Herbs as Houseplants

Grow herbs inside during the winter to have fresh herbs at your fingertips for winter salads, stir fries and sauces.  Make your home fragrant with Christmas herbs:  rosemary, scented geraniums, the mints, lavender and lemon verbena.  Follow these easy care for success!

Light: Most herbs thrive on light – 5 hours of direct sunlight a day.  A southern exposure is ideal!

Exceptions: Mints, bay, parsley, rosemary and thyme, which take partial shade and lemon balm, which actually likes full shade.

No natural sunlight?  Use two tube cool white fixtures hung 6”-8” above the herbs, left on for 14-16 hours a day.  Your plants will be bushy and productive.
TEMPERATURES:  Most herbs prefer temperatures on the cool side, with days 65 degrees and nights 55-60 degrees F.  They will do fine with days of 70 degrees F. and nights in the 60’s.  Many herbs will survive temperatures in the mid-to-low 40’s, though scented geraniums and basils CAN’T take it below 50 degrees F.

Remember!  Herb foliage pressed against frozen windows will freeze and die.  Slip a piece of paper between the foliage and the window.

Air Circulation:  Herbs don’t like stagnant air; so keep air moving by cracking a window in an adjoining room.  A blast of cold air is a CURSE!

Soil:  Good drainage is important!  Esbenshades Potting Soil has been very successful in growing herbs.

Plant in 4”-6” pots.  For plants with spreading underground runners, like the mints, wide shallow pots are ideal.  For parsley, a deep pot is better.

Fertilization:  Fertilize once a month at half the recommended strength.  This schedule is enough to keep them productive, but not so much that they get leggy and lose their flavor.