Asparagus 'Mary Washington'

A hardy, prolific asparagus with plentiful, tasty shoots. What’s more, asparagus is super healthy, with vitamins A, B6, C, folic acid, fibre, calcium and thiamine.

Asparagus 'Mary Washington' is a male dominant crown that focuses on stalk, rather than seed production. It is a strong, rust resistant variety that produces large, consistent and delicious heads. Asparagus needs a cold winter to really thrive.

These asparagus ‘Mary Washington’ crowns are second year crops. Once planted in your garden, they are best harvested in their second or third season – depending on your patience, this will help with establishment. Once the crown has matured, you will get a 6-8 week harvest in spring/summer.

Preparation is the key to a successful asparagus crop. Asparagus is a permanent garden asset as the crowns can grow and produce for up to 20 years. Sot it is a good idea to position them with this in mind, and prepare the soil in advance with lots of compost and fertiliser worked through to ensure good drainage and nutrients for the crown.

After harvesting, you can leave the fern like foliage on the plant, it is can be quite attractive in the garden and has a plenty of benefits to overall production; it will help to increase stalk production by providing the crown with nutrients as well as delivering the crown with shade, reducing weeds and regulating soil temperature. You can remove it once it yellows.