And if I can toss a few extra in there, I'd like to know about sage, bay laurel, and lemon grass. Also please note which are perennials here.

Hi Brenda! I'm not the most knowledgeable person on here but here's my two cents:

I like the broadleaf basil myself. Although lime basil is delightful and purple basil is lovely. But for standard spice-rack basil I vote for broadleaf. They're heat-loving annuals, broadleaf grows in a big, leafy clump, about 18" tall. It loses a lot of its flavor if you dry it. I prefer to use it fresh, but I do pack a bunch of leaves in a zip-lock bag to use through the winter.

I prefer Italian curled parsley. Just seems to have more substance than the flat leaf variety. It's a perennial. Mine seems to prefer dappled shade. Doesn't get very tall for me as I'm always out there cutting it back and using it fresh.

My Greek Oregano grows best in dappled shade as well. It has small leaves and makes a really pretty plant. Hugs the ground in the spring, but springs up to about a foot tall and blooms. Harvest before it blooms, however. It's a perennial. I use it dried.

Sage - just ordinary salvia officianalis - is a biennial but I've had them come back in Zone 6 as long as 5 years. I use this dried. With sage, there really is such a thing as "too much of a good thing".

I've grown the others from time to time but don't remember enough about them to advise anyone. --Ilene

I agree with everything Ilene says, except that I prefer the flat parsley. I think it has a more intense flavor. Broadleaf basil is more efficient for making pesto than the smaller leafed varieties because there isn't as much stem to deal with.

Everything is perennial except basil and parsley. Parsley is a biennial, so it will go to seed the second year, and ideally will reseed itself, but I usually throw out some extra seed every year just to make sure I have a continuous supply.

I grow a lot of herbs and am not real picky about the varieties. Since different varieties have different flavors, you have to try the different ones to see which flavor you prefer. I grow many of my herbs from seed.

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is a hardy evergreen that gets woody. It has tiny leaves. There are over 400 named varieties available, although most nurseries only offer the most common ones like Lemon, English, Silver, or Gold thyme.

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a biennial that usually reseeds itself, so if you plant it once, you'll have it forever if you let it go to seed in the fall. Different people prefer different parsley for different dishes. I like the Italian flat leaf the best for cooking, but also grow and use the Italian curled leaf and the triple curled. I mix parsley in wherever I have space in the garden and grow lots and lots of it for the swallowtail butterflies. Like OKPrarie, I like to throw out a little seed in the spring to ensure I have plenty of parsley, so mine is usually a mix of first-year and second-year plants.

Oregano is great for Mediterranean dishes. You can grow Italian or Greek Oregano or Mexican Oregano (Lippia graveolens). Greek Oregano (O. heraclesticum) is the one we usually associate with the oregano flavor we want in tomato sauce and other similar dishes. It is usually a perennial evergreen and grows well in full sun to part shade.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is an annual but often reseeds if you let seed set on the plants in late summer to early fall. It likes rich, moist, well-drained soil. I like Italian largeleaf and flatleaf the best, but also grow several others, including Lemon, Lime, Cinnamon, Littleleaf, Thai, Purple Ruffles, and Green Ruffles. I scatter it around the garden, using it as companion plants for tomatoes.

Marjoram (Oregano majoricum) is similar to oregano, but noticeably sweeter. It is generally perennial and likes well-drained soil on the dryish side and full sun.

Sage (Savia officinalis) is a hardy, evergreen shrub with grayish leaves. You can grow the common form or any of the other named varieties, including Pineapple Sage, Tricolor Sage, Golden Sage, etc. Sage prefers well-drained soil.

Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) is NOT cold hardy here, but can be overwintered indoor in pots. It prefers rich, moist, well-drained soil.

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratusis) is a tropical, so is only reliably hardy to zone 9. You can overwinter it indoors in pots. It likes lots of sun and is a quick, clumping grower. If you can't find it in a nursery, you usually can find pieces of lemongrass with small attached roots in the produce section of Asian markets.

I grow a lot of other herbs, including cilantro/coriander, catmint, catnip, lemon balm, spearmint, peppermint, dill, borage, chamomile, rosemary, and chives.

Herbs are very attractive, easy-to-grow, make great teas, add flavor to meals, are great companion plants for many veggies and ornamentals, and attract beneficial insects, especially if you allow them to flower.

