Cultural Instructions

Click here for 2. Cultural Instructions – Scented Geraniums
Click here for 3. Cultural Instructions – Veggie Seedlings

For in depth articles on individual species and special topics, go to: Papa’s Potting Shed

1. Cultural Instructions – Herb Plants

Packing and unpacking

1. Upon arrival, take the plants out of the shipping box and remove the packing material.

2. Check the soil for moisture. Water the pots if the soil is dry by setting the pots in a pan of water for a half hour and then allowing to drain.

3. Acclimate the plants to their new location. On the first day, place them outside in a partly sunny location away from damaging winds for just a few hours. Check the seedlings several times throughout the day for water as the containers will dry out. Avoid overwatering. Bring them indoors in the afternoon or evening.

4. For the next four days, set your plantlets in the sun, extending their time outside a little more each day. Remember to bring them back indoors in the afternoon or evening, especially if the nighttime temperatures are relatively cold (below 40 degrees F). By the fourth or fifth day, they will be ready for planting.

About herbs

Herbs have been cultivated for thousands of years for both their culinary and medicinal purposes. These fragrant and flavorful plants still play an important role in every kitchen garden. Even a tiny plot can provide you with enough herbs to use fresh, frozen, or dried.

Herbs are easy to raise, even if you've never gardened before. If you have the space, you can plant a formal herb garden that is both attractive and plentiful. Formal herb gardens use design techniques that are centuries old. Knot gardens, for example, where herbs are grown in a knot-like design, have been popular since medieval times. If you are short on space, however, you can tuck your favorite herbs amid other plantings in your vegetable or flower garden. Many low-growing herbs, such as creeping rosemary and thyme make lovely edging plants for vegetable or flower gardens. In our Test Gardens, we always edge our rose borders with lavender or variegated sage and our vegetable beds with parsley.

Choosing a planting site

Herbs can be part of any garden or landscape as long as their specific planting requirements are met. For the most part, your herbs should be planted in areas that receive at least 6 hours of sun a day and are protected from drying winds. A few herbs like mints, chervil, and woodruff tolerate partial shade. Herbs do best in well drained soil. How do you tell if your soil is well-drained? Spray the garden area with a hose. If the water pools, then you need to improve the drainage of your soil. Forking in sand and other soil amendments such as compost or well-rotted manure improves drainage and boosts the nutrient level in your soil.

City dwellers can grow most herbs successfully in patio, porch or balcony containers. Care must be taken, however, to use good quality potting soil and to select pots or planters with adequate drainage holes.

Planting your herbs

Planting herbs outdoors
When you are confident that your last frost date is past and that your herbs are acclimated to your particular conditions, it's time to plant them. At the site determined by your design, make a hole in the soil somewhat larger than the rootball of the plant. Remove the pot, place the plant in the soil, and firm the soil around the plant. Water well, and if you are not familiar with the plants, label each one as you plant it.

Transplanting herbs
If your plants arrive in the spring, you may move them outside on warm days to a shady spot, but do not move them to permanent homes outdoors until all danger of frost is past. If your plants arrive in the fall and are intended for outdoor planting, they can be safely transplanted up to three weeks before the first frost. If they are intended for indoor gardening, they can be transplanted into larger containers within a few days.

Container gardening with herbs
Pot size will vary from species to species. Generally speaking, a 6"-8" terracotta pot, filled with good quality potting medium, suffices for a one plant, one season container garden. Do not use garden soil in any pot. Most herbs require 6-8 hours of direct sunlight or 12 hours under a grow light each day to thrive. Mints and some thymes can get by on less light. Regular pinching of growing tips encourages bushier growth. (There is an essay on container gardening in the Papa’s Potting Shed section of this site.)

Herb care tips

Watering and fertilizing herbs
Determining how often to water your herbs depends on the season, the plant, ambient humidity, air movement, exposure to the sun, and temperature. In general, plants should be watered before they get completely dry, but not so often that the soil stays soggy. Under most conditions and in most areas of America, a deep (so that the soil is wetted 8"-12" below the surface) watering once a week should suffice after the plants are established. If you are potting your herbs, it is very important to use pots with drainage holes, and that they're not left to stand in water for more than a few minutes at a time. Plants confined to pots need more attention paid to their nourishment than garden plants. The easiest way to accomplish this is by feeding with a weak (1/2 strength) water soluble fertilizer every two weeks during periods of active growth. During periods of dormancy, do not fertilize at all - the plants are resting and will not benefit from the fertilizer. In fact, it may kill them.

Bringing herbs indoors
The best way to overwinter herbs indoors is to plant them in the spring in 8"-10" pots and grow them all summer in those pots. The pots can be buried up to the rim in the garden or simply placed on the porch or patio. Natural porous clay pots are recommended.

If you decide that you want to bring a plant inside that has been growing in the garden all summer, the first step is to prune back much of the summer's growth. Well before the first frost, dig up the plant carefully, leaving plenty of earth on the roots. Place rootball in sufficiently large pot to easily accommodate the roots and back fill with good quality commercial potting soil. Water well and gradually acclimate to new light conditions. Move from full sun to part shade to almost full shade over several weeks. Appropriate winter care includes providing as much light as you can, even moisture, and reasonable temperatures.

