7 Herbs for a Cutting Garden

I like to grow flowers for cutting bouquets but when I make a bouquet, I generally always add some herb or another.  They provide color, texture and scent to a lovely arrangement.  So here are some of the herbs I grow that make great bouquets.  And since some are perennials, you will get cuttings all season.

Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is a member of the mint family and a wonderful butterfly and bee plant.  The foliage is large leafed, but the cone-shape purple flower heads are gorgeous and make a long-lasting attention grabbing addition to a bouquet.  And the flowers are totally edible with an anise or licorice scent and taste.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum) in the traditional style is not a good cutting herb, as it wilts easily.  But the smaller leafed varieties, like Thai Basil, Cinnamon Basil, or Dark Opal Basil will all look good and hold up well to a bouquet.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis) also known as Pot Marigold, this plant sports puffball flower heads in yellow and orange. If you want to grow it for cuttings, try 'Prince' or 'Kablouna' which are taller cultivars.

Dill (Anethum graveolens) and Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) both have a wonderful feathery foliage which makes great filler in a bouquet, not to mention they are both tasty to cook with!

Lavender (Lavendula) comes in many varieties.  One can grow Lavender Lady from seed and it will bloom in the first year.  But if you want a taller stem for arrangements, try English Lavender.  If you want a textured leaf with a funky flower, try French Lavender, also known as Lavender Cotton.

Any Mint (Mentha) will work in a bouquet and can make tea.  The strong stems makes them good in a vase and you can chose any number of scents and flavors, like chocolate mint, apple mint (fuzzy leaves), Spearmint, peppermint, orange mint and others.



Sage (Salvia) has a number of varieties, but the most common is Garden Sage with silver-gray leaves  and purple flowers in spring that are edible and attractive  The flowers taste musky and savory and the leaves look good fresh and dried.

Making cuttings from Scented Geraniums

Tonight we are traveling to Park Forest to do one of my favorite programs Herbology 101, sometimes just called Fun with Herbs.  I can adjust this program to fit the seasons and tonight I am discussing harvesting and preserving herbs as well as how to bring them in the house for winter.  I am doing it again in September for the Schaumburg Township District Library where I will be having make and take stations too.  However, they are on a waiting list already, but you might be able to join us if you check it out soon.

Of the things I am talking about tonight I am discussing Scented gernaiums.  They are a great item to take a cutting from for winter gorwing, or you can bring them in and take a cutting come spring for a new outdoor crop next year.

When rooting a scented geranium the best medium is damp sand.  Get some landscape or gardeners sand, not play sand.  Fill a container.  I used a window box.  You can use paper cups, small pots or even plastic pots or containers.

Make sure the sand is nice and damp, but not waterlogged.

Then you need the plant to take cuttings from.

This is this year's crop of Scented Geraniums.  There is Mable Grey on the far left and right with apple scented in the round leaves in front and the rose scented with round leaves in the back.  The ferny leaf ones are lemon and lemon-rose scented.

I am taking a cutting from the old-fashioned rose scented geranium with the long stems with multiple round leaves and the Rober's Lemon rose with the deeply cut and ferny leaves.

You only need two or three simple tools to make cuttings.  You need the medium to put the cutting in, ground cinnamon to keep germs away from your cuttings, and a sharp pair of scissors to take the cuttings.  I also use a pencil to make the holes in the sand, so I don't bend or crush the stem and it can make good roots.

Take a cutting from near the growing node of the plant.  The node is that area of the stem where leaves emerge and is the best place to get a new plant started, rather than cutting in the middle of a stem.

You then remove all the leaves from the stem except for a couple at the top .  You want the branch to spend energy making roots not keeping leaves alive, so remove as many as you can.

Then use a pointy stick or sharpened pencil (this is my special Berol #2.5 pencils that I own numbering in the hundreds) to make a hole in the sand to place the cutting.

Roll the end of the stem in ground cinnamon if you want to keep germs from forming on the cutting and place it in the hole, using only one finger to firm the sand around the cutting, so you don't crush it.

You can place the pot outside in a shady location or indoors in a sunny window.  Keep the sand moist, by misting it regularly and wait about two to three weeks for roots to form.  You will know it works when the leaves start to grow again.  Some cuttings will die.  This is a fact of growing plants.  Do not fear.

Replant the cuttings into potting soil when the root systems are fully developed (about 6 to 9 weeks.) Then keep them in a sunny window for the winter and take them outdoors for summer growth.   Scented geraniums like to dry out between watering, so do not over water them.

