New Herbs?

Will you be growing something new in 2009? An herb previously unknown to you or perhaps just previously untried in your garden? I'll be trying out Admud (Carum roxburgianum) and Ajowan (Carum copticum), two Indian herbs grown for their seed.

Capparis spinosa incermis (Caper Bush) - zone 9. ROFL @ myself. I finally hauled everything out of the seed fridge and found this. I have no idea why I have it. Seeded it today. Also seeded verbena hastata (Blue Vervain). I seeded it 2 years ago too late to have seedlings established enough to go into the garden in the fall so this is round 2. I also have some basils that are new to me but still working through the seed fridge stash so will post those later. Ajowan isn't hardy for me. I haven't heard of Admun. What's the scoop herbalbetty? Inquiring Herbies need to know ^_^

Dahlianut! Caper bush, why not? You might just get some capers out of it in a season. That's what I am hoping for with the Ajowan and Admun. I've heard they are very tasty seeds for Indian cuisine. I haven't grown them before, so what the heck. If you need more seeds of Blue Vervain, let me know. I have a meadow of it - and it is so lovely. Like blue candelabras. And blooming in the meadow at the same time is boneset with its white blooms and Joe Pye with the lovely pink blossoms. Now, why would I be dreaming of these beauties and an August day? It's only been -17 here for two nights.

I used to have a Caper bush at the botanical gardenens here in Tucson when I worked there. The flowers were so beautiful and our visitors always loved the plant. I was amazed that it would grow in our hot, dry climate. I'd love to have one at my house someday.

BTW, I've promised my friend's little girl that I'll make a stirfry tonight with some of my fresh broccoli and I think I'll harvest some of the ginger root that I've been growing for this project. This will be the first time I've harvested a root. I'm SO excited!!!

Momherb

Momherb, you know I'm jealous that you are harvesting broccoli and ginger at this time of year! I'll be right over for stir fry. Uh, how long of a walk is it from NY to AZ? :-)

You'd better get started! The broccoli may be all done in before you get here. The stir fry was a success but I forgot to put the bok choy leaves in after I'd harvested them and chopped them. The broccoli, stems and all, and the bok choy stems were fabulous with the chicken, ginger, and other goodies.

It was fun to harvest my first ginger root and it's so fresh it's almost like candy!

Momherb

What fun! I've got a couple new-to-me basil seeds on their way ('Serata' and 'Blue Spice', plus 'Purple Ruffles', which I've had in the distant past but never grown from seed before).

Keep us posted on the basils critter please. I'm alway up for trying new basils. I put a couple of seed flats out in the greenhouse this weekend and I was wafted with that wonderful peppery basil smell as soon as I opened the door. I didn't want to leave. I leave a few plants to dry whole in the containers every fall just to have that wonderful smell through winter/spring. Of course we won't talk about the tomato plants that I didn't clean up that look pretty disgusting (blush).

Yeah, I've still got tomato cages out in my garden... LOL. Sometimes "fall clean up" tasks end up waiting until spring! I know I'm inviting more tomato blight by leaving dead plants out there over the winter, but my garden soil is already pretty well infested with blight, so..

I seeded some Asafoeteda seed 10 months ago and had given up on it. Last week I looked in the "bone yard" of the green house and 2 out of the whole pack of seeds had sprouted. Hope I don't kill the babies.
Thanks to herbalbetty for telling me where to find the seeds.

Great news Vortreker. Some seeds are just persnickety. I have few perennial seeds planted now that are '18 months, sporadic germination at best' right now LOL.

I've sent for a long list of seeds for elecampine,fenugreek,hyssup,marshmallow,mexican marigold,toothache plant,valerian,sweet dani basil,borage,chervil,dill,germander,summersavory,marjarum,parsley,salad burnet.chives,penny royal,clary sage,and winter savory.
Don't know where i'll put it all. I'm hoping i'll have someone here to help me garden this summer if i can get things started. YEAH!!!! ;0
I havent even checked the seeds i got in trade again. Know i got some goodies tho. I need to add a couple of things i've ordered above are plants and won't be here til April.

Oh yes -- I'm trying "toothache plant" (Splinathes?) this year also... between its little "eyeball" blooms and the interesting numbing effect of the leaves, I think this one will be popular with any garden explorers here. :-)

Wow cando you are starting alot this year. Please share your experience with Spilanthes. Thanks.

Spilanthes is terrific! It grows as an annual for me. Is late in blooming, but does so each year. Not only does it make your mouth numb, it makes you salivate like a Pavlovian critter. When my granddaughter was teething, I rubbed a little spilanthes on her gums, tied on the bib, and it calmed her right down.

Vort - my asafetida germinated quickly last year and I had 5-6 seedlings that were about 4 inches high when they suddenly said goodbye. I think I started them indoors too soon and should have transplanted them - but it was too cold here. So, this year I will (TRY) to exercise patience and wait a little closer to our last frost date.

Dahlia - your greenhouse sounds like the place to be!

I'm going to be growing yerba buena, golden feverfew and I forgot the botanical name but it's variegated land cress, instead of water cress, it's called land cress andit's variegated.

not sure if this is an herb but i'll also be growing cashmere sage .

and also have some new silver tipped horehound I got from high country gardens last fall. it's in the ground and doing quite well even since it's dead winter right now.

Got an austrailian mint bush coming this spring also.

I think that's about it,

woops, I forgot the blue curl rue and the double flowering chamomile. I had a couple other varieties of chamomile but I think I lost those.

not sure if these are herbs LOL but I also got the symphytum (spelling) belsay gold and shoot one other one, it's green andwhite variegated. the name escapes me at the moment. they were super hard to find, took me abou t6 months to find them. I ended up trading for one of them, not sure which though.

oh wait! it's the axminster gold is the other simphytum I got.

