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Asparagus officinalis |
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| Common name |
asparagus |
| Family |
liliaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial |
| Flowers |
green (summer) |
| Size |
7' |
| Light |
sun |
| Cultural notes |
ordinary garden soil |
From seed  |
we grow a sterile form
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One of only two perennial vegetables we grow (the other being rhubarb), asparagus makes quite a statement in our vegetable garden. Once it starts shooting up in spring, we typically get only a few meals out of our patch, because invariably, we forget to check on new growth for a few days, at which point the shoots are two feet tall and no longer fit for eating. And they don't stop there - soon after, they are blooming, and reaching to the sky. By mid-summer, our patch resembles an enchanted forest of green upright trunks, with weeds representing the undergrowth, and bindweeds the vines climbing up the trunks. Quite a picture!
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| | In November, our forest even sports fall foliage! |
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| | Close-up, it's easier to see the lily family resemblance. Also posing here is the larva of the asparagus beetle, Crioceris aspargi |
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This plant used to grow in our garden, but it slipped away... About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Asparagus officinalis
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| pdxJules | Mar 31, 2006 | I recieved five or six 3 year old seeds in a Garden Web trade - and all sprouted using Winter Sowing method. Now that they are a few years old I'm planning to watch and harvest tender stems every few days. Last year they were very productive, so I look forward to eating from these plants for years to come.
The same person also sent me a half-dozen older Asparagas Fern seed, and I got 100% germination on those using Winter Sowing...enuf for 2 airy pots that are doing well indoors, a couple years later. They love being watered with rainwater, and a sprinkle of fresh humus in summer.
I like your method for grouping up sprawling foliage. I think I'll try something like that, and add mulch around the base to keep down weeds and conserve moisture. Thanx for your site! |
| ken wharton@att.net | May 19, 2010 | i was given this plant in a box like a tree never knew what it was then it sprouted again for the firt time i saw the sprout it loks like aspargus but my husband an i just laughed thought it was a tree then i got asparagus to plant an low n behold same plant so i had to check on web |
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