Apium graveolens var. dulce
Celery, stalk celery, cultivated marsh celery: this is the selected form of a wild marsh plant, originally known as smallage, whose bitterness and intense aroma have gradually been softened. Its fleshy stalks, crisp when raw and meltingly tender when cooked, make it both a vegetable and a seasoning.
Characteristics:
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Fleshy stalks: smooth or ribbed, green or white depending on the variety.
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Dual texture: crisp when raw in sticks, tender and delicate once cooked.
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Aromatic base: used in almost all stocks, broths, and mirepoix.
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Usable leaves: often discarded, yet they add wonderful flavor to broths.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: a sunny, sheltered spot that warms up well.
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Soil: fertile, deep, and above all constantly moist — this is the decisive point. Descended from a marsh plant, celery cannot tolerate drying out: water stress causes it to bolt and makes its stalks hollow and stringy. Enrich generously with compost and wood ash.
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Method: sow in February–March under cover at 18–20 °C, on the surface or barely covered — the tiny seeds need light. Germination is slow; allow three to four weeks. See how to sow your seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant after the frosts, when the plants have 5 or 6 leaves, spacing them 30 cm apart. Do not bury the crown, or it may rot.
Care advice:
- Water heavily and regularly, never allowing the soil to dry out. Apply a thick mulch.
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Blanching for tender stalks: three weeks before harvesting, tie the stalks together and earth up around the base, or surround it with cardboard. Deprived of light, the stalks become paler, lose their bitterness, and become noticeably more tender.
Harvesting advice:
- Harvest the whole plant in autumn, before severe frosts, or pick the outer stalks as needed while leaving the heart to continue growing.
- Do not discard the leaves: once dried, they make an excellent substitute for celery powder.
Beneficial companion planting:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Let one plant go to seed in its second year: its greenish-white umbels are true platforms for hoverflies and beneficial micro-wasps, whose larvae devour aphids.
- Like all umbellifers, it is a host plant for swallowtail caterpillars.
Uses:
- Raw in sticks for dipping or sliced into salads; cooked in soups, stews, slow-cooked dishes, and braises. Together with carrot and onion, it forms the aromatic base of most European cuisines.
- A traditional medicinal plant, cultivated since antiquity. See our medicinal plants to sow.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Biennial, it goes to seed in its second year: leave one plant in the ground over winter, protected by mulch, then harvest the umbels when the seeds turn brown. Be careful, as it cross-pollinates with celeriac: isolate your seed plant. See how to save your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne volcanoes, we choose reproducible, open-pollinated varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to sow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
The aromatic base for all your soups, grown at home.
