Ice Queen Lettuce Info: Learn About Planting Reine Des Glaces Lettuce Seeds


Lettuce Reine des Glaces gets its beautiful name from its cold hardiness, since the translation from French is Queen of the Ice. Wonderfully crisp, Queen of the Ice lettuce is perfect for early spring sowing. Read on for tips on how to grow the Reine des Glaces lettuce plant.
Reine des Glaces Lettuce Plant Info
Ice Queen lettuce is a French heirloom lettuce that was developed in 1883. Since it thrives in cool and even cold weather, it is a top choice for early spring sowing.
Does that mean that lettuce Reine des Glaces wilts and bolts when the summer heat sneaks in? Not at all. In fact, it remains crisp and resists bolting even in summer. However, Queen of the Ice lettuce plants do prefer a few hours of afternoon shade in hottest weather. Reine des Glaces lettuce plants are especially productive in mild climates, where they grow right from spring through fall.
Reine des Glaces is a crisphead variety of lettuce that has a more open, relaxed growing habit.
The mature plant has a small, green center head but it is surrounded by looser outer leaves with spiky, lacy edges. Its small size makes it great for containers. And this is a type of lettuce that lets you pick the leaves you need while the head continues to grow. The delicious leaves of this variety can be eaten fresh in salads or cooked.
How to Plant Reine des Glaces Lettuce Seeds
Sow Reine des Glaces lettuce seeds right on the soil surface and only cover lightly. Make sure to choose a site with rich, fertile soil that drains well. Water your seeds often – it’s important to keep the soil moist at all times until your seedlings sprout.
It will take around 62 days until the heads are fully mature. Plant at intervals for a longer harvest period.
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Teo Spengler is a master gardener and a docent at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, where she hosts public tours. She has studied horticulture and written about nature, trees, plants, and gardening for more than two decades. Her extended family includes some 30 houseplants and hundreds of outdoor plants, including 250 trees, which are her main passion. Spengler currently splits her life between San Francisco and the French Basque Country, though she was raised in Alaska, giving her experience of gardening in a range of climates.
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