Step back in time to the gardens of Ancient Rome and unlock a world of new, ancient flavors.

Imagine:
• Biting into an Alexanders leaf, the "Parsley of Alexandria" that followed the legions across Europe.
• Tasting Cardoon and watching your garden fill with statuesque silver ribs.
• Crushing a leaf of Lovage, the intense ancient celery used in numerous Apician sauces
• Harvesting velvety Marshmallow leaves, the humble herb Horace championed for a virtuous life.

This is not a random “heirloom” mix. Inside you’ll find seed packets featuring real edible plants once grown across the Roman Empire. Cardoon, Alexanders, Lovage, and Mallows were culinary cornerstones of the classical world, each one immortalized in real texts like Apicius’s cookbook De Re Coquinaria (c. 1st Century), allowing you to grow familiar flavors that once graced the tables of emperors and stoics alike.

These plants brighten up a patio, fit into a backyard garden seamlessly, and add a unique twist to cooking. It is highly giftable for anyone who loves history, cooking, Tuscan aesthetics, or just growing truly uncommon edibles.

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: Unfortunately, Cardoon cannot be shipped to California. Please select the "California" option when ordering.

Note: Alexanders and Marshmallow have slower, more specific germination needs than common garden annuals and require fall sowing or extensive cold-moist stratification before spring planting.

What’s Included?
• 4x Seed packets featuring authentic ancient manuscript artwork
• Approx. 25 Cardoon, 20 Alexanders, 100 Lovage, and 50 Marshmallow seeds
• Non-GMO, 100% open-pollinated
• Hand-packaged in rustic kraft paper packets.

Full Details:
• Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum): Before the development of modern celery, Alexanders was an important potherb of the classical world. Later known as “Parsley of Alexandria,” this aromatic biennial was deeply associated with Roman cultivation and movement across Europe, spreading wherever Rome’s influence reached. Dioscorides says plainly that “the Romans call it olusatrum,” and explains that the leaves and stalks could be cooked “with fish” or “preserved raw in brine.” Pliny the Elder marveled at its vitality, writing that olusatrum was of a marvelous nature and reproduced from the tear-like gum, or sap, of its own stem. Columella, the Roman master of agronomy, advised sowing the seeds around the festival of the Vulcanalia, August 23, to ensure a harvest of fresh greens by February. There is even a reported Roman-period seed find from Caerwent in Wales. The edible leaves and fleshy leaf stalks offer a robust flavor akin to celery and myrrh, bringing an authentic taste of antiquity to the modern kitchen.

• Lovage (Levisticum officinale): Known in Latin as ligusticum, the name Lovage echoes its origins in the Liguria region of Italy, where Pliny the Elder noted, “Wild ligusticum is in the mountains of its native Liguria; it is sown everywhere.” This herb was an aromatic staple of the Imperial kitchen, offering an intense, concentrated celery flavor that could stand up to the bold, fermented textures of the era. The famous Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria, attributed to Apicius, is full of the formula “piper, ligusticum...” The sheer repetition of the herb through fish sauces, meat dishes, and highly seasoned dressings makes it seem like one of the signature aromas of the classical world. For soft or poached eggs, Apicius even dictates a precise dressing of pepper, lovage, and soaked pine nuts: “In ovis hapalis: piper, ligusticum, nucleos infusos.” Its tall, sturdy stems can reach up to six feet, crowned with umbrella-like clusters of delicate yellow-green flowers. The plant is fully functional as a culinary herb, offering a bold, aromatic flavor reminiscent of a robust blend of celery and parsley. The edible young leaves are excellent for flavoring soups, stocks, and traditional pottages.

• Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus): Known to the Roman world through edible thistles such as cinara and carduus, the statuesque cardoon belongs to the same ancient lineage as the modern artichoke. While contemporary gardeners often focus on the artichoke's flower bud, Roman sources highly prized the dressed and preserved stalks of these thistle crops. Their agricultural value was immense; Pliny the Elder noted that well-kept thistle plots could bring in 6,000 sesterces a year, delighting in the fact that they could be preserved so that “a day may not pass without our having thistles at table.” The ancient Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria, attributed to Apicius, provides precise culinary instructions for their preparation, stating in Recipe 112: “Cardoons are eaten with a dressing of briny broth, oil, and chopped hard eggs.” Fully edible when properly prepared, these stalks offer a mild, complex artichoke flavor. To ensure the best culinary quality, the stems are typically wrapped and blanched in the garden for a few weeks before harvest to soften their texture and reduce bitterness.

• Marshmallow (Althaea officinalis): Rooted in the wider Roman mallow tradition, marshmallow belongs to a family of plants that historically represented plain and virtuous fare. The renowned Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius opens a recipe with the brisk phrase “Malvas minores oleogaro...,” while the poet Horace famously declared his preference for the humble plant over imperial excess: “As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance” (me pascunt olivae, me cichorea levesque malvae). Pliny the Elder praised “both the cultivated and the wild” mallows, deliberately singling out marshmallow, or althaea, for its immense value in Roman botanical lore. The Greek physician Dioscorides also recognized its importance, lingering over its “white sticky root” in his writings, firmly securing this quiet marshland plant a place in both the classical kitchen garden and ancient tradition. The plant offers several edible parts; the young leaves offer a mild flavor and a naturally mucilaginous texture that acts as an excellent thickener for traditional soups and pottages.

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**Modern cultivars of historically documented plant species. No representation is made or implied that the seeds themselves are of historical or ancient origin/lineage.