Here's a quote from a Web source:
If you want to collect seeds, be sure not to cut the plant's center stalk down after the middle of summer. You can still harvest the outer leaves, just don't cut the center stalk, which will bear the flowers.

Has yours held its flavor? Mine came back this spring (I didn't even know fennel was a perennial), but it seems to taste more like dill than anise now! And it seems quite slow-growing.

I do warn you, if you let it go to seed, it will SPREAD... and it is not a long lived perennial, mine only lasted 4 years.

My fennel still has an anise-like scent of licorice.

I have never seen anything resembling seeds on my fennel. Anyone know why or what's wrong with it?

Too much water? Where I live fennel grows wild in the fields and we normally don't get any rain from May through September.

My bronze fennel will start to have flower buds in a few weeks. I think that yours will have flowers and seeds later in the season as well even though you are in a warmer climate. I think that patience will reward you.

Cheers!

Thanx for your help. Too much water may be a factor.

I'd have to dispute the long-lived statement. I've many old bronze fennel plants, well-established in clay soil, growing six feet tall. Not seedlings, same plants getting stronger every year. I tried to dig a three year old up to transplant, and gave up. The root was waaayyyy down dug and entrenched. They're pretty tough.

My Bronze Fennel is about 5 years old and going strong. It is is bloom right now. It reseeds very freely and I constantly have seedlings to use in Trades. I am surprised sometimes how far away those fennel seeds can sprout up!

Dog Wonder, I wonder about the fennel being between the lantanas. May be a water issue, ie;too much, but since lantanas are aggressive and aromatic, it makes me wonder if they are inhibiting the fennel. Interesting. Both are strong, tough aromatics, but my gut feeling is that the lantana would win.

In Houston, I'd imagine your lantanas are perennial, and get bigger every year. I know a bit about plant companions, but have never seen the lantana/fennel combo discussed.

An update on my bronze fennel.

Two of my more mature fennel plants have turned to forming flowers, at the expense of the leaves. Both came to a point where they were little more than flower stalks with no leaves. The flowers were yellow and looked a little like queen anne's lace.

I never saw any seeds on either plant. Where are the seeds supposed to be?

Anyhow, once the flowering stage was over, the plants started wilting and dying. Turning brown. What have I done wrong? Both were in full sun, and I watered and fertilized them just like my younger fennel plants, and the younger plants are looking just fine.

I read they dont flower until the second year