Showing posts with label Herbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herbs. Show all posts

Friday 24 November 2023

Water Celery Variegated vs Green

I have been growing water celery (Oenanthe javanica) for a long time.  I have had it since at least  2015, I possibly even grew it for a year or two prior to that. 

I grow the colourful and attractive variegated flamingo or rainbow form.  It has a bunch of common names including: water parsley, Java waterdropwort, Japanese parsley, Chinese celery, rainbow water parsley.  This is a very vigorous, and very simple to grow perennial vegetable.  

Interestingly, the native range of this perennial vegetable is a whole bunch of countries, including Australia.  

Variegated water celery for sale Australia
Variegated water celery

Water celery has amazingly strong growth, while it seems to prefer having its roots submerged and its leaves out of the water it can grow in deeper water as long as its leaves can reach the surface, or it can grow on 'dry land' like a regular vegetable.  

It handles hard frosts well, and tolerates extremely high temperatures if it has water.  Full sun and part shade both seem to work well for this plant.  

When water celery is grown in floating raft aquaponics it can be used to effectively filter the water.  I trialed it with my goldfish barrelponics and it worked well.  It can be used to filter grey water, it is good at removing pollutants due to its fast growth rate.  

Above all this, water celery is edible.  It tastes like mild celery, and loses much of the taste when cooked for too long so is best added towards the end of cooking.  

I am not a huge fan of celery, so tend not to eat much of it myself.  Chickens and guinea pigs and other animals enjoy eating water celery raw.  The times of year that we don't have much grass I feed handfulls of water celery to our animals.  While water celery is great in the compost, I prefer to feed it to the chickens as I think that is a better use.

For years I have grown the rather pretty variegated form, and it is a very vigorous plant.  I have heard when planted next to a pond it tends to take over somewhat.  

I am told that the pure green form is far more vigorous.  I originally wanted the green variety, but couldn't find it.  A few places sell this green one online, but I can't justify the price when I already grow the variegated one.  I had hoped mine would throw a non-variegated runner, but that hasn't happened yet.    

Vigorous plant outgrowing its pot
Variegated water celery growing out of its pot

My plants sometimes flower.  They start to set seed, then each year something happens and I don't get around to collecting any seed to grow.  Sometimes it gets too dry and the flowers are scorched, or something eats off the flower heads, or I just forget about it and have no idea what happened to the seed.

The last time my plants flowered, I forgot about them and they were largely covered by fallen leaves.  Recently I was clearing up that part of the garden and noticed a plant.  It looks like a tiny water celery seedling.  It appears to be entirely green.  I was lucky that I even saw this little one.  

This little plant is most likely seed grown.  

Dark green water celery

I carefully dug up this little plant, put it in a small pot, and moved it somewhere safe.  Since then it has grown very quickly and started to divide.  Hopefully it is even more vigorous than its variegated parent.  

The parent has pink stems, with light green leaves edged in white and pink or purple.  The colouration becomes more vivid in cooler weather.  It really is rather pretty.  

This little plant is darker green, with dark green stems and dark green leaves.  Presumably this darker green is from increased chlorophyll.  Extra chlorophyll means it should have a massive advantage when it comes to growth rate, and it should be more vigorous than its variegated parent.  

I can hardly wait to see what it can do.  

Non-variegated water celery

From here I hope this plant grows well, and in time I hope to divide it.  Given how much it has grown in a week I don't think this will take very long.  I haven't tasted this plant yet, hopefully it tastes a little stronger than the variegated one.  

I will try to post an update on this plant in a few months once it has had some time to do some growing and I have had a chance to eat a little of it.  

Green water celery

When I have divided this plant enough I would like to try some as the filter for my goldfish barrelponics as I think it may perform well there.  Vietnamese coriander grows exceptionally well in my barrelponics over the warmer months, but stops growing over winter.  

I have a feeling the green water celery may grow well over the cooler months, and a combination of Vietnamese coriander and green water celery should be an excellent water filter.  

Green Water Celery

Green water celery has grown and divided

I currently sell bare rooted plants of the variegated rainbow water celery, I have some perennial vegetables for sale and other interesting plants on my for sale page.  At some stage in the future I may also have some of the green version for sale.  I post perennial vegetable throughout Australia, but not to WA or Tasmania at this stage.  


Thursday 26 October 2023

Jekkas thyme variety comparison

I wrote a previous post comparing different varieties of thyme.  Some were clearly better than others, some were far more vigorous than others.  Out of all the varieties of thyme I have grown over the years, the real stand out has been Jekkas Thyme.  

