🎨 AI-generated botanical illustration
🥕 Crosne (Chinese Artichoke)
Stachys affinis
vegetables
perennial
☀️ Sun
full sun
💧 Water
moderate
🗺️ Zones
[4,5,6,7,8,9]
🧪 Soil pH
6.0-7.5
🪴 Soil Type
well-drained, rich, loose
📏 Spacing
12 inches
📐 Height
12-18 inches
⏱️ Maturity
Harvest after frost kills tops (tubers sweeten with cold)
🤝 Companions (4)
🤝 Asparagus
Perennial vegetable bed companions; different harvest times
🤝 Mint
Both spreading perennials - contain separately but similar conditions
🤝 Strawberry
Both perennial groundcovers; strawberries occupy top, crosne the subsurface
🤝 Strawberry
Ground-level companions in partial shade
⚠️ Keep Apart (1)
⚠️ none — but can become weedy; harvest thoroughly or contain
📝 Growing Notes
Nature's most elegant tuber — tiny pearlescent spirals that look like albino caterpillars and taste like a nutty water chestnut crossed with artichoke. Prized in French cuisine. Perennial — plant once, harvest forever. The tubers form late and sweeten after frost. Hard to clean (all those segments), but worth it.
🛒 Buy Seeds & Plants
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Botanical Interests
True Leaf Market
Burpee
Territorial Seed Company
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