Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 1 JuneTwenty crowded rosettes on 5 June, every petiole a deep crimson and that crimson running on out through the green blades as veins, the outer leaves blushed pink and flecked purple — two single strands of spider silk crossing the frame.Week of 8 JuneA thickly sown leaf crop on 14 June, every blade glossy yellow-green and traced from the base outward with fine crimson veins off a solid crimson stalk, the crowns still buried so nothing of the root shows, under dim artificial light from overhead.Week of 8 JuneBeets on 14 June, twenty crowded rosettes with no stem among them, every leaf stalk and midrib a deep crimson-magenta that bleeds a little way out along the veins, one long red-stalked leaf drooping right over the front, under dull indoor light.Week of 8 JuneBeets in bright side sun on 14 June, two clusters standing apart with bare mix between them, their green plates crimped along the margin over crimson stalks, the outer leaves gone lime-yellow with pink veining or collapsed into pale straw rags.Week of 22 JuneBeets on 25 June, crimson veins fanning out from a crimson midrib across every glossy blade and the round stalks stained magenta the whole way down to the crown, the plants sitting flat in a low overlapping mat with weeds thick around them.Week of 6 JulyBeets on 9 July, eight crowns shoulder to shoulder, crimson running the length of every stalk and out along each side vein of the blistered blades — three or four root shoulders already standing proud and finely ringed, in early sun against dark trees.Week of 6 JulyBeets on 9 July, every stalk slender and round and deep magenta from the buried crown up, the crimson branching out again through each side vein of the puckered blades — the outer leaves flopped over the rim, dew on all of it, mown grass bright behind.Week of 13 JulyA dozen leaves cut and washed on 16 July, every midrib and lateral vein a vivid magenta-crimson fanning from the base so the whole blade looks drawn in red ink, margins crimped and buckled, soaking wet on a red towel under kitchen light.Week of 20 JulyBeets on 20 July, fifteen or more leaves radiating from one crown on slender rounded petioles of vivid crimson-magenta that carry the color on as a midrib well into each glossy buckled blade, in hard bright sun with sharp shadows.Week of 27 JulyBeets pulled on 31 July and set to soak, their skins crazed with fine shallow lines and faintly ringed around the shoulder, every cut stalk stub crimson right through, and the water already stained translucent pink-brown under hard kitchen light.Week of 27 JulyA washed heap of leafy tops on 31 July, dozens of slender crimson stalks fanned out of a colander with the vein network running that same crimson right through every blade, and one stalk among them a clear golden yellow, still beaded from the rinse.
