I am thinking about growing a couple of bronze fennel plants this spring. I never have any luck with the seeds of anything but sunflowers..LOL. I was thinking about getting some transplants a little later on this season. However, I have heard from some sources that bronze fennel doesn't do well transplanted but that you need to start it from seed because it is tap rooted. If anybody has any experience with transplanted bronze fennel, please let me know. Also, I need to know which variety is the best to grow right next to parsely plants.
Thanks,
Chuck
Bronze Fennel
I bought a small pot of bronze fennel last year (lots of roots for such a small pot) and had NO problems. Now it's trying to take over a part of my herb garden :-) I have also dug some of the bronze fennel out and given it away, and no one reported any trouble. Watch out though, it will reseed vigorously. At least here in Michigan... I cannot speak for California.
Oh yes, bronze fennel near parsley is fine. I have bronze fennel "Rubrum", and it doesn't have any issues being near parsley. They seem to enjoy each other's company, so long as the fennel does not overshadow the parsley and steal all of the sun. Mine is just starting to sprout, so I think it has done just fine.
Thanks, Calypsa,
I really appreciate your response so quickly. That would be exactly what I want: the bronze fennel and parsley taking over my herb garden. I plant herbs at different parts of my butterfly/hummingbird garden. I have lemon balm under my peach tree and I wanted to plant the fennel and parsely not too far from the lemon tree.
Did you plant your bronze fennel and parsely in full sun or will it take a little shade during the day?
Thanks again,
Chuck
Hi Chuck!
Mine are in almost full sun, but keep in mind the fact that I'm in Zone 5. Our sun is a lot wussier (pardon the term) than yours. I would imagine that it would do just fine with some shade in your area. I have heard other people say that even in Michigan it will do okay so long as it gets a good several hours of direct sun, it will be just fine. From my limited experience, all I can say for sure is that bronze fennel seems to be quite tricky to kill. But, again, that's here in Michigan... :-) What we really need over here on this thread is a California gardening expert!
If you truly want a nice section of your herb garden full of parsley and bronze fennel, my only words of advice are that you should be sure to keep the bronze fennel to the back since it can get so tall. Maybe plant it closer to the trunk of your lemon tree? And the parsley farther out so it can get more sun and won't be as shaded by the trees and fennel. Parsley just grows in little mounds usually, so it will not be able to reach up and fight for sun. So long as you try and keep them a little bit separated and ensure that each gets its own good dose of sun, they should be fine! I hope that helps a bit... :-)
I am so jealous that you have a peach tree and a lemon tree. I wish that those would grow over here! Curse these Michigan winters!
Cheers,
Nissa
I grow them from seed like anything else and then transplant them with no problems.
Debbie
Thanks, Debbie!! Do you plant the plants in full sun? Also, in your climate, do they last as annuals, biennials or perennials?
Thanks again,
Chuck
Chuck, the fennel and parsley will do well together, and the fennel self seeds like crazy here. You also get the bonus of a plant that the black swallowtails love to lay eggs in. I had several caterpillars in mine last year that munched away to their heart's content and did seemingly litte damage to the plant
That's good news about the swallowtails! I didn't see any in ours last year, but then again I wasn't really looking for them and I was paying more attention to other plants (new house, new garden). Our garden seems to draw tons of bees and butterflies. I'm hoping that we get lots of good caterpillars on our bronze fennel this year!
Chuck--here they do best over the winter and then become "fodder" for some of the local butterflies and other insects in the spring and summer. Kind of a "sacrificial" plant for me to keep the insects ( and butterfly larvae) off the plants (vegetables, mainly) that I want them off of. Mine are in the shade because of our heat in the summer but they are under a deciduous tree so they get winter sunshine. They often get "muched" down to ground level in the early summer-late spring but resprout about Oct.1 (much like cilantro). I just start them in seed trays like any other seeds I don't direct sow. Lots of luck with the plant--its really a cool plant, in my opinion!
Debbie
Debbie,
I am planning (after you telling me) on planting the bronze fennel the same way you have...where the plants have direct sunlight during the cooler months and are under the shade of an apple tree during the warmer months.
I am trying to find someone in Southern California that has had luck with using the Bronze Fennel as a host plant for butterflies here. The best that I can figure out is that it serves as a host for the Anise Swallowtail Butterfly.
Thanks again, Debbie, for the feedback....
Chuck
Mine's under a peach tree; so an apple would work really great...they just hate excessive heat and that shade in the hottest part of the summer really helps.
Debbie
Chuck
My bronze fennel started from seed 3 years ago comes up on the south side of the house and performs spectacularly every year. We are zone 6 but this garden has a zone 7 microclimate. It takes no work at all and really is a focal point. The pretty flying things like it. We have it surrounded by rosemary, sage, pineapple sage, oregano, thyme, basils and chives and all are happy with the arrangement.
