Hiya,
I do believe my sage has made it through the winter. It seems to be starting to grow some new leaves. I didn't think it was a perennial, at least not around here. I think some thyme survived too. So what do I do now? Do I trim the old stalks or leave it alone? Or is it not worth keeping a year old plant? I have some seeds started anyway. But I'd keep my old plant if it's worth it.
Perennial Herbs question
I would trim back the dead foliage and encourage the new growth. I do the same and plant seeds anyway... That's herbal insurance. : )
Ditto. The stevia I had growing in a pot seemed to be dying. I cut it back to almost nothing and stuck it in the ground amidst the other herbs and am seeing quite a few green leaves. I haven't tasted any to compare the degree of sweetness yet, but it's growing! Also stuck a few woody stems into water and am waiting to see if any roots form.
Sage and thyme can come back year after year (different varieties are hardy in different zones), and they'll just keep getting bigger and more glorious!
Basil is an annual, and I'm pretty sure parsely and dill are also... but many herbs are perennials, which makes them wonderful garden investments!
Just a note on parsley --- I grow the flat-leafed Italian type and it is a biennial (meaning that the plants come up again, flower and go to seed in the second year. I just let it re-seed itself for the next year's crop. There are plenty of seeds to go around too if you want to collect some of them. It is notoriously slow to germinate if you try to start it from seed indoors, though I've seen a tip to pour boiling water over the flats once you've put the seeds in. Haven't tried that yet. The patch outdoors does just fine on its own.
Cool, I'd forgotten that, thanks! Maybe some of the parsley I sowed for the flutterbyes will pop back up then and start reseeding itself after this year.. that would be a good thing!
Thanks about the sage tips. I know there are perennial herbs. Just none of mine have ever lived through the winter before, so I wasn't sure what to do with it. Some of the new growth is on the old stems.
jenhillphoto- your sage will bloom later this spring if you don't cut it back too much now- you can cut it after it blooms to shape it up if you want!
My curly parsley acts like a biennial also, as McCool described above. I don't know if it tries to reseed or not. I mulch heavily and that may keep seeds from sprouting. I just plant a couple of new ones each year and have a continuous supply.
My regular sage, pineapple sage and thyme are all perennials. They just keep going and going and going.............
jenhill, sage is a perennial in z6 (I'm in 6b), but will get woody and probably need to be replaced at some point, but not for at least 5-6 years. it's a wonderful plant and very easy to dry the leaves that you don't use fresh.
most thymes should be hardy for you. my creeping thymes (I have 9 varieties) are all evergreen. they may take a beating, but when the snow melts they brighten up and bloom in the spring and are very pretty. they make great ground covers. I use them for underplanting under roses.
there is golden thyme (left) and mother-of-thyme (right) under the red rose that has been there for 3 years
I planted some thyme under some roses last year and something enjoyed eating it. They never ate the entire plant, but would eat some of the leaves off. Mine didn't look as good as yours in that picture. I grew it from seed.
Well, I'm trying to decide now if I want to keep the old sage, because I started some from seed as well and have some seedlings inside. Maybe I will just keep both.
Jen, I'll bet your seed-grown thyme will come back fuller than ever this year... It took mine a couple of years to get really established, and now it's this lush, thick, expanding patch... really nice!
I've never had anything nibble at my thyme... I thought critters just avoided most herbs. (Basil is an exception -- it's like a magnet for slugs and japanese beetles.)
I've never noticed anything nibbling on my thyme either, but if they just took a bite here and there I would not notice. Mine takes a lot of water to look great, Jill. How about yours?
Once it gets established as a nice clump, a good weekly soakng (if there's no rain) is all it takes to make it happy... but little thyme plants appreciate more water, especially if you want them to grow quickly to fill in and compete with weeds... I've got thymes started around the edges of my patio, and they're coming back wonderfully this spring!
I have it planted around flagstones along one side of the main garden bed and around some miscellaneous perennials along the side of my driveway. The driveway group looks better than the other and it gets REALLY hot.
I've got 'Translucent Golden' thyme and Phlox subulata planted in a little rock garden that's bordered by the street, the sidewalk, and two driveway aprons just a few feet apart... talk about an "inferno strip" garden! The thyme does even better than the phlox... and creeping phlox is tough!
That's really pretty, Jill. It's amazing how some things will just take off in that kind of heat and blazing sun. It took me years of failures to find what will work along my driveway strip. There is a brick wall right behind and the black asphalt in the front. I have verbena, lantana, dianthus and the thyme in there, along with some spring-blooming anenomes that do their thing and then disappear.
That little bed also has a dwarf Shasta daisy, 'Firewitch' dianthus, Coreopsis 'Zagreb', a French thyme, a little lavender plant, and a small patch of hens & chicks... and I plant white sweet alyssum around the edges each year (the alyssum just grows like crazy there).
My thyme never comes back. I wonder what I might be doing wrong.
Is it in a location that might be staying too wet over the winter? Poor drainage can be an issue for herbs.
There are also some varities that just aren't hardy for us... I think Lavender Thyme is one of them, and I have some under my potted bay (inside for the winter)... hope I can get that soft new growth to harden off when it's time to move the pots outside!
The variety is the simple garden thyme, but maybe it is too wet where I have it. I don't know where else I can put it that it will drain and get enough sun though. I also grow some in my deck containers, but I'm always hoping the one in the ground will come back.
When you replant it this year, maybe you can put it up on a little mound/ridge of soil, the way some folks do with bearded irises for better drainage. I have a couple of spots with happy herbs where I've made a little ring of rocks and filled it with soil, more like a little bottomless planter or a miniature raised bed.