I got a pair of Greek Basil plants from DeBaggio's last year, and their description indicates that this is a seed-grown variety and not a hybrid (they mention somebody bringing back seeds of this variety from Greece for them). I planted them in their own spot, a good 40 feet away from any other basils, and for good measure I let them go to seed early (before I let other basils bloom). So I was pretty sure I had saved nicely isolated, uncrossed seeds.
However! *ahem* I now have half a flat of seedlings with leaves that don't seem quite as small as they should be, and the flavor is closer to lettuce than to the spicy, peppery, strong basil flavor that I remember from this variety last year. Sheesh.
I don't have a lot of hope that their flavor and aroma will improve, but I may still plant them out along a border somewhere just to see what they do. Who knows, maybe they just need some real sunshine LOL.
I really don't know what happened, but I wanted to mention it in case anybody else found the same thing in growing out these seeds. I know I was very excited about having this variety to share, and I sent out a lot of seeds! My apologies to any who are disappointed in them. Now you see why I like to send out more than one kind of seed for trade/SASBE -- if something goes wrong with it, hopefully some other seed will perform well and help make up for it!
(Just a note... all the other basil seeds that I started this year seem to be growing out true.)
My Greek Basil doesn't seem to be true from seed :-(
It could indeed be a seed-grown variety but just not completely stabilized yet. Save the good ones and cull the others, and you will be helping the variety to stabilize.
I have 24 plants, and I'm not sure there's a "true" one among them. That is what's so strange! If/when I get down to DeBaggio's this spring, I will ask about it.