HM
Dear HM,
Thanks for sharing your experiences with bronze fennel with me. I was thinking about planting some parsley with it so I can attract swallowtails.
I spent the day in the garden. The local hummingbirds got mad at me because I let their feeders go empty. Now they are happy again and quarrelling over who gets what feeder!! LOL
My son in West Hills, CA has a myriad of geraniums. We got cuttings from him this last weekend. I have been planting the cuttings. They don't really fit into the hummingbird/butterfly garden mode but they are pretty and it is really spring anyway. And after all, it is for fun and beauty that we do this, right?
Take care,
Chuck
Chuck.
We do it for beauty, for fun, for spiritual nourishment, for good health. Geraniums. They are a future project for me.....as they are so interesting that I know I will need to devote much time and garden space. This year...it is about converting from annuals to perenniels, and attracting butterflies. I am planting cosmos, zinnias, african blue basil and butterfly weed to go with the coreposis, love in a mist, and yarrow that are already there. The bee balm is seeded.....it is a re-introduction....if the groundhog shows up again this year with the intent of eating it bare...I will throttle it with my bare hands. Won't my anise hyssop and pineapple sage also attract butterflies? Do I have the necessary to attract humingbirds? Should I start putting up some feeders? This would be a new area for me. HM
(I think we're following each other around)
I don't have any hummingbird feeders, but we have hummingbirds - there are enough flowers here to keep them going all summer. I've never found their nests, but we always have at least 3 pair, sometimes more. The turf wars are quite intense between the front of the house hummers and the back of the house hummers when they meet in the gardens at the side of the house! And they do like both the true Geraniums and the Pelargoniums.
I just transplantd some from one spot in the yard to another, they were small plants with a tap root of about 4 in or so, they are doing fine. They wilt badly if transplanted during the heat, but mine did fine this time of year.
kathy
Today I planted three Bronze Leaf Fennel plants and three Italian Parsley (the flat leafed kind, not the curly one). I planted them so that when (or if) the leaves grow on the apple tree it will receive protection from the afternoon sun.
I pruned the apple tree in late February. I hope the leaves still come back in. The herbs were a lot of fun to go shopping for. I went to four nurseries until I found exactly what I was looking for.
Take care,
Chuck
Yesterday it was 88 degrees here. This is what little shade the fennel and parsley have. I am looking forward to the flowers. Thanks for all the information....
Thanks,
Chuck
Chuck....I think one needs an artistic eye to appreciate the flowers for bronze fennel. They look like uber-dill flowers and jut out in odd ways. I suspect next year your fennel will be much larger as the tap root will be well established. I am replacing my camera battery tomorrow and will take a pic and post it of what my 3 year old fennel looks like.
Regards HM
My bronze fennel grew from the size of a plant in a 6-inch pot to something enormous in a few years. I loved the foliage and the way it looked with my tall Miscanthus varieties. When I finally decided that it was more than I could handle, it was as at least 5 ft. tall with numerous small plants everywhere with various heights. It took a long time to remove all the unwanted plants. I have been growing parsley for the butterfly larvae, for our rabbit Scooter, and for myself ever since!!!!! The plant that you do not want to grow close to it is Dill.
Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Out of curiosity, why no dill near the Bronze Fennel? My garden has the Bronze Fennel off in one corner and I've been trying to decide where to plant my dill this year.
Thanks, Karin...I hope that the fennel doesn't spread that bad here. Is it possible just to prune the plant when it gets too tall? I don't mind the height. It is the width that is at premium here. In my small backyard, every plant needs to be weighed between performance and space.
Thanks again,
Chuck
This link refers to a retardant that the roots of the fennel give out to plants nearby.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/herbs/msg0912114630063.html?6
I'll see what else I can find in regards to the dill & the fennel proximity.
Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hope that link was viable!!
Hrm... that is disappointing. I've got my fennel placed kind of near a small blueberry bush (maybe a foot or two away). Hope they will both be able to live harmoniously!
Look at the section in the link below headed by "Herbs like coriander, fennel, and dill are umbellifers" ... http://www.digmyplot.co.uk/comp.html
Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.digmyplot.co.uk/comp.html ... ... Here is the link corrected from above.
Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuck,
I think you could prune fennel so that it doesn't spread so much at the sides, but watch out for those baby plants. If you have stones around it, it won't be able to self-seed so bad. We had a heavy landscape cloth down an mulch, but the babies just grew on top of the cloth everywhere.
Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuck
Sage, chives, lettuce, thyme, oregano, rosemary and basil all thrived near my bronze fennel. I have dill near the onions and the cucumbers.....and have had good success. My theory is...if they taste good together, they grow good together and my favorite summer salad is cucumber, red onion and dill with a splash of vinegar.
I am, however, paying attention to planting a green fennel plant...I don't want it too close to the dill so may just tuck it in a scrub plot near a fence to see what I get. I am trying to make a butterfly habitat. HM