New Herb Plants for Sale

African basil will excel in your garden as well as in the kitchen. To be honest, it’s a bit of a show-off – the leaves start off a delightful purple colour, which turn green as they mature and feature striking purple veins. It then throws up gorgeous spikes of deep pink flowers which are a magnet for bees and pollinators (it’s also known as Bee Basil). Because it doesn’t set seed, the flowers last for ages and are great value in pots, beds or borders.  It’s a vigorous basil and can grow to 75cm tall, so needs a largish pot if growing inside. 

Read more less

Bush Basil (aka Greek Basil) is a tough little small leaved variety which is less namby-pamby and a bit more punchy than the more temperamental sweet basil. Ideally suited to pots on a patio or balcony where you can enjoy the scent and leaves, it has a more pungent, spicy flavour and is wonderful in Mediterranean cuisine.  Greek basil is generally grown as an annual, but it is a tender perennial and if you’ve a greenhouse or poly tunnel you might be able to over-winter it. It’s small, tightly packed leaves and tough stem can allow for a bit of topiary, if you’re that way inclined. 

Read more less

If you like bees, you’ll love these! Bergamot is renowned for its attraction to our bumbling and honey making friends, Bee balm being a common name amongst others. It’s worth its place for the flowers alone, which bloom into lilac pink spidery fireworks. However monarda  was used medicinally by the native American tribe giving its name to ‘Oswego tea’, drunk for its antiseptic, digestive and calming properties.  Lemon Bergamot, monarda citriodora is a really special variety with strong, citrus scented leaves combining with the unique bergamot smell. It's totally the best for a relaxing herbal, lemony tea.

Read more less

Cardoon is a stately, statuesque perennial worth its place in any herb garden or wild meadow. It looks like the love child of a thistle and a teasel but is in fact the wild cousin of the globe artichoke. Considered a delicacy back in the day and is still enjoyed in rural Italy, the stems have a celery-like crunch and flavour of artichoke.  Cynara cardunculus needs a load of space and a sunny position in fertile, free draining soil. The striking foliage can reach 2m tall with beautiful thistly flowerheads which are a magnet for bees and pollinators. 

Read more less

Chicory with its latin name of Cichorium intybus might sound like a spell from Harry Potter (for making a weird coffee-like drink maybe) but it’s a herb with multiple uses and a rich history. People tend to think of Chicory as a war time coffee substitute or for using its peppery leaves to liven up a salad, but it’s actually a wonderful garden plant with beautiful blue flowers and a vigorous climbing habit.  Chicory is a sprawling perennial which can reach 1.5m tall, with some support. It’s hardy down to -10 degrees so is perfectly happy in most conditions. You can eat the leaves, enjoy the flowers (along with bees and butterflies) and at the end of the season, use the root for loads of things.

Read more less

Cowslip (Primula veris), also known as Herb Peter, Key Flower, or Mayflower, is one of Britain’s most beloved springtime wildflowers. With its nodding clusters of golden, bell-shaped blooms and gentle honeyed scent, cowslip has long been cherished in folklore, medicine, cooking, and gardening. Once very wide spread, you know may only see small clusters of these cheerful harbingers of spring in fields, along roadsides and on grass verges and banks.  A UK native with a rich history and folklore it was thought to ward off evil spirits and reveal hidden fairy treasure! In traditional medicine cowslip plants were used as an expectorant to sooth coughs and colds, as a mild sedative and to ease rheumatism and joint pain. Cowslip wildflowers have a mildly sweet, floral, honey-like flavour with subtle green and herbal notes. Both cowslip flowers and young leaves have culinary potential, particularly in desserts and syrups. 

Read more less