Dawn

Just my two cents worth. More good Mexican food has been ruined with cilantro than I want to think about. I hardly ever met a Mexican dish I didn't like until people decided it all had to be loaded down with cilanto. Yuck LOL

Carol,

Well, I understand what you are saying. I only use a little cilantro when I cook, but my DH loves the stuff and will put so much of it in the salsa that cilantro is ALL you can taste. (I nag him until he either stops putting so much in, or makes 2 versions--one with less cilantro and a little less pepper for the rest of us, and one with lots of heat and cilantro for him.)

I love growing it and letting most of it go to seed--the tiny beneficial bees and wasps love the tiny flowers.

Dawn

Then my share won't go to waste. The birds and bees can have it. LOL

I posted my "spring" on the wrong post I guess. I shared on the April 6 thread.

Our sky is starting to darken, and looks like it is getting ready to storm here. We are under tornado watch and flood watch. More signs of spring, but I am not taking pictures of that. HA

This is very helpful. I'll be looking for Italian flat leaf parsley, greek oregano, and the broadleaf basil (for my pesto). Maybe try a couple different thyme varieties since that is what I use the most of.
Thanks!

I second (or third) that on the cilantro. I think it's an acquired taste. My kids always said it tastes like soap, and I only grew it the one year because no one liked it and I accidentally put some in a pot of soup, thinking I had parsley. Had to throw the whole pot out, my kids ASKED to be sent to bed without their supper that night. When I tasted it, I had to agree, so we made sandwiches instead.

I never realized parsley is a biennial. I've had it in the same place year after year. It must be reseeding itself.

None of us mentioned peppermint, spearmint, pineapple mint, lemon balm, etc., etc.

Lemon balm has become an invasive weed for me. I planted it four years ago, am still digging it out and I will not plant it ever again. It is a perennial that will crowd out even Bermuda grass, making thickly grouped rhizome-like roots that go to China. The seeds scatter throughout the area and will show up everywhere.

I love my peppermint and spearmint, however. At my house they love semi-shade. I've tried to grow Pineapple mint for several years and am about to give up on that one.

HA HA - I hit a nerve didn't I. It has been my observation that people either love it or hate it. I have this old herb pamphlet that talks about several and it says cilantro is a WEED and is only grown for its seed. I would like to copy that and send it to every mexican cook I know. I have a friend that makes the very best Mexican food, but she now puts her cilantro in a glass of water on the table (a little stinky bouquet) and lets anyone add it that wants to. At one time it would be in her salad, her fresh salsa, and in the entre. I really appreciate the bouquet gesture. It makes me feel a little sick to smell it though.

Ilene - You have smart kids with good taste. LOL

Hey, I mentioned lemon balm.....but only in passing. I have one plant that is a couple of years old, but I have it surrounded by landscape fabric mulch and lots of bark mulch so it can't reseed madly. This year I dug up one small seedling near it and moved it to a new bed. I love Lemon Balm.

I love the mints, but they are short-lived here since I plant them in clay. They only live a couple of years. In sandier, well-drained soil, though, they take over.

I can keep pineapple mint and Mexican mint marigold (aka Spanish tarragon or Texas tarragon) going for a couple of years, but they are not real long-lived here either. There again, I think it is the poorly-draining clay.

Dawn

I love herbs in the garden; not only for their practical applications (food!) but also for their organic control of pests and for their host properties for butterflies, etc.

In SE Oklahoma with a dappled/full/partial shade environment, I grow:

spearmint (all types: in less fertile soils/sun I don't worry about invasiveness)
peppermint (can be invasive; watch your step)
thyme (hasn't been as productive as I'd like, but I don't use it all that much),
greek oregano (wonderful with chicken recipes and very controllable--if controllable is a word)
lemon balm (again controlled if planted in shade)
lavender (different types and so many different blooms/applications)
penny royal (a new one planted this year with a really different scent)
basil from seed (very easy to grow; don't plant too much!)
Catmint (again, a really different scent, and my cat loves it.Good with tea.)
Fennel (a great licorice scent that the black swallowtail butterflies love for a host plant. Great perennial with a stalk that can be used in addition to the seeds.
Cilantro (despite the above negatives, my cilantro comes back in a controlled clump and is about to offer an early spring bloom for my bees.
purple/pink chives (a great addition with subtle flavors that are about to bloom amidst all sorts of flowers)
Dill-easy to grow from seed and another host plant for the black swallowtail butterfly. Great for several cooking and enhancement applications.
Sage (so many different types, but a good, hardy table sage can take a Thanksgiving meal into the next realm. I'm trying pineapple sage as a new plant this year.

