Your friend's reaction is exactly why stores force their plants on to become big, bushy and bright green. People shop with their eyes. Your plants are probably fine. Try testing you friend blind i.e. which does s/he choose based on taste rather than appearance?

There is a perception that herbs don't need fertilization, and, while it's true that too much will make them bright green and practically tasteless, they do need some in our gardens/containers. It could be that a little organic fertilizer might be good for your existing herbs.

And, yes, floral is correct about herbs grown to sell.

Has anyone tried to do a vertical herb garden like one of these? I'm thinking of doing it in our apartment this summer, but I want to know if anyone has any experience with it.

Jean--Herbs indoors need a lot of light. If there's not enough, then they won't produce the oils that lead to good flavor. I do grow indoors, but with supplemental light. Also, most of the common ones need more root space than a vert garden of the sort provides. Chives may be the exception, but many (sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary) are really small shrubs.

Johnaria--if you can post a pic, it would help us know if yours are fine, or need some help. Are the potted, in-ground, size, etc....

Yes, Johnaria....we need more information in order to help you.

The supermarkets don't do anything but try to sell them as fast as possible before they start to look like crap. If they can't sell them while they are still healthy, they get tossed into the big garbage bin in the back.

Herbs require good conditions in order to thrive. It's not particularly difficult to provide what they need, but it does take some knowledge.

Let us see some pictures and share information about how you've been growing them, and maybe we can help.

Herbs sold in the supermarket are often grown hydroponically, so they're plumped up with lots of water, which waters down the flavor and makes for less vigorous plants. I've tried planting some supermarket basil hoping to get a nice plant out of it, but seeds sown directly in the soil always seem to do better. Supermarket produce is pretty much always more bland than homegrown, because everything is developed for better shipping, storage and appearance rather than flavor.

jean... it looks like that person is growing herbs... in the bathroom? Seems like this person just struck it lucky with a big, open bathroom with some kind of huge window facing the afternoon sun, and maybe even some additional sunlight from somewhere... maybe this home is in Hawaii or something... and they just decided to try and put a vert. herb garden in the most humid room in the house and they lucked out. I'm not sure how easy for the everyday gardener with the average bathroom it would be... my bathroom sure isn't that big or that sunny!

The plants in the picture aren't herbs at all. I see mostly Marantas and Chlorophtums plus some ferns and others I can't id at this distance. All excellent house plants precisely because of their low light requirements. The majority of herbs need a lot more light than these plants.

Take some time improving your soil - it could take several years. Make an effort to fertilize and add necessary nutrients at the right times during growth. Make sure they have the right amounts of sun and moisture - I have found that too wet feet make poor herbs very often, and sometimes there are herbs that do a little better when they have at least some protection from too much sun and heat. Basil, for example, really likes the sun, but once it gets growing it bolts much faster in poor, dry soil, and too much heat from the sun. So I plant the basil where it gets some afternoon protection from the sun after about 2 or 3 in the afternoon. A lot of herbs work very hard to bolt to seed - so to make them bushier and producing longer, cut them back frequently. Remove even the first signs of flower heads, at least until they are beyond the breaking point. It takes some effort at control, but I eventually allow parsley, dill, cilantro, and a few others go to seed, so I always have good stands of the favorites. There are others I work very hard to keep from going to seed - garlic chives, chives, nettles, mints, to name a few. I'd pit my massive overflow of beautiful herbs to anything I can buy in the store, and I do little more than add a few shovelfuls of compost each year. Of course, that is when they are in their productive season. I try to save just enough dried, frozen whole, or frozen in cubes to extend my herbal choices through the year.

The vertical indoor garden pictured above does not consist of culinary herbs but of rather typical houseplants. They are much more adaptive to indoor conditions, unlike the herbs.