I planted these salsify plants last year in hopes of growing some interesting new root vegetables to add to soup. I planted several in this bucket, which grew tall like a small field of grass. I read that one could pull up the roots at any time through the winter, which would make them ideal for soup. But, upon trying to uproot them, I found them to be impossible to remove from the ground. A tall field of grass, a thick bucket of roots.
So I gave up on them.
Then, this spring, after the whole winter and after trying (most unsuccessfully) to remove them, imagine my surprise when the remaining three plants suddenly flourished, grew twice as high as before, and sent out their purple flowers!
Perhaps the roots of these will soon be edible.
