Basil will flower even as a tiny seedling. You can pinch them off, but I don't. As soon as you remove the flower, more will appear - basil just constantly flowers! I wait until the plant gets top-heavy with flowers, and then out come the hedging clippers! Thing is, you could spend your entire life doing nothing else but removing basil flowers, if you were so inclined. I have better things to do with my time.

Basil flowers are very attractive to bees, which is a good thing in a garden.

Some people say the leaves deteriorate in flavour when the plant is allowed to flower. Frankly, I've never noticed the difference. However, a thorough clipping regularly will encourage more leaves and a more bushy plant.

The flowers are edible. Basil can, and occasionally does, self-seed, but it never becomes a problem.

thanks for your help...so the flowers WONT actually stunt the leave growth? I certainly dont mind the flowers, and all the better if it gives bees a place to buzz around :)

This year I deliberately over-planted my basil. I put a whole package of seed in one container, about nine inches across. It came up and I thinned out very little. The plants are so crowded together, they stayed short. It's like I have a supply of baby basils. No flowers. I cut what I need with a scissors. It's wonderful!

I tried growing basil from seed this year. It was at best a joke. The seeds germinated fine and I planted them out in June. I put them in triple mix and a sunny location and watered as needed. The plants grew four inches high and produced about ten leaves about the size of a dime. The bottom of the stalk, one stalk only, became black and woody but the ten leaves remained. I picked a few and a few more leaves returned at about the same size. I see basil in the store with large green stalks and leaves and also on cooking shows. WHAT DID I DO WRONG?
My thyme was the same. My tomatoes, beans, beets, chard, and zuccs were a great success just so ya know everything didn't fail except the herbs.
Any tips on growing basil etc. and maybe what kind of seeds would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rory

My mother encourages taking off the flowers on my basil and they have gone bushier with the help of trimming in the past, but I just love to pull off those little flowers so much I can't stand to prevent them from appearing. :)

I grow Basil for the leaves only to make Pestos etc. I find that the combination of less sun, cooler temps, drier conditions is what spurs the flower production. Though I cant do anything about the sun or the temps I can give them a boost of nitrogen. I topdress with used coffee grounds and water with diluted leftover coffee. No the basil does not taste like coffee. A lite dose of a water soluble like Miracle Grow is good too. Leaves are getting bigger again now. And yes I cut it way back to make my first batch of freezer Pesto. I hope I can get at least one more good harvest before the first freeze here. Thanks to the wacky weather I may be be harvesting till Thanksgiving

newbie - I do not know what the problem was with your basil but the woody stem base is not a problem. Older stems often go like that. Do you think your plants had enough heat? They like it really baking. I grow mine in the greenhouse because they alwys stay quite small outdoors and sometimes sit and sulk for weeks if the weather is overcast.