In my climate, Jekka's thyme grows far more vigorously than any other thyme variety.  It grows more stems, each stem has more leaves, and each leaf is larger than regular thyme.  It has more flowers, and larger flowers than regular thyme.  In my climate Jekkas thyme quickly grows, it throws down roots wherever a node touches the soil, meaning it can form  dense and expanding clump quickly.  

Regular thyme on the left, jekkas thyme on the right

For me, I find both varieties taste and smell much the same, and they both change over the season.  I can't easily tell the difference in taste, perhaps Jekkas thyme is slightly stronger, but not significantly so.  I don't think the average gardener or home cook could tell the difference in taste.  Perhaps I'm wrong and some foodie will correct me on this point and smugly point out how one is ever so slightly more [something] than the other, or one has more subtle notes of [insert some term I have no idea what it means].  

Below are some photos of regular culinary thyme next to Jekka's thyme for comparison. You will get a good idea of what I mean about Jekkas thyme being a superior variety.  

Regular thyme comparison with Jekkas thyme

Take a look at the sprigs of thyme below.   Both plants were growing in my garden over the past few years and have been treated the same, so the difference is due to superior genetics.  

The two sprigs on the left are regular thyme, the two on the right are Jekkas thyme.  It is pretty easy to tell them apart even from a distance.  

Comparison of Thyme sprigs

What you can see clearly in these photos is that the leaves of Jekkas thyme are very large for a variety of thyme.  

Not only are the leaves far larger, but there are a lot more leaves per sprig.  Jekkas thyme tends to produce a lot more sprigs than regular thyme, and if allowed to will develop into a sprawling ground cover.  

I like to grow Jekkas thyme where it can trail over the side of things.  I really like how it looks when in bloom and cascading over the edge of a garden bed.  

Jekkas thyme blooming, good for bees

Raised garden bed draped in Jekka's thyme

Regular thyme vs Jekkas thyme

These varieties of thyme also flower differently.  I don't know the best way to describe this, but you can see that regular thyme flowers up the stalk.  The flowers are small, they are spaced out, and there are not many of them.  This means that bees or other pollinators need to do a lot of work to collect nectar and pollen from thyme flowers.   

Jekkas thyme mostly flowers in a dense clump at the end of a stalk.  There are more flowers, each flower is larger, and they are closer together.  I think this looks prettier.  

As there are more flowers, each flower with larger nectaries, bees collect nectar from them rather efficiently.  The bees spend less time searching for flowers (or less time and effort travelling between flowers) as the flowers are all there together.  This means they collect more honey, and they collect it faster.  This means more honey for the hive, and more time for the bees to be doing other things.  It is a win-win, the bees win twice.  

Thyme flower comparison

Rather than just mentioning how much more leaves you get from Jekkas thyme than regular thyme, I thought I would show photos of just how much more productive this variety is than regular thyme.  

I took two sprigs of thyme, and two sprigs of Jekkas thyme, stripped off the lower leaves, and put them in piles for comparison.  I don't tend to use the leaves at the very tips of the sprigs because the sprig tends to break if I try to pull them off.  

At this stage the remaining sprigs, with their few leaves, could be planted and grown into new plants.  

Yield comparison Jekkas thyme

The sprigs were all similar in length (the regular thyme sprigs may be ever so slightly longer), and the plants were grown under the same conditions in the same garden.  The difference in yield between the two varieties is quite remarkable.  

On the left are the small leaves of regular thyme.  On the right is a significantly larger pile of leaves from Jekka's thyme.  There is simply no comparison in terms of yield.  

If you are going to bother growing any edible herb, you may as well grow an improved variety that provides more food for the same amount of time and effort.  

While Jekkas thyme used to be rare and difficult to find in Australia, I am glad to say that it is now easy to find.  Most garden shops seem to sell it, as do a few online plant sellers.  I also sell Jekkas thyme plants through my for sale page and it easily survives postage with no issues if it is given some water to get it established.  


Friday 9 June 2023

Giant Parsley Breeding

A few years ago I started breeding giant parsley (Petroselinum crispum).  Parsley used to be a common garnish when I was a child.  When I was a little older a sprig of parsley used to be put on steaks or other meals at restaurants, with the intention that it was discarded rather than eaten.  Since then it has fallen even more out of favour.  Some people still grow parsley, and a few eat it, but it is a largely underutilised crop.  

