Stephen Brueggerhoff, CEA – Horticulture, Brazos County AgriLife Extension; published 5/12/2026
All images unless otherwise noted by Stephen Brueggerhoff
There are several culinary herbs that are staples in my kitchen such as basil, rosemary and thyme. All are often stored in dry form and sometimes neglected until we come upon a recipe that requires their attention. Fortunately, herbs retain essential oils when dried and bring spark to a home cooked meal at a moment’s notice. Depending on storage conditions, the shelf life of a home-dried herb can remain viable for up to one year, while commercially dried herbs are estimated to be useful for up to two years. I find basil is best used as a fresh cut herb, imparting a familiar flavor and scent that you cannot replicate in dried form.
A Royal Herb with Ancient Origin
Basil (botanical name Ocimum basilicum) is a semi-woody annual used for its aromatic leaves as a foundation for pesto or to spice up your pizza. While basil has worldwide use and appeal, evidence of its origin is complex. According to Rutgers University through the US Basil Consortium website, usbasilconsortium.rutgers.edu/, estimates of origin are the African continent and India, eventually migrating to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. The species name basilicum is traditionally interpreted from the ancient Greek term for king, imparting a royal presence in the garden.
Basil is herbaceous and varies in height, form, leaf texture, color and scent. We often start them from seed indoors about a month prior to the last anticipated frost. Sow about one-quarter inch deep in seed-starting media in a tray and provide bottom heat through a horticultural heating mat. Cotyledons, the primary leaf-like structure of a seedling, will emerge within ten days. Basil is a warm season plant and responds to sowing directly in the ground when the soil temps are consistent in mid-spring.
Basil is Bold and Beautiful in the Garden
Cultivars can be bold in stature and flavor, and exhibit large, sweet anise-flavored leaves measuring 3-inches long by 2-inches wide. Most of these types are generically named Sweet or Green-leaf basil, and the preferred of the large-leaved varieties is one named ‘Genovese’. Bees and other pollinators are attracted to the wands of flowers and, depending on the varietal, flowers vary in color from white to bright purple. One outstanding in its field of the Genovese types is ‘Cardinal’, offering clustered deep purple flowers that form a bouquet and draw your eye to the landscape. Consider height as some of the basil’s previously described provide a canopy up to 2 feet tall. On the opposite end of the spectrum is a small-leaved, uniform and compact basil ‘Boxwood’, coming in at 10 inches in height and more appropriate in the edible landscape as a garden border.
A variety with promise and disease resistance released within the last several years is called ‘Everleaf Emerald Towers’. This herb is a tall drink of water, columnar in growth and averaging up to 3 feet tall and retaining the pleasantly bold taste of a ‘Genovese’ basil. While most basil will focus energy on flower and seed production within a month of growth, ‘Emerald Towers’ is delayed in bloom later than standard varieties, the advantage is continual harvest through the summer. If you like a bit of bite out of your basil, try ‘Perpetuo Pesto’, a variegated form with lime-green foliage and each leaf expressing a thin, white color along the margin.
‘Perpetuo Pesto’ grows in a somewhat bushy, columnar habit to 2-feet tall and can be found as a 4-inch container start. Companies offering this plant for sale market it as sterile and not producing flowers, which means the plant you purchase has been vegetatively propagated. The variety I grew out a few years ago wasn’t paying attention to the rule book and expressed delicate mauve flowers but did not produce seed. I found the foliage perfect for making pesto, its spicy flavor reducing the need for excessive garlic. If you are steadfast in deadheading your basil to reduce loss of foliage flavor, take heart that you can grow out variety ‘African Blue’ and cultivate it as a pollinator plant. ‘African Blue’ is grown not so much for its flavor, more for the aesthetics of the dark-purple leaf veins and stems, and primarily for profuse wands sporting pink flowers that attract bees and other flying insects to the bounty.
You can tell I love to grow herbs for use in the kitchen as well as for my garden pleasure, and I will focus future articles on the variety of different types of herbs that you can incorporate into your home landscape. Aggie Horticulture provides Easy Gardening fact sheets cultivating herbs from our website: aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable. The Herb Society of America – Pioneer Unit is an outstanding regional chapter that meets regularly in Brenham, Round Top and Burton and hosts monthly educational programs. Find more info about their activities at: www.herbsocietypioneer.org. Speaking of education, Brazos County Master Gardeners are offering a free seminar Creating Keyhole Gardens and Raised Beds on May 16, starting at 10 am at the Clara B. Mounce Public Library in Bryan. This is the first of our Learning at the Library series, a great program designed to help your gardening success. Find out more from the Brazos County Master Gardener website – txmg.org/brazos. Let the spice of herbs bring flavor and health to you and I look forward to seeing you in the garden.