Celery Red Soup

Very hardy and with a good old fashioned Celery flavour, the dark green stalks are blushed red and have lovely golden pink hearts.

How to Grow Celery from Seed

Celery is often considered to be a difficult crop to grow, but modern self-blanching varieties that don't need earthing up to produce their tender white stems, have made the process easier.

Non-self blanching varieties do need 'earthing' up, like potatoes, in order to bleach the stems. A cleaner alternative is to wrap a collar of cardboard around the stems and earth up to the collar.

Celery prefers moisture-retentive, well-drained soil in a sunny position.

Celery seed can be sown during March and April and typically germinates in 14 to 21 days.

Celery seed is tiny, lightly sow a pinch of seed across the surface of a moist good quality seed compost and cover with a thin layer of vermiculite. Cover to retain moisture without omitting light.

Remove the cover once the seeds have germinated, keep moist and grow on until the first true leaves have formed, then pot on into individual 3 inch pots.

The young celery plants will be ready to go outside about five weeks later, when they're 8cm tall.

Harden them off first in a cold frame before planting out, about 27cm apart ensuring the crown of the plant is at ground level. Celery plants will grow better planted in a block rather than planted rows.