HERBS FOR 2010 - Whose In???!

About every year I try to grow some herbs and every year I have success and failures.

Last season I had tricolor sage, green sage and a lovely variagated sage. All did well until I brought them in the house in the fall and shortly after they had either died or gone dormant. I also tried pineapple sage, varigated ginger mint and several others.

So I am thinking, well, if they died, they need to be replaced, if they are dormant, well hopefully they will come again!

So what are your favorites?

I loved that golden varigated one I had I think the best. It was a beautiful plant.

I like pineapple sage because it has those beutiful red flowers in the fall. As far as flavor goes I love dill. I found that most herbs die off in the fall and some resead themselves like basil others have to be replanted like sage I have a love hate reationship with rosemary. I love the flavor and it never dies here it just keep on going but it takes over my herb bed I have to trim it back every year. Thyme is a favorite on fish and chicken but I have to replant if we have a cold winter tarragon is a good herb I use it to infuse oils and vinagers I grow it in the greenhouse in pots and it seems to do very well all year long. So I guess I'm not answering your question. My favorite would have to be oregano it grows year round here in the garden even after a unseasonal snow and a freeze.

I too grow that pineapple sage yearly, I have to buy it every year too. I love the golden delicious pineapple sage with it's yellow leaves and bright red flowers, I try to grow that one yearly also.

Not sure if these are in the "herb" family I think they are LOL but I love to grow mexican bush sage, it's absolutely beautiful when it blooms, this year, I dug it up and put itinto the garage for safe keeping and dug up the miniature mexican sage also, and they are doing fabulous, so maybe I won't have to buy those two again.

I tried yerba buena this year, and I think it bit the dust outside, I will try it again this next year.

and I tried the variegated silver edged horehound 3 years in a row and it finally took this past year and doing great now.

I bought the golden feverfew this past year and it grew 3 feet tall and was beautiful.

I also got the variegated land cress and it's reseed everwhere for me, which pleased me LOL

Lions tail finally dropped seeds this fall and started new babies but they got frost bit , i'm hoping the seeds that didn't germinate will germinate in the sprin g and I'll have a nice little bed of the lions tail this year. I always loved seeing that plant at the Memphis botanical garden in the spring, it is georgious.

I grew the double flowered feverfew virgo this year from seed, and saw it the other day and it's still green :0) so I guess it's alive and doing well.

many more, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

I usually just purchase new plants and start over each year ... I know ... I'm guilty. The only thing I've kept from year to year is my Rosemary which you can not kill. I found some seeds in my seed stash the other day, though, and have started the following
cilantro, chives, garlic chives, firn leaf dill and mamoth dill. I've never had much luck doing herbs before , so we'll see. I thought I had some basil ... so many seeds so little time. LOL

I must have some lemon thyme and lemon grass, so if there's another CoOP? I missed out on the last one. Hmm, maybe I need to check the DG Market Place.

I think most herbs are annuals anyway , thats why we restart with them...

I know mints will come back. Some take over and like Oregano.. oh boy, that thing is liek a wild fire.

The hardest herb for me is my favorite Cilantro it just shoots up flowers and dies I am going to try a different type this year and see if it makes a difference. I'll tell you one that is a nuisance thats garlic chive I have a raised bed garden and its growing between the rows in the ground I stomp all over it and it just keeps going all year long. Year after year. And I don't really use it in cooking that much its to tough you have to really chop it fine. The white root is very tasty though. Here is a picture of my little herb garden I built I showed it in trash to treasures.

Dear rucky, my friend. Basil or cilantro as you call it, is easy to grow here. It just needs like most herbs a lot of picking, leave it and it will go to seed. That is true of most things, they do not grow for any other reason but to reproduce themselves, so if you constantly keep at them, they cannot go to seed.
I use ice cube trays, then I cut them up and put them in them, add a tiny bit of water and freeze. When you then need some, in the winter, you simply pop out a few cubes of what you want, and use them,simple eh! Harder herbs like rosemary, thyme and sage, I hang upside down in a paper bag in my shed, as it dries, you give it a shake and it falls into the bag. Instant dried herbs.
As for chives, I cannot think of much better, than simply finely chopped chives added to scrambled eggs. Then a bit of toasted homemade bread with my own smoked salmon on top, with a sprinkle of dill, and the scrambled eggs put on top!
Regards my friend.
Neil.