Tweeners: Vegetables that could be herbs--

Mustard: I let my mustard greens bolt and go to seed last year. Mustard can have a great bite.

Kohl Robi--radish relative that is easy to grow, a pretty plant, and powerful.

Arugula is another tweener that I love. A little too strong as a salad green by itself but great to add flavor. It's good on pizza, too.

I'll step up and admit that I love cilantro, but it was defintely an aquired taste. I'm not sure I would like it in a lot of Mexican food, but it has such a fresh astringent flavor - I like it with beans and with fish. A really good simple bean salsa is black beans, corn, fresh tomatoes (or salsa if no fresh tomatoes are available), lime juice, garlic, cilantro and a little olive oil. This is very good with fish tacos.

Yes, I love that herbs repel pests (at least that's what I've heard). I'm trying to keep everything organic and butterfly-friendly. I am hoping the herbs I plant will keep beetles and such away from the beans. I'm also going to plant some marigolds in there for that reason, and now I'm thinking of throwing some dill seeds in there as well to encourage beneficials (I don't even like dill).

Also going to stick some parsely in my main flower garden for the butterflies--I've got lots of nectar plants but lacking a bit on host plants.

Last fall I did my first garlic planting...in the rose bed! I'll see how that goes this year. I've had major beetle problems with the roses in the past.

My kids say cilantro smells like stink bugs and won't even try to taste it. I though love it in fresh pico de gallo. I didn't think I liked basil because I didn't like the way it smelled until a friend handed me a cracker with fresh pesto spread on it a few years ago. Now I think it smells great and can't wait to get the first picking for my own pesto. BTW, pesto freezes very well. Cilantro freezes well too and since mine self seeds and bolts to seed before the tomatoes get ripe, freezing the cilantro is the only way I get the two together. Dill selfseeds too and is so good picked green and sprinkled into salads or over braised baby green beans. I let it seed and pick the green seed heads to make dilly beans and can them. And I think of arugula as a herb but maybe it is more of a zesty salad green. And did anyone mention rosemary? Here in zone 6 I raise it in a pot and overwinter it on the porch. Great tucked under the skin of baked chicken. I used to have garlic chives which was good snipped onto a baked potato. I also loved the pretty little blooms and picked them for bouquets. I thought they smelled more like vanilla than garlic. But one year it disappeared--after almost being a selfseeding pest for years. Dorothy

Don't forget that Lavendar is also a culinary herb as well. Great in cookies! Needs full sun and absolutely good drainage.

I like to cook with fennel (foliage) on fish. There are different fennels - the bulb (large bulb used as a vegetable), the regular, grown for foliage only, and bronze. I plant all 3. Mainly for the Black Swallowtails. If you find those beautiful black, yellow, and white striped caterpillars on dill, parsley (curled mainly), and fennel - you've got black swallowtail caterpillars. You can plant extra for them and most the cats to those plants. This is our state butterfly.

Flat leaf parsley is easier to cook with and eat. The curly leaf parsley tends to "stick" in people's throats. I know because I made a dish with it, and nobody could eat it!

Big leaf green basil I agree is best for cooking pesto. Mmmmmm, I'm hungry already!

I also grow garlic chives and chives, too. Hardy Rosemary can be grown here as well. Make sure you have the hardy cultivars.

I grow lots of medicinal types of herbs, too, like Rue, because it is a host plant for the Black Swallowtail as well as the Giant Swallowtail. The butterflies love the blooms on many medicinal plants, e.g., echinacea or coneflowers, and many are quite lovely. A lot of what we grow in the garden is actually a medicinal and/or culinary herb.

I also grow plantain for the Buckeye butterflies, but it is edible as well. Curry plant, or helichrysum petiolare(not the flowering straw flowers) can be eaten, too. This is also a host for Painted Lady butterflies. Pleurisy root (or asclepias, or milkweed) was used for just that. However, it is the host plant for Monarch butterflies. The tropical (Asclepias curassavica) is an annual, but it's flowers also attract lots of nectaring butterflies as well. There are several perennial milkweeds, too. Think about foxglove as well, or digitalis (heart medicine).

