I always love when I can combine function with beauty in the garden. And growing herb plants in my ornamental gardens does just that.
I will often combine herb plants in pots with other flowers, or interplant them in my garden beds with annuals and perennials.
Many herbs have interesting foliage, and beautiful blooms that mix beautifully in any landscape. As a bonus, many herb plant leaves also give off lovely scents in the hot sun or when brushed up against.
Here are seven of my favorite herbs to grow in my ornamental gardens.
Tricolor Sage
Tricolor sage is by far my favorite herb to plant as an ornamental. The leaves of this sage plant grow stunning hues of pinkish purple, green, and creamy white.
I have used tricolor sage in plant borders and mixed plantings for years. I especially like to plant a planter full of tricolor sage as it provides movable color for the entire summer!
And yes, the leaves are used in the same way as garden sage for cooking 🙂 I bring a pot of tricolor sage herbs indoors come fall to extend the colourful display into my home, and to harvest fresh sage for cooking in the winter 🙂
Purple Basil
Purple basil is a stunning addition to any garden border and is especially impactful against a backdrop of bright green or silver foliage plants.
Purple basil varieties range from leaves with a mix of purple and green, to solid dark purple and maroon leaves. Also plant sizes vary from compact to traditional to large with ruffled leaves. Lots of variations to play with 🙂
Every year, I grow a planter with a mix of purple and green basil on my deck. It’s a lovely colourful addition to my garden, with a fresh supply of basil a few steps away from my kitchen. It takes only seconds to clip a few colourful basil leaves to toss into a salad or top a pasta dish.
My favourite use of purple basil in the kitchen is on a tomato salad made with the yellow or orange tomatoes. My kids love purple basil pesto – it’s so weirdly dark purple and so delicious! There’s something about adding purple basil to food that makes it so much fun 🙂
Feverfew
Feverfew is my happy sunshine herb plant. Yeah, that sounds corny. But when in bloom, the feverfew plants are abundantly full of small yellow and white daisy-like flowers that cause me to smile every time I walk by. And feverfew blooms from June to August, so that’s almost a full summer of smiles 🙂
Best known for its use for migraine headaches, the feverfew herb is a lovely ornamental perennial that also self sows quite readily if you let the flower heads go to seed, which I do. The feverfew leaves are also attractive when the plant is not in bloom.
I have found feverfew to be a reliable flowering plant in my garden for years! It grows 1 to 3 feet high, usually no taller than 2 feet in my garden. And since I’m a lazy gardener, I’m thrilled that I can enjoy a mass of colourful flowers each year with no work on my part 🙂
Pineapple Sage
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Pineapple sage is a really fun ornamental herb to grow because the leaves really do smell like pineapple.
Think about this, sitting on your deck with a cold drink – maybe a lemonade or a fruity drink – pinch a couple of pineapple sage leaves off the plant sitting next to you, crush them a bit to release the pineapple scent, and drop them into your drink. Aaah – summer at its finest 🙂
I grow pineapple sage as a house plant throughout the winter and take it outdoors onto my deck for the summer. In my house, the pineapple sage doesn’t always get good light, yet it tends to make it through the winter most years anyway. My plant tends to get somewhat leggy throughout the winter, so I pinch it back to keep it bushy Even if you have good light, pinching back your pineapple sage will give you a stronger, bushier plant.
The flowers of pineapple sage are bright red tubular flowers that attract buterflies and hummingbirds, and they too are edible. Pineapple sage blooms late in the season, making its flowers a most welcome display amidst other fading plants. Because I live in an area where frost can come early, my pineapple sage often blooms after I’ve brought it indoors. A most welcome splash of colour 🙂
Silver Thyme
The variegated foliage of silver thyme makes it a great herb to plant along the borders of any garden bed. Silver thyme’s green with white-edged petite leaves and compact growth habit makes it a great edging herb in vegetable and flower gardens. Or anywhere you want to tuck in a few low growing plants.
When in bloom, silver thyme is full of tiny lilac pink flowers. I find silver thyme especially pretty in rock gardens, or against large rocks.
It’s also lovely planted in hanging baskets either as a feature basket on its own, or mixed in with other flowering annuals.
And silver thyme has the same fragrance and flavour as English thyme – more incentive to prune this delicious classic herb 🙂
Bronze Fennel
Bronze fennel is a wonderful herb to grow at the back of a border, or anywhere against a wall where you want to soften hard edges. It is tall and lacy, with stems shooting up to over six feet high. This herb has delicate flowy foliage and yellow umbrella-like flowers. I like growing bronze fennel against the house because it softens the look of the brick and even though it grows tall, it doesn’t overtake the plants growing in front of it.
The fennel leaves are delicious when picked young – mildly licoricy and great with fish, chicken or pork. I also enjoy them chopped up finely and added to warm potatoes with butter. I find older leaves tougher, but they can still be used in cooked dishes.
For me though, the best tasting part of this herb plant is the little flower buds that make up the flower. They are intensely sweet and licoricy – if you have a fennel plant blooming, these buds are a must-try 🙂 I throw them into salads or just pinch them off and nibble on them as I’m wandering about outside. Be careful picking these delish buds as numerous insects love to hang out around these sweet blooms too!
Purple Coneflower
Purple Coneflower – echinacea purpurea – is a beautiful perennial flower that is a welcome addition to any garden. The pinkish purple daisy like fowers with a big cone in the centre bloom from July to September and are stunning!
Echinacea is a native American herbal plant that is taken by many people today to shorten the duration of the common cold and to help boost the immune system. It is also commonly grown as an ornamental flower where I live in southern Canada.
I grow purple coneflowers in a garden space close to my deck because I enjoy watching the blooms unfold and the activity in the garden that comes with it. Echinacea flowers attract butterflies and a host of other native flying insects. I sit on the deck with my coffee watching the bumble bees taking their time hovering from one flower to the next 🙂
There are many herbs that blend beautifully into ornamental gardens. And these are my favourites. Leave a comment below with your favourites 🙂
Happy Gardening,
Barb
PS – For more about growing and using these ornamental herbs, check out the following:
Growing Feverfew For Headaches
The Need To Grow: Watch this inspiring and award winning film for free...click here
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