Herb Seeds: Culinary, Aromatic and Traditional

Fifty packets, and the difference between them is mostly how much attention they want. Here is the shelf broken into the groups that actually behave alike.

Our herb seed range

Aromatic and culinary herbs

The dependable half. Three basils sit next to each other: Sweet Basil, Dark Opal, and Cinnamon Basil, which tastes roughly like its name and can pass a metre in height. Marjoram and oregano are close cousins and want the same sun, though oregano actively suffers in wet soil and should only be watered once its pot has dried out. Summer savory belongs to the mint family alongside thyme and rosemary, and tastes sweeter if you cut it before it flowers. Parsley is the odd one out: unlike most herbs here, it wants genuinely fertile soil.

Medicinal and traditional herbs

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is the Ayurvedic one, an easy shrub that flowers around midsummer. Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) keeps producing leaves into winter. Chicory (Cichorium intybus) has the best party trick on the page: dried and ground, its roots stand in for coffee. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), mallow (Malva sylvestris) and St John's wort round it out, the last of which tolerates drought and flooding equally well. There is more of this sort on the wellness plant seed shelf.

How to grow herbs from seed

Most of these want the same thing: warmth, light, well-draining soil, and less water than you think. Start indoors in a propagator or on a sunny sill, then move out after the last frost. Chicory is the one to watch on sowing depth, never more than half a centimetre down, thinned to 30 cm apart once the seedlings show at two to three weeks. Valerian follows an unusual schedule, sown in an outdoor bed around April or May, pricked out in June, then moved to its final spot in autumn.

Choosing the right herb seeds

If this is your first go, take basil, chives, thyme or chamomile and you will get something to eat. Two to think twice about: cumin needs a long hot season and roughly 120 days to make seed, so a cool summer will disappoint you, and anise hates cold and damp and takes three to four weeks to germinate at all, though soaking the seed for a few days speeds that up. Fennel Fino reaches around two metres and needs the room.

One honest warning, and the seed packs

Rue (Ruta graveolens) is on this page as an ornamental and we would leave it at that. Its own product page says its culinary use has largely been discontinued: it can cause gastric irritation, shouldn't be eaten by pregnant women or anyone with liver problems, and touching the leaves irritates some people's skin. Beautiful plant, not a kitchen herb.

If you would rather not pick one by one, four packs do the choosing. Kitchen Herbs covers sweet basil, coriander, parsley, chives, thyme, lovage and oregano. BBQ Herbs swaps in marjoram, cayenne, dill and sage. Tea Herbs runs to peppermint, chamomile, lemon balm, lavender, summer savory, thyme, valerian and mugwort. The Wellness pack collects wormwood, valerian, mugwort, sage, St John's wort and tansy. The rest of the plantshop is under all seeds.