Three plants to grow in 2026 that are as delicious as they are pretty, from Siberian chives to 'Turkish warty cabbage'

I know it’s still cold and the ground may be hard as a hammer, but the days are getting longer and, when the clouds part, there’s just a sense that spring might not be many weeks away. Even as I still cling to the log burner and mulled cider appears in the evening once in a while, my notebook is starting to fill with scribbles of what I’ll be adding to the garden for the season to come.

Although I won’t yet share what I’m growing for the first time this year — they might turn out to be disappointing — I’d like to recommend three of my favourite unusual edibles of which I’ll be adding more.

First up, Turkish rocket (Bunias orientalis), which also goes by the less appealing name of warty cabbage. Don’t let that put you off this wonderful hardy perennial. Visually, it resembles a more brassicaish version of a dandelion, with its long blade-shaped leaves having a similar flavour to the familiar rocket. Turkish rocket’s flowerheads and flowers are great to eat, too, with all parts carrying that punchy, mustard-greens flavour; the young tender leaves are superb raw, with the larger leaves, the flowerheads and stems best steamed or stir fried.

Sow seeds in early spring, in modules undercover, pot on once and then plant out in May. It is often easier to source young plants and, once they are established, they are easy to divide (spring is best): they establish well. Turkish rocket tends to get to about 1½ft across, so bear that in mind with spacing. Full or part shade is ideal, as is any non-extreme soil. As with many leafy perennial vegetables, Turkish rocket gets growing early in the year, offering a harvest of young succulent leaves often before spring has really got into its step, with the flower stems and flowerheads following as the weather warms. In my experience, it is fairly free of pests, although slugs can be a nuisance to planted-out seedlings, so take whatever measures you like best.

Next, I suggest you try Apios americana — I’ve no idea why it is not more widely grown. This tuberous, climbing hardy perennial is also known as the ground nut and the potato bean and, as well as being delicious, it is quite beautiful. Growing enthusiastically up anything it can grip, the leafy tendrils can easily reach 6ft by midsummer, with burgundy/chocolate flowers dotted across the plant.

Oval tubers, usually 1½in to 2¾in long, develop on stringy roots beneath the soil and, when lifted from late autumn and cooked — as you might potatoes — taste like nutty new potatoes with a texture quite like yams. Any tubers you leave — or lift to replant the following year — provide the engine room for harvests to come. Apios is also a nitrogen fixer, taking nitrogen out of the air and making it available to the soil via its roots, enriching the bed as it grows. Anything you grow adjacent or in the same patch gets a nicely fertilised bed. Apios tubers, in effect, feed us twice. As far as I am aware, there are no named varieties and it’s usual to start with tubers, largely available in the colder months. A moist, well-drained soil is preferred and some shade is tolerated.

My last tip is the Siberian chive. I grow a wide range of chives, from familiar purple-flowering chives (Allium schoenoprasum) to the white-flowering (A. schoenoprasum f. albiflorum albiflorum), garlic chives (A. tuberosum) and the newest on my patch, the Siberian chive (A. nutans). It is this latter variety that has really earned its place over the past few years and I’m going to expand its territory.

Siberian chives are bulbous perennials that grow to about 1½ft tall, forming appealing clumps as they establish, with striking mauve flowerheads about 2½in round, made up of numerous star-shaped flowers. These are particularly attractive to pollinators and other beneficial insects, including honeybees, bumblebees, leaf-cutter and mason bees. The leaves, flowers and seeds are delicious, with the flat, narrow, leaves carrying a mild onion/garlic flavour, the flowers a little more intense in flavour and the seeds — ready in autumn — similar to onion seeds in appearance and flavour. Use the leaves as you would common chives and do try the flowers scattered through leafy salads or as a finishing herb — the seeds are especially good with potatoes, eggs and in breads such as focaccia.

As are the majority of chives, Siberian chives are tolerant of most soils and situations, but prefer sun and a moist, well-drained, rich soil. Allow 1ft or so between plants. If you are after more leaves, cut back after flowering. Seed is rarely available, so start with a plant or two, from which you can propagate by division in spring or autumn.

Mark Diacono grows edibles, both usual and unusual, at Otter Farm in Devon. His book Abundance: eating and living with the seasons (Quadrille, £30) is out now.