We are featuring herbs and Prairie Star Annuals in our containers this year.

Container Herbs:

Right 1 & 2, Center 3, Left 4 & 5

Pot 1

Basil –  Minimum  – Basil Minimum is full of pungent oils for a very strong flavor in one of the smallest of plants. This dwarf is perfect for ornamental use in edging or in containers. Pick the leaves and use fresh or dried in tomato dishes, pasta sauces, vegetables, and soups. You can also use it in the garden as a companion plant to repel aphids, mites, and tomato hornworms. Minimum grows only 6 to 12 inches high and wide. The tiny medium green leaves are only 1/2 inch long. Small terminal racemes of white flowers are borne in summer.

Chives – Allium schoenoprasum– Fine for fresh use, delicate fancy leaf, don’t forget to use the blossoms!

Dill Fernleaf – Anethum graveolens — Chop fresh leaves into corn, light soups, green salads, potato salads, cream cheeses, salmon, chicken, eggs, dips and baby read potatoes. Makes a lovely garnish, dried seed heads enhance breads and chowders, and the seeds flavor pickles.

Hot & Spicy Greek Oregano – O. hirtum; One of the most potent cultivars of Greek Oregano; fresh or dried, it adds real zip to sauces and chili;

Sweet Aztec –Phyla dulcis –Mexican herb used since at least the time of the Aztecs for coughs, colds, bronchitis, asthma, and colic. Leaves contain the intensely sweet compound hernandulcin, but high camphor content makes them unsuitable as a sugar substitute. Low creeper, with small white flowers; excellent in hanging baskets.

Pot 2 –

Lemon Thyme – Thymus x citriodorus– Strong lemon scent, trailing habitat.

Lemon Verbena – Aloysia triphylla– Strong lemon scented foliage, at its best in early evening.

Lemon Basil – Ocimum basilicum– Strong lemon scent. Excellent for vinegars and use in fish and chicken dishes

Pot 3– Pollinator’s Garden – Large Smart Pot

Bronze Fennel – F. ‘Rubrum’; Smoky Fennel; A highly decorative form of fennel with lacy purple-bronze foliage; leaves can be used like green fennel; fennel; important larval food for swallowtail butterfly caterpillars.

Pincushion Flower – Scabiosa beautiful dark blooms with tiny white points resembling a pinchusion. Good beneficial insect attractor, perennial.

Anise Hyssop – Agastache foeniculum– Attractive butterfly plant; produces abundant nectar which yields a light fragrant honey. Strongly anise-scented: delightful for tea or as culinary seasoning.

Parsley – Petroselinum crispum neapolitanum Zesty Italian taste, great for cooking or drying

Monarda or Beebalm – Monarda didyma- a member of the mint family, the flowers are a colorful addition to salads or the leaves used in herbal teas. Butterfly and Bee plant!!

Pineapple Sage – Salvia elegans– Fabulous pineapple scent, with brilliant showy red flowers, Use for drinks, chicken, cheese and in jams and jellies.

Basil – Corsican – O. basilicum is a beautiful and mild basil that works deliciously in desserts such as poached pears, or sprinkled on salads. This Mediterranean delight has variegated leaves in wine and green coloration. Stunning in the decorative border and vase 20-30” tall

Pot 4-

Ginger Mint (Richters)

Mentha arvensis ‘Variegata’ (M. x gentillis)’ P Z6-9 Gold-flecked leaves have a fragrance and flavour that is fruity with a hint of ginger.

Pot 5

Scented Geranium – Apple – P. odoratissimum; Small, soft gray-green leaves have a refreshing, rich apple scent; tiny white flowers are produced on long trailing sprays; grows in a tight clump; excellent for edging a border, in containers, or even in hanging baskets.

Stevia – Stevia rebaudiana– Remarkable herbal sugar substitute! Contains stevioside. Leaf powder can be used in place of sugar in drinks, baked goods, desserts, preserves, etc. Has a pleasant flavor of its own that never dominates or overwhelms.

Cinnamon Basil – Ocimum basilicum– Sweet cinnamon scent, popular in tea and potpourri, violet stems, lavender flowers.

Variegated Pineapple mint– Mentha suaveolens ‘Variegata’– Sweet fruity scent with white and green leaves that vary with the season.

Basil – Pistou

Pistou has the small leaves and dense, neat shape, but it is much more uniform, so a mass planting looks tidy and trim all season long!  Pistou is a mild-flavored Basil, excellent for cooking and very fragrant in the summer garden. It forms a lovely circular plant that works perfectly in parterres and other formal settings, but is also right at home in the all-purpose herb garden, the annual bed, and accent settings of all types.

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Planting Day 2!