Last year (spring) when I was roughing out gardens I set aside an area for herbs. Have never grown any herbs at all before. Planted 2 curly leaf parsley and they produced copious bunches of lovely leaves last year. I juice them and love getting bunches of fresh leaves. We don't get overly cold here so they actually sort of grew all winter sufficient for me to pick and use. This spring they both went to seed. Not sure why I did it but initially I pulled the seed heads off thinking this would stop the process of going to seed and they'd start producing leaves again but no cigar. Now we're into almost the second week of July and they're huge but still all gone to seed. Is this normal? Should I expect this? Should I be cutting all the seed heads off? Leaving them alone?
Parsley is a biennial, which means it grows one season, and then matures and sets seeds the next. You are in the next season. Cutting off the seed heads won't help. Your parsley is done. Leaving them alone may result in self-seeding and a new crop of parsley when the temperatures get cooler (it is a cool season plant).
Ohhh - never realized this. It was fantastic all last year. Now ...... Hmmmm - me thinks it'll be gone in the morning and I'm going to go and buy another new plant. Thanks for the info - definitely appreciated
Hmmm.... this makes me wonder how many more plants/herbs are biannual where the unsuspecting neophyte gardener expects a plant and instead watches a plant bolt. I am now watching cabbage seed pods mature as an experiment. Originally I thought I would get another cabbage head from the cabbage head base. Oops it is a biennial!! Well Islandlife at least you know you have to plant the parsley each year. On the bright side, you don't have to buy seeds. Jerry
@jerry - I never knew. I actually expected parsley this year and got nada as all 3 I planted last year bolted to seed. I could have quite easily planted new plants this year but kept expecting these ones to produce. Today is a drizzly rain off and on but soon as I'm out the back I'll be yanking them out and consigning them to the compost heap. As we're into July I'm not sure I'll plant any more right now but instead will wait for a bit and shove one in this fall and then another in the spring. I think an alternate schedule of planting should keep me in parsley.
I grow parsley in hot weather and it does fine as long as it has decent afternoon shade. They do good under my tomato plants and help each other out.
our parsley does good and its gets very hot and humid here we have had parsley plants get huge and last several years. Other plants ya may thing are annual is peppers a frost or freeze kills them but here we may not have those every year. I have had a hot pepper plant make it for 3 years grow into a pretty large bush and even appear to be developing bark on the stem. We had a rose Mary bush we had to transplant cause it had grown to cover over half of or herb box. yall would be surprised what could last for years if ya live like us in da semi tropical soggy south.
Where are you from Cappy? I am in South Florida. I have had pepper plants las 2 and 3 years also. But they need good mulching or the intense summer heat will get them.
Very south Louisiana. much like you semi tropical. Today however it froze last night for the first time in a few years. May have froze the bananas If I gotta wack them to the ground we wont have any this year it takes em 2 years to bare. On hte high note they make great addition to the compost heap.