Found my wild chives to be better than the garden variety.. least the wild ones will grow in a pot in the winter in the house.. go figure!

I grow all my herbs in containers, also. I just don't have a place for an herb garden. I usually keep them close to the kitchen on my deck, but right now, they're out in the GH.

Neil, can I move in with you? Would your wife mind? I would just eat, then go about my business, lol....

Dear Pagancat, of course you can move in, if you don't mind chopping a few herbs and know how to pour a glass of Bucks Fizz in the morning to go with the salmon!
Regards.
Neil.

(((Neil))))

Neil I do grow Basil and it grows really good.Cilantro is the same as coriander it resembles flat leaf parsley I mostly use it in Mexican food and is usually added at the end of cooking because it has such a strong taste. I love to throw a handfull into a pot of pinto beans.Maybe we are talking about the same thing But here Basil abd cilantro are different.

Bucks Fizz?

I have an herb bed in the garden also The big bush in the front bed is of course rosemary and the rest is sage and oregano I think the basil was gone at this point. I just made the little herb garden out of a plastic barrel for a fun project. It had bunching basil, two different kinds of thyme, dill, sage, and regular basil. It was nice when it was raining I didn't have to go out to the garden for herbs. I used spaghnum moss instesd of dirt in the barrel to keep it lite and easy to move around. Only problem is now my sister and my Dad and one neighbor wants one.
Too many projects too little time.

What a pretty lot you have, Rucky.

Thank you its about three acres and a lot of work I use lake water for the garden and all of the other plants it pretty rich with nutrients and really kicks up what ever I plant. Also it was a sunny day which helped the picture.

Thank you for sharing

Does anyone know if I'm going to have to put the Arp Rosemary up against my house to keep it going? I'm just not having a lot of luck with this puppy....

I wish I could help but I only know about the ones I have and I am not even sure what kind they are. The one in my herb bed is very sturdy and has a woody stem the one in the GH is softer with longer leaves and no where near as hardy as the one in the garden. I appoligize I don't know all the proper names but untill I joined this websight I didn't care but now I wish I knew...

Just like the rest of us, rucky, you'll learn!

Actually my wife was allways the one who chose the herbs to plant and I pick out the rest but over the last few years we have blended in together. Now that I am retired I have a bigger intrest in gardening. Before I stuck with the basics tomatos peppers etc. Now I am venturing out and I have broadend my horizens so to speak. My wife doesn't have anything at all to do with the computerand don't want to learn. I am the one who is learning now and I am fasinated by all I can learn here at DG. Now my pickup don't pass a garden center without going in and walking around.

rucky

where did you get your plastic barrow?

love the garden plot you have there next to the creek, or river (depends on what part of the country you are from, LOL)

does it ever get flooded out?

Janet

Its a Lake actually. And I got the plastic barrell from where I used to work they had some catylist in it that was harmless and I washed them thouroughly anyway I cut the top and the windows in it with a hand jig saw then I sanded it and painted it with palstic paint for a base then stone paint for texture. I chuckled when I read where you are from because I have about 20 Sycamore trees in pots that I am planting this year They are my favorite. I planted one today and about 20 other assorted trees. And 30 cyprus the day before yesterday. I live right on the mouth of a river that dumps into a lake the land accross from me is a peninsula that protects my property from too much erosion I wish I could afford to bulk head but at $60 a foot I'd go broke.

I'm not originally from here, I'm a southerner who ended up in the north pole....LOL Originally from Florida with a stop all over the US but before here (northern Ohio) 20 years in central Kentucky.

Good to hear you don't have to worry about flooding too much.


Janet

Pagancat--you are in the borderline zone for R. Arp--
It requires a lot of light and is hardy to 18F. It grew very well in my previous zone8b in the open.
My best guess would be plant it close to your house on the South side and cover it when temps. drop below 20F.

Mmm - good info, thanks Vortreker. Glad it's indoors right now - going down to single digits again tonight.

Sheryl,
Be cautious about taking it in and out between extreme temperatures all of a sudden.--That will kill it. (Been there -done that) :)

More good advice. I've had this one inside for over a month - tried to kill it by letting it dry out (grrr!).

I'm still trying to figure out what ya'll are talking about Arp?? could someone explain please.......Ron

It's just a variety of Rosemary officianalis that is hardy down to zone 6 (maybe!).

Edited for spelling!

This message was edited Feb 2, 2010 3:07 PM

I'm gonna google it Thanx....Ron