sorry this is an image of the herb pot

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Small herb pots are just 'cutesy', and don't usually do very well with stuff that comes out of side pockets. It looks like chive and cilantro are in some of the side pockets, and rosemary at the top. Fennel plants are huge and its 'bulb' would be bigger than the size of the whole pot itself. These little herb pots are meant mostly for show and give small amounts of herbs. Many of the herbs planted here could grow much bigger, provided their roots have plenty of room inside, but as seen, everything is young and small, so the plants will outgrow their pot size within a couple of months.

I'm 'pretty sure' that the above image is a commercially produced image and not the actual container that our poster has. Am I right on that? And you WANT to plant thyme, parsley, mint, and basil in yours?

Truthfully, it doesn't appear to be large enough to be useful for very long. Those little side pockets look awfully small to me. Knowing how large those herbs can get in a real hurry would tempt me to plant some houseplants in there, instead.

I actually don't know the answer to your fennel seed question. Has anyone tried to grow fennel from the seed in an herb jar? I wonder about that the method of drying and storing might not be conducive to seed viability.

In conclusion, I guess that I haven't been of any help at all, lol!

Yep, it's a pretty herb pot, but miles too small for any ONE of the herbs pictured in it! As has already been said, such things are lovely for gift-giving, but absolutely useless for growing things.

Since you obviously want to use it, I suggest something like mint or lemon balm in it. One plant will be more than enough - bits will soon grow out the side pockets. You'll have to repot fairly often, though, as the plant gets too big for the pot.

I have frequently started plants using the seeds from the herb/spice section of the supermarket. Fennel should be successful. Other seeds that have worked for me include cumin, fenugreek, caraway, mustard, dill.

You need to do some homework to learn the mature size of the herbs you want to grow. There are many websites out there with the information. The link below is just one of millions. Look at the chart provided, then try to imagine an assortment of herbs in your minature pot!!

Here is a link that might be useful: mature size of herbs, spacing etc

thank you all for your helpful responses!

ks, from my small amount of research i understand fennel will be too large to grow in this thing. i guess ill have to pot that up separately.

rhizo, i appreciate your input! you were helpful as well and confirmed my suspicions that i would probably not be able to use this pot for much. and just to clarify, oddly enough this happens to be the same exact pot i have lol. also, what kind of houseplants would you grow in this kind of pot?

daisy, thanks for the follow up with the fennel. any suggestions as to how i would go about germinating these? or can i just plant them right into some potting soil? sand? please tell me more about the other seeds you started from the spice section. how did you get them started? what was the growth rate like? and the flavor of the herbs grown? i am very curious!

thanks again all =]

The link I provided in my last post in this thread tells you how to get a lot of herb seeds started. Check it out, and if it doesn't have one you want, there are many other sites which have the information.

As for the taste of each herb - ever tried to describe 'taste' to anybody? Impossible! See if a local restaurant will allow you in to their kitchen so that you can do a taste test of some herbs. Alternatively, if you buy the seeds, you can do your own taste-testing while you cook. Plenty of recipes out there in WWW-land, too! Remember that the flavour of seeds is quite strong when tasted on their own. Best, perhaps, to use your nose for first test, not your mouth - or just place the seed on your tongue and don't chew it!

Here is a link that might be useful: search results for 'herbs from seed'

I make Italian sausages and found that the fennel I add isn't quite as flavorful. I just recently found a fennel pollen powder that is more than 50 times stronger than the fennel seeds. Some say toast the seeds first, but if that is done, they still need to be cooled off, added to the pork meat and stuffed into casings. Then they get frozen. All this can affect the flavor of the fennel when they are evenually cooked. My herb collection has about 70 jars of seeds and leaves. Some I use every day, others might sit there for months. If I find some that lose flavor fast, I will only buy small amounts.