OK,
here is my last list of herbs, tender perennials. Let me know if I
forgot any favorites. It just works out that in botanical names, lemon
verbena is first on my list. For you ladies and gentlemen in the
southern climates, these would all be perennials for you. I'm taking a
herbal moment here because you are all so very lucky! As I told you in
various "mild" winters such as we had this past one, I may have gotten
some on this list through the winter. Although none of the scented
geraniums outside made it through, my curry plant did make it through as
did a lemon verbena. That is very atypical for those plants. My 23
year old plus or minus sweet bay is doing well in its container. I also
got two rosemarys through and a pineapple sage inside.
Lemon
Verbena (Aloysia triphylla)
is my favorite herb. It is a native of
South America and can grow up to ten feet in its native land. Lemon
verbena is propagated by cuttings not
by seed. You grow lemon verbena for its leaves
not its flowers. I grow it both in my
garden and in a pot. It gets to about
four feet in the ground in the northern climates. I always try to put
one in a container to
bring it inside for the winter. Once
inside it almost always drops its leaves and goes dormant. Water it
every week to ten days inside. It will start leafing out in February or
so
and you will be able to put it out again in May after the threat of
frost. I use lemon verbena leaves fresh in cooking
and baking. It is like the bay
leaf. You need to take that midrib out
of the leaf before you use it to cook.
Dried leaves can be used in tea blends or for potpourri. You can plant
this mid to back of the herb
border and dig it up and bring it back in for the winter. This is a
link to my initial post on this
magical herb in 2008 called What’s in an Herbal Name.
Curry
Plant (Helichrysum
italicum) is a wonderful herb that smells like the curry spice but is not
the plant that produces it. Curry is a
blend of several herbs together. This is
a lovely gray leaved herb that produces yellow button flowers. The one fact that I didn’t know about curry
is that it repels bees! I really do like
the plant so I will continue to grow
it. It would be a front of the herb
border plant in my herb garden. Here is a post I did several years ago about the curry plant.
Sweet
Bay
(Laurus nobilis) is a wonderful
container plant that can grow to about six feet tall. It is perennial
for Zones 8-10. Propagation is from cuttings and that can
take many months to root. Healthy trees
respond to pruning and shearing. The
only real problem with bay trees is that it can get scale. Use the
leaves fresh or dried. In both cases for cooking they should be removed
before serving the prepared food. Here
is a link for a post I did when sweet bay was the herb of the year. I would just plant it in a container if you
are in the northern part of the US and forget about using it in a border. Some gardeners dig a hole for the container
and then in August or September get it out and start taking it inside to get it
accustomed to the changes.
Sweet
Marjoram (Origanum marjorana)
is considered a tender perennial, but I treat it as an annual in my
garden. I have had it comeback in
certain years, but that does not happen often.
I love it even more than Greek oregano.
I love the knotted white flowers in the late summer. You need to be clipping this herb so it
doesn’t go to flower too quickly and using it fresh or drying it to use during
the winter. I love to make an herbal
butter and use it on fresh veggies like corn on the cob. It is a low grower and should be at the front
of the border. I talked about sweet marjoram in this post about Shakespeare's herbs.
Scented
Geranium (Pelargonium
sp.) is a native of South Africa and is considered a tender perennial in zones
north of 9, but this is another herb that I treat as an annual. It is very easy to take cuttings and bring
them in for the winter. It is nice to
have a scented geranium on a windowsill that you can sniff the leaves from time
to time. It seems in mild winters that
varieties such as coconut or apple will reseed and come back in the garden. You definitely grow them for their leaves and
not their flowers. They need full sun
with the exception of peppermint-scented scented geraniums that need afternoon
shade. Scented geraniums are very good
in a container situation. Lemon, rose,
peppermint and apple are some of my favorite scents. Used in baking a cake as a liner to the cake
pan or dried in a potpourri, scented geraniums are a versatile herb. Because there are many sizes and shapes of
scented geraniums, I would use them in the front or mid-range of the herb
border. The small sizes are great in a
container as shown in this post from my blog in 2009.
Rosemary
(Rosmarinus officinalis)
is a native of
the Mediterranean region and is a tender perennial in the northern part
of the
US. In native lands it can grow to six
feet tall. We usually have at least two
rosemarys in the garden, one upright variety and one prostrate.
Rosemary is just not hardy for us here in the
‘Burgh. Propagation is by layering or
stem cuttings. You should provide
well-drained soil to prevent root rot and good air circulation to
discourage
powdery mildew. We usually keep at least one rosemary in a container so
it can be brought inside. With the mild winter we had it might even
have made it through the winter. If you are going to try to get a
rosemary through the winter, go with the 'Arp' variety. This is the
year that I didn't leave one in the garden. It would be a front or
mid-range herb in the border. This is a post I did from last year
called One of My Favorites-Rosemary.
Pineapple
Sage
(Salvia elegans) is a tender
perennial of the large salvia family. It
is about four feet tall in my herb garden and has beautiful red tubular flowers
that hummingbirds love as you can see in my post called My Herbal Dream Come True.
The leaves have the wonderful
scent and taste of pineapple. You must
use them fresh because the leaves do not dry well. I usually use them
chopped finely in my fruit
salads for breakfast in the summer or you can use the fresh leaves in
your cold
iced tea or lemonade. We had a pineapple
sage make it through the winter on a south facing windowsill. Pineapple
sage does well in the mid-range to the back of the herb border.
© 2012 Nancy Heraud
http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com
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