Kathy Ann, comfrey is terrific. I have "regular" comfrey, Russian comfrey, Goldsmith comfrey, Yellow-flowering comfrey (creeping comfrey), dwarf comfrey - which blooms white, and Raspberry Queen comfrey. Now I will have to look for Belsay gold! And the variegated one!!! A mission!

we can trade for them if you want to. I'd be intersted in the raspberry queen and the creeping, never heard of the creeping comfry.

youshould know, that the belsay gold comfrey is gold when it first immerges from teh ground then it's solid green the rest of the year, quite disapointing but sure is beautiful when it' immerges. i've never heard of the raspberry queen either.

I did find a few lily of the valley's a ren't they herbs? can't remember them all. got the double flowered, variegated one last year, and also have the pink flowering one.

I'd like to try to fnd that red angelica, I forget the name of it, but it's red. if I find it, that will be another new one for me this year.

I'm pretty sure the symphytums multiplied enough that I can send a small division of both in the spring ifyou want to trade later on

The Raspberry Queen I picked up at Well Sweep in NJ last year. It's not quite big enough to divide yet, although by the end of this year's growing season, it should be. I have pink LOTV, double-flowered LOTV, "Bigger Bell" LOTV and good, old regular LOTV. It is an herb, but should only be used cautiously by a very well-trained herbalist. Red angelica is Angelica gigas or Korean angelica. Dmail me your address and I will send you a few seeds of Angelica gigas.

well, I'll keep my eyes on the comfreys that are here, that you want, and I should be able to divide them sometime this year also.

I got alot of stuff at well sweep last year also, they got some neat stuff. I also like crimsonsage.com

i'll dmail you my addy, thanks

herbalbetty, I planted my seeds too early last year too and lost a bunch. I knew better but one tomato plant i kept nursing even tho it always looked terminal ;0
It had one tiny tomato before it bit the dust. The thought has occured to me that just maybe i'm guilty of torture. Did'nt do it on purpose.
I'll keep everyone updated. If i get my seeds. Oh for spring to be here. Also need to get some more containers. We are suppsed to get an icy mix Monday and Tuesday. Surely i dreamt that forcast tho.
goodnight all,

Cando, it is -8 here this morning. Dreaming of spring is all I can do! My tomatoes are happy when I start them too early. If they are quite large when it is time to transplant them into the garden, I will take most of the leaves off and put most of the stem in the hole. Wherever those leaf nodes are, new roots will sprout. Sure, the hole looks more like a trench, but the tomatoes love it.

Even with starting them just 8 weeks ahead, I end up trenching my tomatoes... it does give them great root systems, since the stem sprouts roots all along its buried length. I don't bother pulling the leaves off.

Too bag you can't just pinch them like basil seedlings!

Neat "Trick"

If your tomatoe plants are getting too tall before time to plant them lay them on their side and let the tips start growing up then plant the entire horizontal part underground. Really gives the short season folks a headstart

Cool! Although if your tomato seedlings are just growing upright, you can still trench them... I dig a shallow, sloping hole and just gently bend the tip so it's more or less upright above the soil surface.

that's a neat idea, I never thought of that.

My Ajmud has sprouted--hope I can grow it in zone 8b--We get so hot so fast I kinda doubt it.

Has anyone grown purslane for edible purposes...the golden purslane? Someone shared a few seedlings with me last year and it's so good! So this year I ordered seeds.

I harvest the wild purslane when weeding to add to salads. I like it tossed with Italian dressing and a few chopped tomatoes.

I thought the golden purslane had such a nice flavor! You should try it. I had also used wild purslane before. Purslane is very good and nutritious. I read that in some countries it's very commonly used in various dishes.

Hi-

new to this forum, but I suppose I should have peeked here more since I use herbs in my home landscaping...

I'm just about to start seeds of 2 dwarf lavenders from Renee's garden-

French perfume (purple/blue flowers)
White Ice (white flowers)

I grow lavender- fernleaf, which reseeds itself crazily each year but is beautiful as the weed it is in my garden, and provence lavender, which is now a learge shrub, but was hoping to use these lavenders as fillers in the perennial herb borders around the house and patio. Has anyone tried these or other dwarf lavenders (besides munstead). I was excited to find these, but now I see that Burpee has their own version of the dwarf white lavender.
I'm hoping to use these in the herb border around the patio and again interplanted around my alpine strawberry border. they look cute in the website photos...
Also finally getting around to planting cilantro delfino, from seeds last year.

I'm going to raid Le Jardin du Gourmet website for herb seeds. they have amazing prices- including sample packets for 35 cents and large packets for $1.10- a great deal!

in any case, back to work.

Checked out the website...........ohhhh, someone could get in a lot of trouble there........;-)

O dear. I looked. I knew I shouldn't look but I did.

haha made ya look.

gosh if anyone want to try the fernleaf lavender i'm sure i have some seeds left over from last year. i'm assuming they are viable, since i only had to plant once and have had them in the garden for 4 years now. supposedly they don't come true from seed, but the plants that come up now look almost identical to the original plant- just a bit shorter (around 18-24" including flower spikes).
gotta hunt for them in my stash but any takers?

:)
joy

herbalbetty, I don't know about 'new' this year, because I need to extend my gardening beds from merely puny to inadequate and few. I'm very disappointed in the damage the deer have done this winter, but I know that herbs are some of their least favorites, so I can't wait to get going with some plants. I'll be looking forward to the your herb garden pictures.

Pam, ah, the deer battle! My yes, we have waged war against them for several years. Putting fencing around the property helped immensely. (We stranded heavy wire along concreted-in 4 x 4 posts). Here are some pics from last year...

And another...

Betty, your yard looks beautiful.