Herb Sale in RT to Feature Good Plants for Our Area this Weekend
Are you getting the itch to dig in the dirt and plant something that will thrive in our coming long, hot summer? You’ll find plenty of possible candidates at the upcoming herb and plant sale put on by the Pioneer Unit of the Herb Society of America.
The sale will be held at Round Top Festival Institute March 17, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and March 18, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. In selecting plants for the sale, the Pioneer Unit considers varieties that will grow well in our area. Here are some wonderful herbs you’ll find at the sale.
‘Arp’ Rosemary grows to three-to-four feet tall with an open habit and grey-green foliage. It is one of the most cold hardy rosemary varieties and is a nicely flavorful culinary variety. Madalene Hill, co-author of Southern Herb Growing and Herbalist in Residence at Festival Institute until her death in 2009, found this plant growing in Arp, Texas while visiting a relative in 1971. She took cuttings and grew it and with the help of the USDA, it was introduced into the nursery trade. If you’ve recently lost rosemary plants to freezes, this is a good variety to try growing in their place.
Red-Stemmed Applemint is a wonderfully flavorful mint variety with distinctive red stems. It is also known as Doublemint, as this plant contains both the oils of spearmint and peppermint. It is quite hardy here, but goes dormant sooner and returns later than most other mints. Mints are best suited for container culture to keep their rambunctious growing habit in check, and if put in the ground, red-stemmed applemint will spread quite readily. It likes full sun and part shade and prefers an average to moist soil. Applemint is fabulous for flavoring iced tea in summer!
‘Newe Ya’ar’ Sage is a hybrid sage that holds up well to heat and humidity. It grows three to four feet tall and wide and has a great aroma and taste. It sends up spikes of lavender purple flowers in spring, likes full sun and good drainage but not overhead watering.
‘Hilltop’ Oregano is a wonderfully aromatic and flavorful variety of Italian oregano—which is itself a cross between Greek oregano (having a low, spreading habit) and sweet marjoram (also an oregano type). It grows to be one to two feet tall and wide with a non-spreading habit. It likes full sun and good drainage and is suitable for both container and in-ground culture. Use it fresh or dried—the dried leaves have a more concentrated flavor—and it holds up well to long term cooking, unlike herbs such as basil and cilantro, which don’t.
Mexican Mint Marigold grows to two-to-three feet tall. It prefers full sun and average soil moisture. Madalene first started growing this wonderful herb from Mexico back in the late 1960s. The woman who gave it to her knew it as a medicinal plant, the way it had been used in Mexico for centuries. Madalene was intrigued by its aroma—similar in many ways to that of French Tarragon, an herb that is notoriously fickle in our warm climate. This plant is root hardy here with pretty yellow flowers in fall. In time, Madalene began to experiment with it for culinary purposes and found it to be a good substitute for tarragon in many dishes and began to laud it as a potential substitute for that venerable herb.
You’ll find these plants and hundreds more, as well as garden gifts and jams, mustards, and other food items at the Pioneer Unit’s sale. Don’t miss it! Find out more at https:// www.herbsocietypioneer. org/.