Pulsegleaner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2014
- Messages
- 3,540
- Reaction score
- 6,942
- Points
- 306
- Location
- Lower Hudson Valley, New York
Lets seeWhat are the Latin names for the herbs please? Would you recommend any of them as especially fragrant or wonderful tasting? I'm guessing that if you can get it to seed, I might be able to as well, unless of course these herbs were all overwintered.
Chinese mint- Mentha haplocalyx
Syrian Oregano - Origanum maru (at least, that's the one I have. Some people say true Syrian is Origanum syriaticum, and maru is a cross between that and standard oregano).
Cat Thyme - Teucrium maru
Southwestern Oregano - Polominthia longiflora
As for use, I don't actually use most of them much (I should but I forget they are there when I am cooking).
Chinese mint is about the same as conventional mint in flavor, as far as I can see.
Syrian oregano isn't so much fragrant as it is STRONG, REALLY strong, like MANY MANY TIMES as powerful as the standard one. I've been told one leaf is all you need for a whole pizza.
Southwestern oregano I'm not sure is any more fragrant than the usual type, but it is a lot PRETTIER than it, with it's masses of long tubular pink flowers. It also seems to be a favorite with the hummingbirds.
Cat thyme is really more for cats than people (though some places in the middle east do add it to their zaatar mixes.) The smell is hard to describe to someone who has never smelled it, strong is the best description (it's related to germander, so maybe smelling that would give you a clue). On the other hand, cat's (even ones ambivalent to catnip and catmint) often love it, and unlike those, which just make them loopy and relaxed, cat thyme has a tendency to make them hyper affectionate as well.
The one drawback is, as I said, it doesn't grow all that fast. Also, it's survival from year to year is a sort of shot in the dark for me. THIS one made it through last winter fine (as did all of them) but the one before it died down to the base and never really grew back.
Sort of what happened with the pine scented rosemary (Rosmarius augustifolius); made it through three or four years fine and became almost a shrub, then totally died over the next one.
Plus, you are a BIT colder than me, I think, so what is marginal for me may be beyond your safe zone.
I also now have a big pot of juniper thyme (Thymus leuchotrichus) but I haven't used any of that for anything yet