I wanted to develop a new variety of parsley to be big and productive, so it could be primarily used as a leaf vegetable.  Eventually I had a variety (albeit not a completely stable variety) of comically large parsley that dwarfs any of the 'giant' varieties.  The taste of this huge parsley is much like other flat leaf varieties, perhaps a little stronger. 

Then, for a number of reasons, I stopped my breeding project.  I felt my parsley was getting too big.  I stopped selecting for larger plants, and other than picking leaves I mostly ignored my parsley and let it do its own thing.   

Giant parsley
Parsley almost as long as my arm

Parsley is great.  It is simple to grow and in my garden it self seeds reliably.  For this reason I still have a lot of parsley around, all of which is descended from my giant parsley breeding project.  As there were a few generations with no selective pressure, there may have been some genetic drift.  Some plants are far larger than others.

Recently I spoke to someone who wanted a giant parsley and complained about how tiny and unimpressive 'Giant of Italy' parsley is.  He convinced me that there is merit in making parsley huge.  

After that conversation I went to my garden and looked to see what size parsley I have to work with if I ever wanted to increase its size again.  

As you can see, I still have some plants with reasonable size.  According to Wikipedia, Parsley leaves grow 10cm to 25cm long in its first year.  My parsley produce leaves that are far larger than that.  The leaf above is almost as long as my arm!  I measured a few leaves from my largest plants, and they were over 60cm long.  Some were about 67cm long.  

Parsley leaf around 66cm (26 inch) long
Parsley leaf about 67cm (26 inch) long

This parsley is still pretty big.  I have a number of plants around this size, and between them they probably have all the genetic potential to get a bit larger if I put in some effort.  I also have some smaller plants, I won't be allowing these to flower so their genes won't be in the mix. 

I once wondered if parsley petioles (leaf stalks) could be large enough to be used instead of celery stalks.  I had put some effort into breeding for fatter petioles and they were getting quite thick.  All of the leaf stalks in the celery at the moment are still a bit thin.  Most are about 1cm to 1.5cm thick.  This is still a lot thicker than the stuff you find in the supermarket, but not thick enough to replace celery.  At this stage I am undecided if I care too much about how thick the stalks are.


The parsley plant itself gets rather large and bushy.  I put a tape measure from the soil to give a bit of perspective.  For most of its growing season they are about two feet tall.  This is too large to grow on a windowsill, but it is a good size to grow in the garden or a large pot.  As you can see, it has a lot of leaves that can be picked.

Over the years I have had a lot of people come to my house to buy plants and seeds.  Some of these people have been gardening since before I was born.  My giant parsley astounds everyone who sees it.  Some people have to pick some and taste it before they can believe that it is even parsley.  



When this parsley flowers it can get very tall.  They tower over me when they are in bloom.  I am not exactly sure how tall they get as I never particularly cared how tall they reach and never measured them.  Flowering height is not something I would put any breeding effort into, but I should measure it one day just out of curiosity.  

Some leaves have a lot of stem and not enough leaf.  Others have a lot of leaf and not too much stem.  I never paid a great deal of attention to this as I believe it may be highly influenced by the growing environment.  

You can eat the stems, or feed them to animals.  As well as being healthy for people to eat, parsley is great for animals.  Parsley leaves and stems are loved by our guinea pigs.  Our chickens also eat the parsley stems, but they much prefer the leaves.  If nothing else, the stems are good in the compost, so there is no waste. 

Over two feet tall
Parsley vegetable not herb
Look at the size of this monster

I find it odd how simple parsley is to grow, how productive and nutritious it is, yet how rarely we use parsley as a leaf vegetable.  Parsley leaves have a lot of vitamins and minerals, according to research it is very high in Calcium, Iron, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin A.  

Just 5.5 grams of fresh parsley, which is about 1.5 tablespoons, provides the recommended daily intake of Vitamin K.  

Parsley contains 133mg Vitamin C per 100 grams, which is higher than oranges which have about 50mg per 100 grams.  

Parsley has about 138mg calcium per 100 grams, while cows milk has about 120mg calcium per 100 grams.  

Parsley contains around 6.2 milligrams of iron per 100 grams. To put this in perspective, spinach only has about 2.7mg of iron per 100 grams.  

I find it strange to think that parsley is mostly used as a garnish in this country when it has the potential to be something so much more.  It is so easy to grow and apparently very nutritious.  Each leaf of my parsley is absolutely massive, and with a little more breeding work they would get a bit larger.  

