VegetableLettuce
Cimmaron Lettuce
Cimmaron lettuce is a stunning heirloom romaine that transforms salads with its deep ruby-red coloring and crisp, tender leaves. This cool-season annual grows into compact 10- to 12-inch heads in just 60 to 70 days, thriving across hardiness zones 2 through 10. The variety earned its reputation for being virtually impervious to bolting, making it reliable even as temperatures warm. Its mildly sweet flavor and vibrant appearance combine practicality with ornamental appeal, whether you're growing it in traditional garden beds or containers.
Photo © True Leaf Market
Growing Conditions
USDA Zone
2-10
Sunlight
Full Sun
Soil
Well-drained, Fertile Loam With Consistent Moisture
Growth Stats
12 in
Height
TypeSpreading
Spacing
8
Plant Profile
Sunlight
Full Sun
Water
—
Zones
2-10
Size
12in H x ?in W
Growth
—
Care
High
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Highlights
Few lettuces deliver both edible excellence and visual drama quite like Cimmaron. The deep-red foliage creates ruby-rust and purple tones that look as good in the garden as they do on a plate, with crisp, delicate leaves that taste mildly sweet. Its remarkable resistance to premature bolting means you'll get full harvests rather than bitter disappointment, and it handles cold snaps well enough to stretch your growing season in most climates. The compact, mounding growth habit fits naturally into containers, raised beds, or edible landscaping schemes where you want color and substance together.
Common Uses
Cimmaron shines as a fresh salad green, where its crisp texture and mild sweetness complement vinaigrettes and light dressings without overpowering them. The catalog sources specifically mention its appeal for edible landscaping and as a colorful addition to smoothies, suggesting its deep red pigmentation carries nutritional interest alongside visual appeal. Its compact size and tender leaves make it well suited to raw preparations where texture matters, though it can certainly be lightly cooked if desired. The vibrant color makes it particularly valued by cooks seeking to add visual contrast to composed salads and composed plates.
Growing Timeline
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Care Instructions
Start Indoors
Start seeds indoors 4 to 6 weeks before your last spring frost, keeping soil temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Sow seeds on the soil surface or just barely covered, as lettuce seeds need light to germinate. Maintain consistent moisture and provide bright light once seedlings emerge to prevent leggy growth.
Transplant Outdoors
Harden off seedlings by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions over 7 to 10 days before transplanting. Plant outdoors when seedlings have 2 to 3 true leaves and soil can be worked, spacing them 8 inches apart with 12 inches between rows. Cimmaron's frost tolerance allows planting as soon as soil is workable in spring, well before the last frost date.
Direct Sow
Direct sow seeds in spring as soon as soil can be worked, or in late summer for fall harvest. Plant seeds on the soil surface or just barely covered, keeping soil consistently moist until germination. Thin seedlings to the proper spacing once they develop their first true leaves.
Harvesting
Harvest Cimmaron lettuce when heads reach full size at 10 to 12 inches tall, typically 60 to 70 days after sowing, though sources report some variation with ranges between 45 to 69 days depending on growing conditions. Cut the entire head at soil level in the morning when leaves are crisp and full of moisture, or pick individual outer leaves as needed for a continuous harvest. The mounding growth habit means you can selectively harvest outer leaves while the inner head continues developing, extending your harvest window.
Growing Calendar
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Companion Planting
Ecology & Traits
Edible
Scientific Classification
Lactuca sativa
Family
Asteraceae
Genus
Lactuca
Growth Habit
Spreading
Native Status
L48 (I)PR (I)VI (I)CAN (W)
History & Origin
“Cimmaron is an heirloom romaine lettuce with roots in the preservation of open-pollinated vegetable varieties. The catalog sources identify these as non-GMO seeds, suggesting they've been maintained through traditional seed-saving practices rather than modern hybridization. Its ability to thrive across a wide range of hardiness zones and its reputation for reliability indicate this variety has been tested and refined by home gardeners and farmers seeking dependable performance in diverse climates. The emphasis on its suitability for colder zones and edible landscaping use points to its gradual adoption by gardeners seeking both productivity and aesthetic interest from their vegetable beds.”