You can use this same technique with other plants as well.  Some herbs like Basil you can root the cuttings in water rather than sand. Always take a cutting from green stems, rather than woody stems.  You can root sage, lemon verbena, pineapple sage, mints, coleus and other firm stem herbs and plants with little difficulty and the plant provides many branches to cut, giving you plenty of stock to experiment with your technique without guilt.

Mistakes New Herb Gardeners Make

So you're thinking of herb gardening, or maybe you tried it last year and it was an utter disaster? Have no fear. There are a few simple mistakes that many herb newbies make (and I know, because I made most myself). Master these simple and practical tips for herb gardening and you'll be using your own fresh herbs in no time.

Fresh herbs are one of the greatest ways to increase the taste of your food healthfully. I often toss whatever leafy herbs are at hand liberally into a salad to add unexpected variations in flavor (basil, oregano and dill are all great choices). Fresh herbs can add punch to sauces or create intensely flavorful crusts for roasted meats. While fresh herbs are now regularly available at grocery stores year-round, growing your own herbs is a great way to master flavors you like and control the origins of your food. Growing herbs at home can be easy whether you live in a house in the suburbs or an apartment in the city.

Let it be known that one of the reasons I started to grow herbs was because they are much more resistant to diseases and infestations, but that still means you need to avoid a few mistakes to be able to enjoy them to the fullest. 

Don’t worry I am not going into soil pH, chemical make up of the soil or any of that.  Those discussions are for those who want to increase a harvest, not enjoy a few herbs in the backyard.  I have only tested my soil once or twice and once was because I was afraid it may have changed after a horrendous flood.

Mistake 1: Growing from seed. Many herbs are perennials rather than annuals (dill, cilantro and basil being exceptions) which means they take forever to mature and impatience can set in.  When you first start out trying to grow fresh herbs, I recommend you begin by trying to grow from seedlings rather than planting your own seeds. You can even grab a small plant at the grocery store to get you started.  Seeds grow slowly; some take weeks to germinate; others need precise conditions to sprout and grow.  All of these can be a headache for a new herb gardener, so skip it dive right in with plants.

Mistake 2: Starting with the wrong varieties. Choose herbs you enjoy eating, those that enjoy the weather where you live.  Don’t try something that says it likes cool weather if you, like me, live in Chicago.  Those hot days in late June will kill it.  Some plants can help you grow others.  Basil wilts if it does not get enough water, you can use it to gauge if you are watering all your plants enough.  Or choose scented geraniums, which love dry soil and will endure being forgotten rather well.

scented geranium

Mistake 3: Watering potted herbs like houseplants. It is better to water herbs daily only a moderate amount than to water once a week like a houseplant and let them dry out.  Houseplants love this, herbs require moderate and regular watering. This is particularly true during hot summer months. Make sure the soil drains well and that your containers have a drainage holes and it will be difficult to water herbs too much.

Mistake 4: Not cutting early and often. As a novice gardener, it may seem like your puny little plant just isn't ready for a trip to the barber, but then you will find yourself sitting there wishing for leaves without much success. Basil is a great herb to practice pruning. Basil, like many herbs, if you don’t trim aggressively it will continue to grow straight up, and become too tall and top-heavy. Clipping or pruning makes herbs bushy and causes them to produce more leaves.  It also keeps them from flowering.  You rarely, if ever, want your herbs to flower.  Flowering herbs lose flavor in the leaf when they produce flowers, giving you even more reasons to prune your herbs.

To prune you cut the herb just above a set of growing leaves. With basil, when you cut the plant that way, the originally trimmed stem will no longer grow. However, two new stems will grow around the original cutting, creating a “V” shape. 

Making your first trim approximately 3-4” above the soil produces a nice sturdy plant. Of course you want to be sure you are always leaving a few good sturdy leaves on the plant.

As it continues to grow, continue to prune it approximately every 3-4" for a nice solid plant. Your clippings make great bits of herb to experiment and cook with and result in more leaves to use later.

Mistake 5: Taking the leaves from the wrong place. When you are just starting out it seems to make so much sense to pick off a few big leaves around the bottom of the plant, and let those tender little guys at the top keep growing. Wrong. Leave those large tough old guys at the bottom alone. They are the solar panels that power your herb's growth. Once your plant is big enough to sustain a decent harvest, keep on taking from the top, as you have been when pruning. That way you get all those tender new herbs that are so tasty, and your plant gets to keep its well-developed solar power system in place. Plus, if you pluck from the base and leave the top intact, you get a tall skinny plant that will flop over from its own weight. (See rule above!)