My giant parsley

Parsley this big should be more than a garnish

I used to know someone who bred rabbits for meat.  He used to feed the young rabbits parsley to increase their growth rates.  He said that parsley's high levels of calcium helped their bones grow fast so they could get up to full size quickly.  He would also feed parsley to lactating mothers to increase their milk supply and because he thought the high amounts of iron would help them recover from birthing.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but it makes sense to me.  

I wish I was growing this huge parsley back then and could have given him some seeds.  One of these giant plants has the potential to produce more leaves than a large plot of regular flat leaf parsley.  


Parsley is an underrated herb

I sell seeds of my parsley through my for sale page.  It is not a stable variety, and may produce a few regular size plants.  It will also produce a lot of extra large plants, and a few mammoth plants.  They all taste the same, just prevent the smaller plants from flowering and you will ensure that each year your plants will be large.  If you want to grow a giant parsley that is edible and will impress people, then this is for you.  

Saturday 18 February 2023

Semi Aquatic Vegetables

A few years ago we bought a 'self watering' pot.  I put a nice fern in it.  After a short while I needed to transplant the fern into something else as it started to die.

Unlike other self watering pots that we have which work perfectly, this one was poorly designed and does not work.  The soil gets all swampy and wet, which rots and kills most plants.  There is no little gap for air/drainage, and is essentially a pot with no drainage.

Instead of throwing away this pot, I decided to try and grow some water loving herbs and vegetables.  Perhaps they would like to grow in this pot.

I have some things such as Vietnamese coriander, water celery, fish mint, and various types of mint that I know would do well in here.  I also suspect that water chestnuts would do well in there.  I didn't want to grow any of these as they are doing so well under other conditions.

I also have a few other edible plants that do ok where I currently grow them, but I think may thrive in this pot.  Hopefully I will stumble across a better way to grow these plants.  

I decided to try willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum), Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica), Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), and Kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica).  All of these plants are known for loving water and growing on the edge of ponds or even growing submerged with their leaves out of the water.  I hope one or more of these will be well suited to this bog garden life.

Other than kangkong which were transplanted seedlings, all the others were cutting grown.  The first photos were taken 23 December.  Everything is looking limp after being transplanted the previous day.

Willowherb, Watercress, Gotu kola, Brahmi, and Kangkong

Everything was pretty small

The next photos were taken 04 January.  In under two weeks the plants have grown very fast!  

The willowherb is slowly growing, and the Gotu Kola hasn't done a great deal yet.  You can't really tell from the photo but the Brahmi has done a lot of growing over the two weeks.  Both Watercress and Kang Kong appear to be loving this new pot and their growth is rocketing along.

Less then two weeks of growth

Willowherb, Watercress, Gotu kola, Brahmi, and Kangkong

For soil I just used what I cleaned out of a drain that is in front of the garage.  It is mostly made up of soil and leaf litter that has been broken into small pieces.  This soil has weed seeds in it so I remove grass etc as it germinates.  Other than that it seems ideal for this purpose.  It holds water well, seems pretty fertile, and has plenty of organic matter that will break down to release further nutrients over time.

I am growing this little pot of herbs and vegetables in my greenhouse.  It is pretty warm in there over summer but also has some shade from the sun.  

The photos below were taken 13 January after three weeks of growth.  

The water cress is the standout and is growing like mad, it is flowering, and spilling over the sides of the pot.  Before I took these photos I had already been removing some of the watercress.  

The kangkong seems to be growing well and has large fat leaves but not much stem length.  Hopefully I get to eat some kangkong this year as well as grow the plants large enough to over winter in the greenhouse.

Brahmi seems to be growing well and has almost covered the surface of the soil.  I'm surprised that it is not flowering yet.  I quite like brahmi but it doesn't grow fast enough for my liking.

Willowherb is getting longer leaves and is larger overall.  This plant seems to be dividing, which is what I was hoping for.  

Gotu kola seems to have disappeared.  I think the runner I used was too tiny and may not have had enough roots, so I may put in another plant to see how it goes.    

Three weeks of growth

Kangkong growing larger, water cress spilling over the sides

Watercress flowering

After seven weeks I took the pictures below.  

Kangkong is looking healthy and getting bigger, but growing far slower than I would like.  I had hoped that my kangkong would be large enough to harvest by now, but it isn't.  I can pick a few leaves here and there, but not enough.  If it is going to have any chance of survival the kangkong will need to get larger before winter.

The watercress is spilling over the sides, flowering, and dropping seed.  I have allowed some of the seed to drop into the pot.  I have also harvested some of the watercress.  Water cress seems to be well suited to life in this pot.