Most people don't actually use these for medicinal purposes anymore, because these plants can be poisonous if not used properly. But, I include them in my garden not only as host plants for butterflies, but because they are beautiful as well.

BTW - I have lots of Asclepias curassavica 'Silky Gold' and red/yellow blooms if any wants the seeds. Best planted after frost, directly in ground or pots outside.

Susan

I've grown herbs for years. Used to sell herbs and specialty veggies and soft fruit at farmers markets and health food markets.

Still grow them, but no longer sell them.

I will add a few stones to the pot:

The very finest Basil is 'Genovese'. Nothing compares.

Send me a SASBE and I'll send you some seeds from last year (fresh).

Flat Italian Parsley is the parsley for cooking.
The curly type is to use as a garnish. It is chewed after meals to freshen the breath after eating spicy dishes or foods that contain garlic /onions.

Munstead Lavender or Provence are best for cooking, teas and baking),

Rosemary (either 'Arp' or 'Hill Hardy' in Oklahoma),

Chives, both onion and garlic. (for cooking & garnishes),

Costmary (Alecost) - great to rub you to ward off mosquitoes. Lovely plant in the herb garden too.

Nasturtiums - peppery tasting, much like cress. Leaves and flowers are both great in salads.

Garden Sage - is indispensable not only for it's looks in the garden and as a seasoning in foods, but also is a digestive aid, soothes sore throats, and relieves menstrual cramps and urinary problems. Attracts pollinators to your garden. It is a helpful "vermifuge' for barnyard fowl.

German Chamomile (annual that reseeds itself)- great for making your own calming hot teas, & a natural relief for colicky babies. It is wonderful in sleeping pillow sachets as a natural sleep aid. It also acts as a beneficiary to many plants in your garden.

There are thousands of herbs to choose from.
The best place to get the best plants at fantastic prices is at an Herb Festival. These are held in various locations around the state from April through June. Two in April that I know of are held in Sand Springs and Jenks. Lots of fun and lots of vendors. Come with a garden wagon or child's wagon to haul your plants around in while you browse. You'll be glad you did!

~ sweetannie4u

Here is a link that might be useful: Sand Springs Herbal Affair & Festival - April 19th, 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

I think the reason I prefer the curly parsley is that I dry it. When I try to dry the flat leaf parsley, I don't like the texture. I use it fresh as well, but I use my kitchen shears and snip it in small pieces. Soooo good in chicken soup.

When you get into medicinal herbs there are just so many. I'm trying a few that are new to me this year. It is true that one needs to be very careful with the medicinal herbs. I like to know what they're good for but some of the more powerful ones, like Digitalis, are best not to be experimented with.

Man, I am definitely going to stay away from cilantro! My family are picky eaters as it is!

All these other herbs sound great, I keep wanting to add to my list to plant. I may add chives if I have room...aren't they supposed to deter beetles also?

Susan,
Thanks for all the butterfly info. I will probably get curled parsley for the flower garden if the butterflies like that better, and still plant flat leaf in the herb bed for cooking. I'll look into some of the other host plants you mentioned as well.

Beware the spreading of chives. They're wonderful in their place, but if you let those pretty flower heads alone, then you'll soon have chives **everywhere**. Cut the flowers and bring them in for decoration, or compost them. Don't leave them on the plant.

Ooh, Ilene, you're right I bet - the curly would be better for drying! Thanks for the idea!

I love cilantro - the more the better! I got turned on to eating it at some of the best Mexican restaurants in Dallas. You do have to develop a taste for it, though.

Brenda, let me know if you want any other butterfly info, but the Butterfly Forum here at Garden Web is one of the GREATEST for learning about butterflies, their host plants and nectar plants. I try to suggest that folks plant things for them because in Oklahoma alone last year, 33,000 acres were lost to development, and that includes much of their habitat. I am a Monarch Waystation, so I plant lots of milkweed (some if very ornamental) for them. My butterfly garden is called "McKenna's Monarch Sanctuary" for my granddaughter. She loves to help with the caterpillars.

Susan