SINCE the Liberal Democrats privatised the Royal Mail a decade ago, ordering plants by post has become a slightly risky affair.

Now that many streets only get two or three deliveries a week, it’s not unusual for live plants to spend so long in transit as to be well past their best, or even dead, on arrival. The same can apply to bulbs, corms and similar.
 
But with very few exceptions, seeds are not a problem — they are capable of surviving anything the private sector can subject them to. So here are a few of the new offerings from the 2024 seed catalogues.

Beaches Mix from Thompson and Morgan (www.thompson-morgan.com; tel 0844 573-1818) is a sunflower claimed to be “ideal for coastal gardens and other challenging locations.” A bushy, fast-growing annual, it uses runners to spread, which anchor it, and its flexible stems are less likely to snap in the wind.

A sweet pepper that looks like a chilli, Spiralus, from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (www.organiccatalogue.com; tel 0844 693-4977), is of the ram-horn type — long and thin, basically. That shape makes it ideal for pickling whole. The fruits change from pale green to red, and the plant is said to be early and high-yielding.

If you fancy growing a hotter pepper, Marshalls (www.marshallsgarden.com; tel 01480 774-555) has a chilli that resembles a berry. Black Pearl carries numerous small, red fruit on a plant with purple leaves. To be frank, in the picture it looks like the sort of thing you’d warn kids not to eat during a country walk. I can imagine it making a dramatic sight in a patio pot.

And, if you’re in that sort of mood, you might fancy a cauliflower with bright orange curds which stay that colour when cooked. No, I’m not sure why you would either, but if you do you’re in luck: Plants of Distinction (www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk; 01449 721-720) are offering Cauliflower Amoresco, which as well as its startling hue is also described as “delicious.”

A truly stringless runner bean might sound like something you’d only find in paradise, or perhaps a far future utopia, but Real Seeds (www.realseeds.co.uk) reckon they’ve got one in Stringless Emergo, “bred to be properly stringless,” they say, producing long pods of excellent flavour.

Tagetes Dropshot from Dobies (www.dobies.co.uk; tel 0844 736-4209) sounds like a very interesting herb, especially useful if you’ve got a small or non-existent garden. It’s a New World species of marigold, Tagetes filifolia, also known as Irish Lace. Used as a food flavouring, it’s a small, mound-forming annual grown for its “wonderful feathery foliage with a sweet anise flavour.”

Musk Strawberry, new at Chiltern Seeds (www.chilternseeds.co.uk; tel 01491 824-675), has been cultivated in Europe for centuries but remains little-known over here. Prised by gourmets for its supposed pineapple/raspberry/strawberry flavour, it will apparently grow well in a moist and shaded position. A perennial easily raised from seed, it fruits through the summer and into autumn.