Gotu Kola is in there, and appears to be alive, but isn't doing a great deal of anything.  I really should have tried this using a larger plant with more established root system.

The brahmi is in there, and flowering, but it is not all that huge and its growth is not at all rampant.  I have a feeling that brahmi needs a little more shade than this pot is getting.

The willow herb is getting big.  It has grown a bit of a stem and is reaching over the side of the pot, it now has long leaves, and appears to be dividing.  I think willowherb is well suited to life in this pot.

After seven weeks


Willow herb on left, kangkong on right 

This pot constantly has wet soil and there is water in the reservoir.  Unlike good self-watering pots this one has no space for air/drainage, so it functions more like a pot with no drainage hole.  If plants work well in here I can replicate the setup by getting a pot of soil and putting it in an ice cream container or something with a little water in it.

From this early progress it appears that some of these plants should flourish in this pot.  Hopefully this proves true over the longer term and is not just things doing well in the short term.  

From here I plan to keep it growing, harvest what I want, and see what survives winter.  


Saturday 11 February 2023

Variegated wasabi herb Diplotaxis erucoides

I have been growing Diplotaxis erucoides for six or seven years.  It is commonly called wasabi herb, or wall rocket, white rocket, white wallrocket, and it probably has a few other common names.  This is not related to true wasabi, but the leaves do have a similar (yet far milder) taste.  

This is an edible herb/vegetable with spicy leaves and sweet/spicy edible flowers.  Honey bees and other beneficial insects love this plant.  It holds up well to frost, it prefers mild temperatures, and it survives heat.  For me, this plant generously self seeds through my garden and lawn. 

I think this plant is underutilised and should be grown by more people if for no other reason than to feed beneficial insects.  

Variegated wasabi herb

Wasabi herb grows and matures fast.  They can be annuals and die after flowering, some are short lived perennials that survive (and flower) for a few years before they die.  I'm not sure if this difference is genetic but I assume it is at least somewhat influenced by the environment.

They pop up in my vegetable garden, in my lawn, in the chicken run, and I sprinkle seed on bare soil between crops to dig in as a green manure.  It matures quite fast.  I think that having something that feeds hover flies, parasitoid wasps, and bees on what would have otherwise been fallow soil is a good thing.  

This year, out of the many hundreds of self seeded plants that appeared, one had variegated leaves. 

I have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of wasabi herb plants and this is the first one that has shown any observable difference to all the rest.

This plant is growing amongst my sweet corn plants.  I had planned on weeding it out once the corn was established.  After noticing it had variegation I decided to leave it.

Variegated wasabi herb - young plant

I don't know if this variegation is a genetic mutation, or if is caused by the environment in some way.  I suspect it is not caused by spray drift as I don't spray things, and this plant had many other self seeded wasabi herb plants surrounding it that do not show any variegation.  Perhaps this is a spontaneous mutation, perhaps it is not, I don't know yet.

I plan to try and save seed from this plant to see if they produce variegated offspring.  

If you look closely you can see only one side displays variegation.  As only one side is variegated I plan to try and save seeds from this side separately if I can. 

There is a chance I will leave it too late and the seeds will scatter.  If this happens I will try to allow some of the seedlings to grow out and see if any are variegated.  Even if none of the seedlings are variegated there is still a chance that future generations may be variegated.

Hopefully this variegation is hereditary and not caused by the environment.  If it is, I may eventually be able to stabilise a variegated line of wasabi herb.  


Variegated Diplotaxis erucoides flowering

I currently sell seed of wasabi herb through my for sale page.  They are a good little plant to grow even if you don't eat them.  

If I ever stabilise a variegated line (this will take some time) I will also list them on my for sale page.  If I do stabilise a variegated line I will probably post a few updates along the way.  


Saturday 17 December 2022

Variegated pineapple sage

I have grown pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) for years.  It is such a great edible herb that smells incredible and apparently has some medicinal benefits.  I have grown some good clones, and some substandard ones.  They don't seem to love the climate here and usually need some protection from harsh frosts over winter.

For a few years I have been growing a particularly vigorous pineapple sage clone.  It grows well, produces far more leaves than other varieties, it usually survives winter unprotected, and most importantly it has the strongest, sweetest, and most delicious pineapple scent of any pineapple sage I have grown.  

One peculiarity of this clone is each spring it produces some variegated leaves.  I keep wondering if it is a sport.  If I took a cutting, grew it and protected it, perhaps it would produce a variegated clone.  Variegated pineapple sage sounds like fun.

