I have succeeded in my quest for the perfect radish! I found these beauties in the Burpee catalog. Since I have limited row space in my garden, I can only grow a few radishes at a time. I’ve had great success with a beet variety called Cylindra, which produces cylindrical beets rather than spheres. You get two to three times as much harvest from the same number of plants. So when I saw a radish variety with a similar shape, I just had to try it! Now, I’ve grown French Breakfast type radishes in the past. My experience is that by the time they’re big enough to harvest, the upper half has become pithy and the whole radish lacks crunch. Not so with these! They got ahead of me, or life got in the way, but I didn’t harvest these until they were massive. The bigger one was 8.5 inches (22 cm) long and weighed 8.5 ounces (240 g)!

I thought for sure it would be of questionable quality, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The texture was smooth and crisp, with just the right amount of crunch.

And the flavor was delightful! I did manage to eat a couple before they grew so massive, and they were just as lovely. I grew them in my regular Earthbox. Because of their length, I wondered if I should have put them in the Earthbox Root Box. But instead of getting tangled in the grate, they just pushed up out of the dirt. The big one’s root was almost three inches (7.6 cm) above the soil. I can’t say if they’d be as spectacular in a regular garden, but Salad Rose will definitely be my new go-to radish!

Here’s a picture of today’s garden haul: 2 Salad Rose radishes, 8 regular radishes, 2 small turnips, 2 small heads of lettuce (one red romaine called Ruby Glow, one red leaf called Sunset), a handful of snow peas, a small handful of purple snow pea blossoms + 2 sprigs yellow arugula blossoms (both are great in salads), and a couple sprigs of bolting dill…

…and the salad. Isn’t it pretty?