Lost & Found

Only a handful of gardeners have ever grown the seed of the ‘Devonia’ tomato. It is larger than a salad tomato, but it’s not a beefsteak. It is bright red, sweet and juicy. It is also prolific, bearing, in the right conditions, extraordinary trusses weighing up to two kilograms each. ‘Devonia’ was grown in the 1890s by Peter Bryant Wescott, a horticulturist in Braunton, Devon, and the tomato’s seed has been handed down through the generations.

Out of concern for its continued survival, some of that seed was sent to the Heritage Seed Library, attached to Garden Organic, in Coventry. Here, Catrina Fenton, head of the Library, and her team manage a collection of some 800 heritage seeds. These are grown