Mistake 6: Growing the wrong variety. When choosing herbs, read the label carefully. For example, there are two main varieties of oregano: Mediterranean and Mexican. Mediterranean oregano is the more common variety, and what you likely own if you have conventional dried oregano in your cupboard. I have Mexican oregano growing in my personal garden. I love Mexican oregano in spicy dishes, for making beans from scratch, and often use it in tomato dishes where I don't want the flavor to seem too much like marinara. Similarly, there are several types of tarragon, French Tarragon and Russian Tarragon are the most common, however if you want a culinary tarragon then you want French which cannot be grown from seed and must be cultivated from root.  The first year it grows slowly then after that it springs from the root and gets more than 3 feet tall (see next rule).  The Russian variety is easy to propagate, drought tolerant and very often substituted for French, but the scent is not nearly as strong and the flavor for cooking is very limited.

Mistake 7: Being unaware of final size! If you are planting in soil instead of pots, take care that your cute little herb seedling doesn't become a giant plant that takes over your garden. A word of warning for oregano and mint: both can be voracious growers. If you are planting outside in a garden, rather than in pots, you may want to consider potting these herbs and then burying the pots in the ground. This will add a measure of control to the root systems of these herbs, which can otherwise take over a garden and strangle nearby neighbors. 

spreading spearmint

Mistake 8: Give yourself Rewards. There is an element to passion about herb gardening. To want to continue you need to feel rewarded. With herbs, finding uses and experimenting with new herbs and new uses can be that reward.  So don't stick too long with one or two herbs just because they work. Branch out to a few other basic herbs that you will use regularly in your kitchen. There are few things more rewarding than being able to pop out to garden to clip fresh herbs to use in my cooking. Once you have become comfortable with your first plant, I recommend moving on to try growing oregano, mint, rosemary and thyme. All are regularly useful herbs in the kitchen, and all are relatively easy to grow. 

Cuban oregano (with pansies)

A young woman in a Garden center near Burlington, WI introduced me to this year’s new herb. Cuban Oregano Plectranthus amboinicus, a semi-succulent perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae with a pungent oregano-like flavor and odor. It is native to Southern and Eastern Africa. It is widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in the tropics where it is used as a traditional medicine, spice, and ornamental plant. I love the scent and cannot wait to try cooking with it.

Basil Perpetuo

I was also at a garden center and found a variegated Basil that I have wanted to try since I first wrote about it, Basil Perpetuo a beautiful basil with a great flavor for Pesto that I have been looking to buy as a plant since 2014, because I hate growing basil from seed!  You can read about this and other Pesto Basil in this post from 2014. 

Mojito Mint - Herb of the Week

The Mojito, a traditional Cuban cocktail said to be the favorite of the writer Ernest Hemingway,  is made with rum, powdered sugar, lime juice, club soda and a mint unique to Cuba.  Since the true mojito mint is difficult to get “up north,” spearmint is usually substituted.  However I recommend that you grow a plant of Mojito Mint and enjoy its unique minty flavors.

Mojito mint and lemon verbena

True mojito mint known as Mentha x villosa is very different from other mints.  And worthy of being considered for an Herb of the Week

Mojito Mint’s scent and flavor are agreeably mild and warm, not pungent or overly sweet like some mints.  Like all mints it is easy to grow and will provide more than enough fresh sprigs for your mojitos. While recipes call for any available variety of Spearmint, the real mojito can only be made with the true Mojito Mint.

This culinary herb, a native to Cuba, was previously impossible to get in North America but thanks to Toronto mojito enthusiast Catherine Nasmith who visited Cuba in 2006, we now have the authentic plant from Cuba. Not just great in beverages, Mojito Mint also makes a great seasoning for meats and confections.

To Grow

Hardy in zones 5 through 9 it likes partial sun rather than full sun as it will react badly in full sun and high temperaturtes.  It requires normal water and should not be overwatered. The plant will not set seed accurately so it is best not to grow this plant from seed.  Instead gather it by root division, cutting or from a nursery plant.   They do very well in containers.  I grew it in a pot on the porch so I could make a Mojito anytime I wanted!

