I have also planted some reddish lettuce. Now they are small and yellow with some suggestion of red. I decided partly on the color. a little bit red with green looks appetizing to me.

I plant New Red Sails every year. It doesn't have the darkest red color, but it grows well and stands a long time into summer.

I have been growing Red Rosie, a red romaine from Johnny's that I'm happy with. It is a lovely dark red on the outer leaves, and pretty much all the inner leaves are tipped and edged in red. It makes just a beautiful salad and tastes good too.

Skyphos is a redidsh butterhead lettuce that is used like a traditional leaf lettuce...very good flavor.

My favorite is Lollo Rossa. I liked it so much last year, I let my plant bolt and I saved the seeds.

Merlot is the most beautiful dark red lettuce I've grown. I can not testify about flavor yet but soon I'll be able to, as it is sizing up right now.

Also trying to decide on best red lettuce? Jon_dear, how was your Merlot for taste?

another vote for lollo rossa... looks beautiful, tastes even better.

Hyper Red Rumpled Wave

You might enjoy browsing the lettuce selection at Wild Garden Seeds. Frank Morton does some nice work.

http://www.wildgardenseed.com/index.php

I think you will have to cut and paste the link. Sorry-I am too lazy to look up how to imbed the link right now!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:64955}}

Thanks tripleione, I have Dark Lolla Rossa on my list. :-) Also Skyphos.

Thanks for pointing me to Wild Garden Seeds, mauirose, I'll check it out.

Skyphos was also listed among varieties that handle cold temps well. There are so many varieties on the market that one needs to try them to determine which characteristics they porefer. I like romaine ( over leaf, reg. or oakleaf) types but there are some people who dispise them. Also the bibb types are a little more crisp and can hold better in your frig than many leaf types.

Of the red leaf varieties Cherokee is attractive and handles summer heat well. The Red Incised in Johnny's Salanova Foundation blend is also one to try. For Romaine types Annapolis and Outredgeous are about as dark as a red can get. I also have liked Cimmaron, Red Cash, Rubane and Spock. You just need to try them all.