Kek19,

My dill tends to falter in the summer.....In fact I don't think I have any dill left this year. The seeds are so easy to grow, I threw them out and didn't do much this Spring, but although they grew fine in the Spring they died over the summer....

One plant that grows very easily by seed and loved by the black swallowtails is fennel. I have gobs of fennel out there and it is all bright green and doesn't seem the bit stressed by the heat.

With the black swallowtails you could try to get some more dill, fennel, or parsley from a organic nursury to feed them when they run out of parsley.

Elaine

After dill produces seed, it dies. I used to grow dill for canning dill pickles, which I did for millions of years (or so it seemed). I got into raising BSTs quite by accident! The only way to keep dill green is to keep the flower heads cut off, but even then the plant is short-lived.

As Elaine said, try fennel or parsley that will continue to grow in the heat. The bronze fennel, which is perennial does really well in the hot weather.

OKSandy

They love bronze fennel! My large dill lasted over a year but we are in Florida. It was going all out then kaput!
Fortunately I just keep planting more of everything which is easy to do in Fl.I noticed right before its final hour that it began yellowing.The plant was COVERED with cats and chrysalses.I wondered if the females preferred the yellowing plant since it camoflaged her babes! Just a thought!

Dill is a cool weather plant. Once the summer temps go up, it goes down. That's why I don't grow it. I grow fennel (both bronze and green fennel-the foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum or bulb fennel, because it lasts longer, is perennial here for a few years, and tolerates the heat well). When it starts to go to seed, I start cutting back the seeds in order NOT to attract the wasps, which love the flowers and also love the caterpillars!

Susan

I just bought this guy a couple weeks ago, only because it had 6 BST cats on it. Our temps have gone down, not up. It seemed to thrive at the floral shop, sitting on the hot asfault in 95+ degree weather! I cut off all the flower heads, gave it a good drink, we'll see what happens. Oh and btw, I can't find a nursery in my area that carries fennel, I've been searching all summer long! Oh well, looks like I'm off to buy more parsely. Thanks guys!

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone knows the difference between perennial dill and annual dill. I found some dill growing in an unlikely place and dug it up and potted it. It seemed to grow well throughout the summer but I don't know what to expect for the fall and winter. I am new to growing dill. If anyone has some helpful hints and info I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Chris

Dill is an annual. I can't remember if the plants that come up in the fall overwinter. I tend to think that they won't make it, especially in zone 5. If the winter is really mild, they might, as they like the cool weather. Hot weather makes them go to seed.

If you go back in the spring to the place where you found the plant, you may find some more seedlings. Dill is very easy to grow from seed. Just sprinkle some seeds on the place you want it to come up and barely cover with soil. You'll get lots of plants. Once grown, if you leave the seed heads to maturity, you'll usually get new plants every year. But, alas, it isn't a perennial.

From an old dill pickler,

OKSandy

Well, if you can cross dill with fennel (some fennels are perennial, such as bronze fennel), and get fertile offspring, you could probably breed a perennial dill. Just breed the annual genes out, cross it with dill again, and repeat until it tastes like dill consistently.

Well, in spite of the fact that this thread started 13 years ago, I can't stand to see fiction passed along as fact.

Dill and fennel do not cross pollinate, no one has ever been able to make it happen, whether a skilled home gardener or a university research scientist. Though fennel and dill are related, they are not closely connected, intergeneric crosses are extremely rare.....extremely.

I didn't say it was the case. I said 'if'. However, crosses at the family level do happen, even if they're not as common as the genus level, and they're not as rare as I once thought they were. Some examples include servals and cats, llamas and camels, cats and Asian leopard cats, bison and cows, collared doves and mourning doves, bison and yaks, Lycium barbarum and tomatoes, mallard and muscovy ducks, etc. Some intergeneric hybrids can continue to reproduce and some are said to be sterile. Some seem to cross easily (such as the doves I mentioned), and some don't (such as sheep and goats, which can cross, but it hasn't happened very often).