Forum home› Plants

Herbs

peteSpeteS Posts: 808
in Plants
As my local supermarket are selling pots of herbs at the moment, I was wondering if there are any herbs you can grow purely for ornamental reasons, rather than cookery, which would make decent sized plant.

Posts

  • herbaceousherbaceous E. BerksPosts: 2,278
    edited April 2021
    Don't know what your SM stocks Pete but sage (especially variegated), rosemary, hyssop, fennel, dill (bit picky that one), thyme, marjoram, burnet (self seeds like mad) all make lovely plants in my opinion.  The bronze fennel looks very statuesque and has lovely seed heads, the marjoram will be full of butterflies but spreads rather growing upwards, not sure which direction you wanted to go?

    Ooh, forgot chives  :)
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • B3B3 Posts: 21,531
     Greek basil. It forms a ball that looks like topiary but it's not hardy.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • EustaceEustace OxfordPosts: 826
    Chives, one SM pot can be split into 3 to 4 clumps and planted. They are natural deterrents and they look awesome when in flower.
  • BijdezeeBijdezee BPosts: 1,484
    edited April 2021
    Coriander. Lovely white flowers and wildlife love it. Lemon verbena makes a nice looking plant of about 2/3 feet, smells lovely and makes lovely herb tea. Watch out with tarragon, it will take over your garden. Dill is nice but does self seed a lot as does bronze fennel. 
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge South LondonPosts: 2,302
    Angelica is wonderful as a biannual. The umbels are so impressive and the pollinators go mad for them. They self seed but easy enough to pull them up. Shared some spare plants with my neighbours as they were so impressed with it last year. 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 BirminghamPosts: 736
    Oregano is a lovely perennial herb. Not very tall but pretty and a magnet for butterflies and bees
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • peteSpeteS Posts: 808
    I've just had a look, they have Oregano and Mint for sale at the moment. Are they best grown in pots. I would have no interest using them in cookery, just so long as they have decent flowers to attract the bees.
  • herbaceousherbaceous E. BerksPosts: 2,278
    Oregano and Marjoram are the same family and pollinators love the flowers also they are a plant food for some caterpillars.  Oregano would be fine in the garden as long as the soil is fairly free draining and you don't mind it seeding around a bit.

    Mint should always be kept confined in a pot as it can take over, it will also attract all sorts of insects but usually only the bees with longer tongues like the bumble bee.


    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
Sign In or Register to comment.