Description

Upland cress
Barbarea verna

Biennial. Forms a rosette of green leaves that can be eaten raw or cooked. Good watercress flavor. Well suited to indoor cultivation. Yellow flowers in^2nd year. Flowering shoots resemble small broccoli and can be eaten cooked. Re-seeds itself. Native to Europe. Also known as land cress, garden cress, or winter cress.

Full sun to part shade. Well drained soil. Direct sowing after the last frost or indoor sowing 3 weeks before. 5 mm deep. 20 cm between plants.

Germination: 71% in December 2025
Ecological seeds produced at Catherine’s Ornamental Garden.

Note
In the spring of the 2nd year, upland cress grows very quickly, forming large clumps up to 40 cm wide. It flowers fairly early, in late May or early June (in zone 4b). At this point, the plant forms a large bush, around 70 cm high. Flowering is ornamental and interesting for pollinators. However, the leaves become too bitter to be eaten.

Not to be confused with St. Barbara’s weed, the very common barbarea vulgaris, a very similar weed. Also native to Europe, it produces millions of seeds and is now naturalized in Quebec. Its bitter, nauseating flavour has nothing in common with the garden cress we offer. We still recommend that you don’t let your upland cress plants reseed, just in case.