Just moved here to south Texas (Corpus Christi area) Wondering what herbs grow well here? Already posted 2 requests in same forum about lavender but got no replies! Can anyone help? Any tips would be appreciated!
New to Texas what herbs grow well here?
Besides lavendar, I grow Italian Parsley, fennel (bronze, green and Florence), St. John's Wort, Purple Ruffles Basil and regular basil, lemon grass, rosemary, chives, cilantro and various kinds of mints. I've probably left something out, but that's a good start!
You might have to search for a good lavender to withstand the humidity ~ perhaps why you didn't get any response. You are a bit south for my experience but I suspect you will find most will grow well for you. Fennels, Bay laurel, oreganos, lemon balm, catnip, lemon grasses, thymes all are perennial in this zone so should do excellent for you. The basils are annual of course.
Calalily is from the south of TX but not sure how much she does in herbals. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/962839/
By the way, welcome to Texas! Glad to have you join us... pod
Your humidity is pretty high down there. I'm not sure what you can grow. I think lavendar need low humidity, but maybe there is a variety that tolerates it. My guess is you should be able to grow all kinds of basil, lemon grass, chives, savory, parsley, dill, fennel. Hmmm. Up here we can also grow rosemary, thyme, garden sage. You can also eat pansy flowers, purslane.
I do grow the rosemarys but am not sure how they would do that far south. Perhaps the trailing rosemary would do good. Absolutely on the chives too. Pineapple sage, TX tarragon or Mexican mint and I am sure most of the other mints would do well. You might find the growing season will change in that zone. Things may do better overwinter for you.
An excellent reference is Southern Herb Growing by Hill & Barclay. It showcases herbs for the warmer climates and potential problems with them.
Rosemary does fine in Houston, so maybe it will like Corpus, too. :-)
I did a google search and found the Rockport Herbs and Rose Study Group site. Rockport's not too far from Corpus, so maybe someone there would be able to help you.
http://www.rockportherbs.com/
Texas A&M has extensive information available online. Here's some information with a list of plants suitable for your area as well as special considerations for soil preparation and winds.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/southerngarden/coastplants.html
Howard Garrett has a book on growing plants in Houston. That will have lots of good information for your area as well. Check your local library or his website for more info. (www.dirtdoctor.com)
Some other helpful links:
http://www.herbsociety-stu.org/Growing&Using.htm
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/index.html
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/gardening/videos/5088916.html
I think Callalily lives in South Padre which isn't too far from you. Like a previous poster mentioned, I'm not sure if she grows herbs or not. Her veggies are to die for, though! LOL
Hope this helps! Welcome to Texas!
Thanks so much everyone -- that's a lot of great info! Time for me to start planting. And thanks for the Texas welcome -- only been here for about a month and really like it.. Everyone is so friendly!
I can not get rid of mint. Planted a small bit in my garden a few years back wow what a mistake. That stuff runs far and fast.
Bear
I grow herbs parsley, fennel, dill, & rue......But I grow it for the swallowtail butterflies. It is a host plant that they lay their eggs on and the caterpillars eat. So plant extra of those and don't use pesticides and you can have the best of both worlds!
Jester ~ I had the reverse problem. I put mint in the ground and still don't know what happened to it! I think the conditions, soil and primarily moisture has to be right for it to be invasive. My mints all live in pots now so I can keep a better soil and water them. For some of us, the pots will also control the roots.
So LuciaH ~ tell us which herbs you want to plant?
I'll plant parsley and oregano -- have had good luck with those in the past. Am going to try rosemary, basil and thyme, maybe some mint (in a container!) And my beloved scented geraniums .... I grew up in Mississippi and have spent most of my life in the southeast or in Japan but only started to grow herbs while in CA. So although have pretty good idea what flowers will do well here in the humidity, little lost when it comes to herbs! Y'alls help is greatly appreciated.
Rosemary can be grown as a shrub here if protected from frost. There are actually many different kinds of rosemary.
Basil does fine if you can provide it partial shade and pinch, pinch, pinch. Every few days you should pinch off new shoots to force it to branch. Otherwise it will get tall and woody and the flavor will pick up a strong licorice character .
Welcome to Texas Lucia
sorry I didn't find this earlier..everyone above has ben here longer then I but I can say that I have rosemary , basil, oregano, fennel, dill, mints, thyme & parsley...are the ones I can think of for sure might be something else can't recall but anyway I planted them all last year and they even wintered over well here in East Texas and I have a Marrs orange tree, Rio Star grapefruit, Meyers lemon and a bay tree in my lil green house and they are all doing super...... your area is great for those too if your into citrus fruits
You are so right about everyone being so friendly ..these Texans are some SUPER people!!!!
I just wish we weren't so spread out to make it easier to meet everyone in person lol
for full sun, basil grows like crazy. thyme and sage also do well. rosemary does great also.
for shade conditions, mint will grow everywhere. Cilantro does really well.
Oregano is on over drive in the full sun.
I just find that basil grown in full sun not only shoots up and gives more stem than leaves, but also tastes more like licorice than basil. It doesn't do any favors for my spaghetti sauces when it turns like that. :(
Hmm.. interesting. The only basil I've found that tasted like licorice was the purple ruffles. I do notice than the flavor on all herbs is not as strong after watering. Best flavor to harvest when dry.
All the herbs do really well for me--some are just winter growers like cilantro, parsley, salad burnett, dill, fennel, and lavender. And once you get that cycle of growth down--there's no problem gowing almost any herb you like near the Gulf Coast.
Some are spring/summer/fall growers--like basil, oregano, lemon balm, all the mints, sweet marjoram, thyme, rosemary (which handles it down to 27F here with no problem both in ground and in pots), and pathouli (this is the only one I have to protect from freezes).
The only one that's challenging is real french tarragon (no comparison to mexican mint marigold if you really like cooking with herbs) but it just needs to be in a pot and moved to shade from July-Sept.
edited to add--rosemary, lavender, and real tarragon need very good air circulation for me, so don't cram a lot of other plants close to them. Pathouli also needs afternoon shade July-Sept and a lot of watering but in very well draining soil. Everything else does great full sun or part sun in what ever season it grows in.
This message was edited Apr 13, 2009 6:18 PM
Lucia,
Welcome to Texas and to my hometown. I haven't been back in at least 20 years, but can't imagine it changing much, at least in size. The old homestead was wiped out by a hurricane years ago. By that time we were living in California so my parents sold the property. You can also get an idea of what grows in Kingsville by driving around town. You also have two fantastic resources in town, TAMU Kingsville Branch and the Cooperative Extension. Take advantage of it
http://kleberg-tx.tamu.edu/
Welcome to Texas, Lucia!
When I lived in FW I grew Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Catnip, Yarrow, and Spearmint--all with great success.
Here in Montgomery County, I'm growing Rosemary, Thai Basil, Spearmint, Rue, and Common Sage. Can't seem to get Dill or my Yarrow going here for some reason though. Also having trouble with my Echinacea (Coneflower). I've gone ONE of my three from last year trying to come back. Gotta be the soil.
I want & need to get a soil sample from the Montgomery County Extension office.
This message was edited Apr 14, 2009 9:34 PM
I gave up on dill also...just couldn't seem to keep it alive long enough to be worthwhile.