Bay laurel, rosemary, lavender and lemon verbena are plants that need to be moved indoors if they are to survive. We strongly recommend planting them in pots in the spring. Click here for more tips on growing herbs indoors.

Repotting: Most herb plants purchased from papa Geno’s will arrive in smallish pots. These containers are meant to hold the plants for limited periods. Once they have become acclimated to your house, your herbs need to be transplanted into larger pots. Pot size will vary from species to species - check the information about each plant. Generally speaking, a 6" terracotta pot, filled with good quality potting medium, will suffice for a single season in an indoor garden.

Indoor environment: Most herbs require 6-8 hours of direct sunlight, or 10-12 hours of closely positioned grow lights, each day to thrive. South, east or west windows without curtains should suffice for most. If your plants get leggy, they should be moved to stronger light and rotated a quarter turn every week to provide equal exposure for all the leaves. Regular pinching of growing tips encourages bushier growth. The 65-70° winter temperature of most North American homes will be fine in most cases, but beware of either hot or cold drafts, and of placing plants too near radiators or hot air outlets. Most plants that die indoors do so because they got too hot or too dry. To increase the humidity in the immediate vicinity of the plant, place the pot on a tray of pebbles, which should be filled with water daily.

Drying herbs for cooking

Perennial herbs
Perennial herbs come back year after year and can be planted directly in the garden. Most oreganos, mints, thymes, chives, French tarragon, winter savory, culinary sages, English lavenders, germanders, catnips and santolinas are perennials. Although lavenders require a well-drained, slightly alkaline soil, most other are not picky about soil type. They do however need plenty of room - at least 12-18" between plants. Mints require special attention because they grow and spread rapidly. We recommend confining them in large 12" rubber pots sunk into the ground, or situating them at some distance from your other valuable plants. They can easily take over a small garden if not controlled in some way. Perennial is a relative word, and a plant that is relatively perennial in Dallas, may have to be treated as a tender perennial in Iowa. The US Department of Agriculture has developed a hardiness zone chart which is widely used by American gardeners, and which is referenced by virtually all commercial growers. If you are not familiar with these hardiness zones, or do not know in which zone you live, click here to go to a zone map.

Tender perennials
Tender perennials are not frost tolerant but can live for several years if given proper care. Tender perennial herbs include French lavenders, rosemarys, scented geraniums, pennyroyals, lemongrass, bay laurel, myrtles, capers, patchouli, curry, licorice and several others. If you want your tender perennial herbs to last more than one season, plant them in 8-10" terra-cotta pots, and either sink the pots up to the rim in your garden, or place the pots on your porch or patio. In the fall, three weeks before your first frost, they should be pruned back substantially, checked for insect pests and disease, and gradually acclimated to their indoor winter surroundings. Do not fertilize during the late fall and winter. Do not overwater. Many will be completely dormant during their stay indoors.

Annuals
Annuals are those plants which grow, produce and die within one growing season. The list of herb annuals typically includes summer savory, basil, cilantro, fennel and parsley (although the latter are also biennials). They can be planted either in containers or in the garden. A few annuals, such as parsley and basil, can be successfully grown indoors any time of year -- under proper light and temperature conditions.

Plants from warmer climates
Some plants - such as bay laurel, lemongrass, capers, cardamom, Mexican tarragon, and patchouli - are tropical or semi-tropical, and will be winter hardy only in the warmest parts of the United States (zones 8 - 10). Elsewhere, they should be planted in pots and overwintered indoors. All of these plants are essentially dormant in the winter and may drop most of their leaves before greening up again in the spring. Cardamom ginger does best in shade.

Troubleshooting

What should I use to control pests on my herbs?
Although not immune to diseases and bugs, herbs are certainly less prone to attracting pests than many popular American garden plants. We generally recommend using organic methods in dealing with pests. Remember - you will be growing many of your herbs to consume in one way or another and with them you'll be consuming whatever pest control you've used. So while there are other effective pest controls on the market, we think using organic solutions helps to minimize exposure to potentially harmful compounds. For flying insects, we use insecticidal soap; for crawling varieties, we use diatomaceous earth.

When I bring my herbs indoors for the winter, they are infested by pests. They do just fine outdoors. What can I do?
Herbs are rarely bothered by plant pests in the garden, but they can be a problem indoors. Not because your house is infested (although it could be) or that the plant was infested when you bought it, rather the reason is that indoor growing conditions are not ideal. The plants are thus rendered less capable of resisting pests naturally. The two most common indoor pests are spider mites and whiteflies. Both thrive in low humidity and high temperatures.

A reasonably effective, reasonably safe means of control is insecticidal soap. If the plant is small enough, turn the pot upside down and immerse the whole plant in a bucket of the soap solution once a week. If it is too large for that treatment, spray the whole plant weekly, paying special attention to the undersides of the leaves. The key to controlling bugs is to look for them every time you water, and to begin treatment at the first sign. Waiting even one week to begin treatment can lead to an uncontrollable population explosion.

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