Variegated pineapple sage

I take cuttings of this plant and have a few of them.  My plants are all genetically identical as they are cutting grown.

As summer wears on my plant grows and I lose track of the variegated parts.  After a while everything is once again green.  

I was not sure if the variegated parts die off, or if they revert to green, or if something in my garden was eating them.  The only way to know would be to take cuttings of a variegated branch and protect it.

Under side of variegated leaf

Each year I kind of wish I took a cutting of a variegated branch.  Every year I forget until it is too late.  Every year, that is, until this year!

This year I took cuttings of variegated branches.

I took a few cuttings.  Some were highly variegated, others less so.  Some were entirely variegated while others had some variegated leaves and other leaves were entirely green.

Some variegation in spring

Each of the cuttings grew well and sooner or later produced entirely green leaves.

This leads me to believe that whatever is causing this variegation, it is seasonal or environmental, and won't last.  

While I would have liked a pretty and highly variegated pineapple sage, I don't think it is going to happen.  Or if it will happen, it won't be by taking a cutting from my variegated branches in spring.  

That's ok, I really like this clone.  It has such a strong and sweet pineapple smell that I can't complain.  It also survives winters here, which no other clones have done without protection, which is just incredible. 

I would hate to lose this plant as it is better than any of the others I had grown.


Not much white on some

More white on others

Eventually they turned green



Monday 25 July 2022

Vietnamese coriander flowering

Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata) is an edible perennial herb from south east Asia.  I wrote an earlier post with Vietnamese coriander growing notes.  This is a very simple to grow, productive, and great tasting edible herb.  This is not related to coriander in any way, but can often be used in a similar way.

Vietnamese coriander loves heat, humidity, water, yet strangely does not appear to like full sun all day (although this may just be in my climate where humidity is too low).  For me leaf production is best when it gets part shade.  This is easy to provide by growing it next to something taller.  

I often grow it in a container with no drainage holes, I have soil or leaf litter in the bottom, and a few cm of water on top of the soil.  I have grown it in a pot of soil, where it does well.  I have also seen people grow this in their vegetable garden.

I have always been told that this plant will not flower outside the tropics, but that is not true.

I first got Vietnamese coriander when I lived in semi-arid central west NSW, and it flowered there.  Now that I live near Canberra with its hot dry summers and cold winters (cold by Australian standards) it still flowers.  Most years I don't get many flowers from this plant.

This past year the weather was odd, it was mild and wet all summer.  My Vietnamese coriander flowered more than it ever has before!

Vietnamese Coriander Flowering
Vietnamese coriander flowers

The flowers appear at the end of the growing stalks.  Many flowers are on each stem, they open sequentially from the base up to the tip.  The flowers don't really smell, or if they do I could not smell them over the foliage.  Flowers last a few days before dropping off.

Unlike many other herbs, the leaves do not appear to turn bitter or have any off flavours when flowering.  I haven't tried eating the flowers so don't know what they taste like.

Vietnamese coriander flowering

I have never seen any seed set.  I m not sure if it needs another clone to be able to cross pollinate, or if it in unable to set seed, or if my climate is all wrong for seed production, or if we do not have the right pollinators, or if there is some other issue at play.

I have had this plant for many years now, it grows so easily from cuttings.  Vietnamese coriander always grows prolifically for me, and produces many large leaves.  As such I don't need any true seed to be formed.






For me these grow best in spring, summer, and autumn.  My plants don't love frost, and growth slows during cold weather.  

I am growing some outside where it gets lighter frosts, these plants have reddish leaves over winter that are small, bitter, and not really worth eating until the warmer weather returns.  Once the weather warms they grow greener leaves that have no bitterness.

I grow some in my unheated greenhouse, the leaves of these are green and lush all winter and all year.   At this time of year they lose the arrow shaped markings on their leaves as the sun is not strong enough.  That doesn't bother me, they still taste great.

I also have some growing outside in my goldfish barrelponics, this is lush productive all year long.  The ones in the barrelponics has by far the most explosive growth and is not even slightly bothered by winter as the barrel water must keep it slightly warmer.  Over summer it can suffer slightly from direct sun, but there is always some that gets enough shade that it is still fast growing and great to eat.  Between this and water cress the goldfish water stays clear and clean.

If you don't grow Vietnamese coriander you should.  Sometimes plant nurseries carry them, but it seems to be a bit hit and miss.  I also sell organically grown plants of these through my for sale page.