Herbs are a perfect addition to your garden! They are extremely easy to grow and come back year after year. You can harvest them for your meals, drinks, medicinal purposes, aromatherapy, in addition many have gorgeous blooms! What's not to love about planting herbs!
THYME
Thymus vulgaris and it's many cultivars
English thyme is probably the most famous edible thyme with lemon thyme being a close second.
Creeping thyme is purely ornamental and comes in red, white, pink chintz and wooly. Wooly thyme can get 2-3 ft wide and grows beautifully over flat patio stones. Given good drainage and full sun, creeping thyme grows like ground cover. Plant these in the cracks of your patio and watch them grow.
Other creeping thymes include Creeping Lemon Thyme, Caraway Thyme and Elfin Thyme, a slow growing beauty. All great in rock gardens. Need full sun and well drained soil.
Golden Thyme: We carry Archers gold, Golden Lemon and Golden variegated and other variegated thymes like Silver Thyme.
We always like to try a few new ones. This year we have Tansparent Yellow Thyme, Magic Carpet Thyme and Lime Green Thyme.
SAGE
The green sages are more for culinary purposes and the others are more ornamental in your garden. A sprig of sage is a very nice garnish for a special meal.
Salvia oficinalis is a wonderful perennial culinary herb. The straight species is a great plant that produces beautiful blue salvia flowers and is quite ornamental.
Berggarten Sage is a green cultivar we carry.
Purple Sage
Tricolor Sage
Pineapple sage and Golden Pineapple sage grow into tall 5-6 ft plants that produce large racemes of red flowers in late summer. Plant them early in the season to get them to full size before they bloom. The foliage really does smell like pineapple.
TARRAGON
Tarragon Artemesia dracunculus is a perennial culinary herb that tastes a little like anise or has licorice like flavors. It is a staple in French cuisine and is often referred to as French tarragon.
MINT
Mints are also perennial herbs. They are best grown in the pot because they spread voraciously and can be difficult to eliminate from a garden once it’s established. Mints are used in cooking and in making teas and cocktails, like mojitos. All mints grow best in full sun and a well drained soil.
Peppermint and spearmint are the two most popular mints.
Mojito mint, a spearmint
Kentucky Colonel spearmint our favorite for many years
Chocolate mint, a type of peppermint,
Corsican mint has tiny tiny leaves and is great in cracks in patios. It is not aggressive like the other mints, in fact this one is more challenging to grow.
We carry several more ornamental variegated mints that look great mixed with annuals in pots!