I have intended. It took me several seasons of growing parsnips to realize that the pretty flowers that grow along the roadways around here are wild parsnips! But, I'm not talking parsnips or carrots, etc..

The word "celery" is derived from the Greek word for "parsley" and it could be okay to reference that. They are fairly close cousins. Probably quite a few of us have parsley. I have started each year and just grow parsley as an annual. It is a biennial but seems to, somehow, pace itself so that folks can have a patch of parsley that will be usable just about year-around. It can just about be left to itself - which is what we did back on the farm.

I have read that some gardeners will dig celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) and over-winter it in their homes. Do I understand this correctly? What would keep it from just bolting to seed at the beginning of the new season? As best as I understand, it is a biennial.

Turns out, celery grows in a lot of places as an invasive weed . . ! This is news to me but I think I might know the plant well enuf to identify it if it is here and if I am looking for it. I've only grown celery once with very poor success.

What about this Par-Cel (Apium graveolens var. secalinum)? Some people call this "cutting celery" or "parsley celery." It is supposedly a perennial. !! I'm not sure that I knew this when I grew it one year - probably, just pulled the plants if there were any in the spring. It was easy to grow. Was this something I should have kept in my perennial herb plantings? What is your experience with this family of plants?

Steve

 

[baymule]

My experience with parsley and celery is buying it at the store. Celery a weed? Not at my house, fer durn shure.
........Baymule goes outside.......scans the large expanse of lawn that DH has forbade her to dig up.........cain't eat grass........

 

[Bluebonnet]

This could easily be broader than what I have intended. It took me several seasons of growing parsnips to realize that the pretty flowers that grow along the roadways around here are wild parsnips! But, I'm not talking parsnips or carrots, etc..

The word "celery" is derived from the Greek word for "parsley" and it could be okay to reference that. They are fairly close cousins. Probably quite a few of us have parsley. I have started each year and just grow parsley as an annual. It is a biennial but seems to, somehow, pace itself so that folks can have a patch of parsley that will be usable just about year-around. It can just about be left to itself - which is what we did back on the farm.

I have read that some gardeners will dig celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) and over-winter it in their homes. Do I understand this correctly? What would keep it from just bolting to seed at the beginning of the new season? As best as I understand, it is a biennial.

Turns out, celery grows in a lot of places as an invasive weed . . ! This is news to me but I think I might know the plant well enuf to identify it if it is here and if I am looking for it. I've only grown celery once with very poor success.

What about this Par-Cel (Apium graveolens var. secalinum)? Some people call this "cutting celery" or "parsley celery." It is supposedly a perennial. !! I'm not sure that I knew this when I grew it one year - probably, just pulled the plants if there were any in the spring. It was easy to grow. Was this something I should have kept in my perennial herb plantings? What is your experience with this family of plants?

Steve

I would not pick ANYTHING from the carrot family Apiaceae in the wild.

1. Because of the risk of chemicals being sprayed upon it. If you think wild areas are safe, consider our government sprayed several of the infamous Rainbow Herbicides all over the U.S. secretly. Assume that nothing is safe.

2. Because it can be confused with the deadly hemlock which can kill you.

Just buy some. It is not worth the risk.

 

[so lucky]

Years ago we used to see little 6-packs of celery plants in the spring, but not any more. I think it gets too hot too soon for it here. Parsley does good for me, though.

 

[digitS']

. . . If you think wild areas are safe, consider our government sprayed several of the infamous Rainbow Herbicides all over the U.S. secretly. Assume that nothing is safe.

2. Because it can be confused with the deadly hemlock which can kill you.

Just buy some. It is not worth the risk.

Well, I wasn't eating the parsnips out there either. I just didn't know what they were for the longest time.

The self-sowing must take wild celery quite awhile and starting the seedlings indoors isn't an option for the wild. It is, however, what is recommended for the gardener.

My celery growing was many years ago and I was using a window in the cabin for all of my plant starts, pre-greenhouse. It may have been why I was so unimpressed with what I was able to accomplish.

Years later, the Par-cel were small plants but made quite a lot of greens. They just grew well !. I am really quite sure that I didn't know they were perennials and just expected them to flower & die the 2nd year. They were started in my little backyard greenhouse and that was about 25 years ago so their usefulness in the kitchen isn't fresh in my mind. I think they were going with the fall lettuce and such in salads.

I have recently learned that one might as well use the entire Cilantro plant - just chopping the root finely. The root must take a fair amount more cooking than the leaves but could be added with the other root veggies or sauteed first. One would think that I have just realized that I have yet to order Celeriac seeds, that other celery sister. Yep ! Will be darn near my last order and I've got one choice for Celeriac at this point in time - Fedco! Brilliant! May as well ask 'em for the "Parsley Celery" again, as well!

Steve

 

[digitS']

Wouldn't you know it!? Fedco is sold out of Par-cel!

There was another parsley-celery but it sure didn't sound the same! (I did order 2 new varieties of melon .)

Off to Kitazawa - maybe my last seed order for 2014! They have a "Japanese parsley." Fall asleep . . . This morning I learn that Japanese parsley is an invasive species in the US! Oh . . . turns out to be Hawaii! Well, that ain't gonna make it a perennial here!

Kitazawa has "Chinese celery" but that is cilantro. They've got Celtuce. Don't you know? That's lettuce. I've grown that . . .

Johnny's and the UK are the only places I can find Par-cel at the moment. Shoot. Next!

Steve

 

[Lavender2]

@baymule - hey check this out, someone in Texas gives it a thumbs up - ParCel

@digitS' - boy, I really did not need to add to my list, and I don't think DH will fall for 'the grass moved in a bit, till another row' , again .. ... but that Par-cel is very intriguing. The nursery I go to always has some unusual things that most others don't... have you ever seen starts for sale? Might just have to cut back on the lemon balm ...

Traditional celery is waaay too picky to grow not bitter in my climate.

 

[digitS']

I have never seen it for sale as a plant, @Lavender2 . I can imagine sowing the seeds again, thinning them by the fall, and seeing what happens with the plants the following year. If I could find out how hardy it is. Common UK veggies like leeks have surprised me by doing okay here. It isn't as tho' I have admiration for the English cuisine but there are plenty of those folks with greater food knowledge and skills than my own.

I know that there are other perennial members of the more distant family, like Sweet Cicely. I'm not trying to cultivate any more tastes, especially. I have no idea if I'd like to use Sweet Cicely in cooking but doubt it. Parsley is good and for all I grow, I really should use more of it in my tomato sauce in the fall. Preference is always for the basils. I mean, I'm good at walking right by the oregano in the backyard, as well.

Celeriac is such a coarse thing above ground. It never occurs to me to use its leaves in a salad. Besides, it is highly valued for its roots and deserves to be left alone.

Steve
Wow! That's a link to an outfit that sells the plants, Lavender! Uh, oh. I have been looking for the Richter's catalog and can't find it. Just looked online and they have leaf celeries (link) . Both are listed as "annuals."

 

[digitS']

Lovage?

 

[Lavender2]

I have never seen it for sale as a plant, @Lavender2 .
Wow! That's a link to an outfit that sells the plants, Lavender! Uh, oh. I have been looking for the Richter's catalog and can't find it. Just looked online and they have leaf celeries (link) . Both are listed as "annuals."

Yeah, looks like a nice nursery in Heflin, Alabama. Just can't justify $10 shipping for 1 to 3 plants and the plants are $5.95 ea.
Johnnys also lists Par-cel as an annual... says 80 to 85 days. I doubt it would make it as a biennial here. Usually not parsley either, unless it's an unusual/almost never mild winter.