To Propogate from a stem cutting

This is good with many plants, like rosemary, scented geraniums, any variegated plant or hybrid variation, like Mojito mint.

You will need a mother plant, a sharp knife or scissors, plastic zip seal bags, Hormone rooting powder, growing medium, pots, a dibble (I just use a blunt pencil)

Collect only a small amount of material at a time and be sure to keep it in the zip seal bag to avoid moisture loss.  Choose a sturdy, non-flowering stem with lots of leaves. Cut a section just below the leaf joint and remove all but the top two of three leaves.  Fill a pot with moist growing medium.  Insert the blunt-end of a pencil into the edge of the pot and create a circle of holes. (Do not plant too close together or put one in the direct center of the pot.)  Dip the cuttings into hormone rooting powder, tapping off excess.  Place the cutting into the holes created with the dibble.  No need to fill the holes back in because when you water it the soil fills in itself. Be sure to water the pot lightly.  Cover with a plastic dome, or seal into a gallon sized zip seal bag.  You need to maintain maximum humidity. It will take 2 to 4 weeks for softwood cuttings like mint to root.  Once they are rooted transplant to individual pots.  Be sure to harden them off before moving outdoors.

I do this in the fall to make smaller plants to bring in side, so think about doing it now so the plants will be hardy by the time frost arrives.

If you just want to get a nursery plant, they are generally available from Richter’s Herbs at www.richters.com

To Use

Mojito Mint can be dried and used as a tea.  It has a rich flavor that is perfect with heartier herbs like rosemary and sage.  Mojito is a great herb to use to make scented oil for salves and is a nice ingredient in mint jelly.  You can also make a marinade for chicken or pork with it.  And of course it is the main ingredient in a Mojito Rum Drink.

Cuban Mojito recipethe original authentic recipe from Havana Cuba

1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
4 mint leaves
1 sprig of mint
Havana Club white Rum (2 ounces)
2 ounces club soda

There are countless recipes for the Mojito (pronounced moh-HEE-toh), but this version is for the one Hemingway himself enjoyed at the Mojito's place of birth: La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba. If you are throwing a Cuban theme party (Havana night themed party), definitely plan on serving mojitos.

Place the mint leaves into a long mojito glass (often called a "collins" glass) and squeeze the juice from a cut lime over it. You'll want about two ounces of lime juice, so it may not require all of the juice from a single lime.

Add the powdered sugar, then gently smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long wooden device with a nobby end, though you can also use the back of a fork or spoon if one isn't available). Add ice (preferably crushed) then add the rum and stir, and top off with the club soda (you can also stir the club soda in as per your taste). Garnish with a mint sprig.

The Nojito

Here is a non-alcoholic recipe from recipezaar.com.

crushed ice

8 mint leaves

3 ounces lime juice

1-1/2 ounces sugar syrup

2 ounces club soda

garnish with mint

Fill a pint glass 1/3 full with ice, add mint leaves, lime juice

and sugar syrup. Lightly mash the leaves in the liquid using a

blunt instrument, taking care not to tear the leaves. Fill the

glass with more ice, add club soda, and garnish with mint.

Mojito Marinated Chicken

3/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup light rum (2 tablespoons)

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint (finely)

6 tbls. Mojito mint syrup

1 tbls. vegetable oil

1 tbls. kosher salt (coarse)

6 chicken breast halves (with skin and bones about 5 pounds)

3 limes (quartered lengthwise)

1 sprig fresh mint

Directions:

Whisk lime juice, 1/2 cup rum, and next 4 ingredients in bowl. Place chicken in resealable plastic bag. Pour marinade over; seal bag. Turn bag to distribute marinade. Chill 4 hours, turning bag twice. Place lime quarters in shallow bowl. Pour remaining 2 tablespoons rum over, tossing to coat. Let stand at room temperature. Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Grill chicken until cooked through, about 15 minutes per side. Transfer to platter. Grill limes until soft and slightly charred, about 5 minutes. Garnish platter with mint sprigs. Squeeze grilled limes over chicken and serve.

Mint Syrup

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

8 mint leaves

Directions

Combine water and sugar in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once the liquid is boiling and the sugar has dissolved (creating simple syrup), remove from heat. Rip the mint leaves into small pieces and combine with the hot simple syrup immediately after removing the pot from the heat. Allow the mixture to cool until the pot is cool to the touch. Now, it will be ready to add to a drink or recipe! Refrigerate the left-overs.