Mary Washington Asparagus

Mary Washington is the asparagus most American gardens grew for the better part of a century. Around 1900, asparagus rust was spreading through East Coast beds and growers were losing whole plantings. USDA plant breeder J. B. Norton worked with Massachusetts growers to breed plants that could stand up to it, crossing an American selection with the English variety Reading Giant. The USDA released seed of the new Washington strains in 1919, and Mary Washington became the one everyone planted.

The spears come up deep green with purple-tinged tips and stay tender when you cut them young. It's open-pollinated, so a bed grows both male and female plants. The females set small red berries on the ferns in summer, and those berries aren't edible.

Give it full sun and soil that drains well. Let the plants build their roots for two to three years before you start cutting, and a bed can keep producing every spring for 15 years or more.

• Botanical name: Asparagus officinalis
• Sold as: One young plant in a quart pot
• USDA zones: 3 to 8
• Type: Open-pollinated heirloom, released by the USDA in 1919
• Spears: Deep green with purple-tinged tips
• Disease: Bred for resistance to asparagus rust
• Sun: Full sun
• Soil: Well drained, pH 6.5 to 7.0
• Planting depth: In a trench 6 to 8 inches deep, filled in as the plant grows
• Spacing: 12 to 18 inches apart, in rows at least 3 feet apart
• Height: Ferns grow 4 to 5 feet tall
• Harvest: Spring, starting two to three years after planting