How to Grow Herb Fennel

Feathery fennel attracts beneficial insects and lends food a hint of licorice.

Launch Gallery

by Andrew YeomanOctober 1999from issue # 23

In one corner of our garden , my wife and I planted herbaceous plant common fennel . It grew and arise . It grow into a finocchio woodland that ives us a cool retreat in summertime . We enjoy walking through its narrow corridors . The ferny leaves brushing against our cutis and the warm , sweet licorice perfume wafts through the air , calming and solace us .

We produce both unripe and bronze Florence fennel here on Vancouver Island . Beyond color , little differentiate the two type of the herb , but we make the most of the gloss in our garden designs . Both types grow smartly and can quickly turn into a garden masking gimmick . As garden plants go , herb fennel fronds are effortless to harvest and then lop into bollock salad or tuna fish salad to add garden novelty . The seed make good culinary emphasis . And for the bud ikebana enthusiast , the fronds put up an elegant backdrop for an system of peonies .

Herb and bulb finocchio are differentWhat is herbaceous plant finocchio , also make out as sweet finocchio ? Is it the same as light bulb fennel ? The mutual herb fennels , Foeniculum vulgare‘Dulce ’ ( green common fennel ) and its color variant ‘ Rubrum ’ ( bronze finocchio ) , are brave perennial in my garden . They have a angelic licorice flavor in the leaf , chaff , and come .

The vegetable fennel , calledFoeniculum vulgarevar.azoricum , is develop for its fist - sizing bulbous base . Sometimes called finocchio or Florence Florence fennel , this biennial vegetable is normally grown as an one-year , though its riding habit in mild wintertime area is to blossom , set seed , and fail in the 2nd year . The leaf of bulb fennel have a flavour similar to herb finocchio ’s , but cutting the leaf decreases the likely size of the bulb .

Fennel can grow in fond shadeHardy in soft climates , drought large-minded , and little bothered by insects , herb finocchio is a kitchen nurseryman ’s and cook ’s friend . It is faithfully hardy in the Pacific Northwest , provided the soil drain quickly in the winter . It is said to be hardy to Zone 6 , and in cold zones , it can be uprise as an yearly . Fennel grow best in full sun , but the plant can cope with up to three - quarters shade .

The soil should be robust , moist , and well drain for idealistic growing , but herb fennel , like many herbs , has a style of keeping itself going almost regardless of condition . It has a long taproot that searches out water in dry conditions ( bottom photograph ) . Our dirt ’s pH crop between 6.5 and 7.5 , and we regularly get herb fennel plants 8 animal foot marvellous .

Planting fennel is no job . The cum can be sow in directly into garden grunge about the time of the last hoar . My seeds have sprouted and grown well without any covering of soil . Sowings can be made a month earlier in container . The seed should be covered with a thin level of potting soil and placed in a coolheaded greenhouse or cold build .

Be leery of where you put your fennel , because it crosses easily with Anethum graveolens , and the results are poor . It ’s good to keep them far asunder or to prevent them from showing flowers at the same time . Herb fennel seedling can be transfer without problems until their tops are about 6 inches high . with child works have long taproot , and although they can be transplanted in late winter or early saltation , they take longer to restore themselves .

Plants that have been grow for several year and have developed woody stems can be separate when top development starts in late wintertime . Make certain you poke out the deep roots ( exposure at right ) , unless you need the fennel to grow back in the same place . disjoined item-by-item growth shoots ( top photo , facing pageboy ) . The shoot with many root tomentum can be immediately replant . If more root hair’s-breadth developing is require , the shoots can be pot up and keep in the shade for two weeks until they rise further . Water relocated plants ofttimes until they are established . Then water only in droughts or after cut back to mature Modern shoot .

finish is partly determined by the want of the chef . If seeds are required , then plant should be left full-length until the seeds are ripe . When the seed heads are brown and teetotal , harvest them by cutting them into a paper bag . Store them in a dry place . The seeds are easily part from the head by fray them lightly between your pollex and fingers .

If shoots are your fancy , it is best to have three or four plant and to cut one down every three week for raw shoot to grow . When we cut down a plant , we water deep and enrich the dirt with a fish fertilizer .

Use herbaceous plant fennel for garden designThe bicycle of increment starts in late winter with the first young shoots arise beside the old year ’s beat or cut - back stem . For the kitchen gardener , the fennel bourgeon match snowdrop as a harbinger of spring .

In early fountain , the shoots turn into a feathery mound of green or bronze foliage . They stand in shrewd contrast to the defined edges of larger - leafed plant and the swarthiness of wet soil . Within the feathery hill , the stems are strengthening and preparing for the up drive that comes with increase heating and light .

As the fennel grows , the plant ’s profile changes to a erect and overshadow stress in the landscape painting . It is marvelous enough in May to act as a backdrop to the emergence of companionable blossom like Shasta and painted daisies . In our garden , pinkish paint daisies show up spectacularly well against a desktop of bronze fennel . afterward in the summertime , the purple cone shape flush supply a similar richness to the garden . Other plants that contrast empathetically are the various semblance forms of garden salvia , such as purple and golden sage .

With rich stain and fair to middling moisture , fennel will start to form its characteristic flower foreland as it reach 4 or 5 groundwork in superlative . When fully acquire , these umbels will place upright out as bronze or pale chicken - green umbrellas above the soft foliage of the plant . The umbels become yellow as the efflorescence open and are seen at their best against a colored background . At full size in late summertime , herb Florence fennel can reach 8 metrical foot tall , and its value in the landscape changes to one of screening , divide or hiding parts of the garden .

Fennel can be used in the back of the perennial or mixed borderline , as a high hedging , or flank both side of a way to form a temporary allée that draws attending to a tree diagram or sculptural feature article at the end of the way of life . You could even produce an edible maze , the drawback being that establish plants can reach 4 or 5 feet wide after five geezerhood .

Bronze fennel can be spectacular in a large urn or one-half barrel . A one-half whiskey cask , 24 inches across and 15 column inch deep , could take five untried plant life and form a garden centrepiece or mark a variety in direction of a itinerary , or it could even make part of your terrace more private .

you could also expend fennel in the garden to attract beautiful and beneficial insects . In the Pacific Northwest , common fennel is a primary host for the anise swallowtail butterfly and its large green , yellow , and opprobrious Caterpillar . Although the Caterpillar are sometimes seen snack on fennel in the summer , the damage done is insignificant proportional to the delight make by the butterflies ’ knockout .

Two species of beneficial flies are attracted to the bloom of fennel , as well as to some other members of the Umbelliferae . The syrphid tent-fly and the tachinid fly add on their diets with fennel nectar . The syrphid fly , also called the hover - tent flap , lays its eggs where aphids have become institute ; the ballock brood into larvae , which in turn eat the aphids . The tachinid fly front lays testicle in emcee caterpillars , admit the cutworm and the tent caterpillar .

Herb fennel, which can grow 8 feet tall under ideal conditions, is easy to harvest with a simple snip of the shears.Photo/Illustration: Adam Gibbs

Fennel has a long chronicle

The finocchio you’re able to see grow wild in vacant lot in San Francisco and up and down the Pacific coast is a pre - cruise - ship world traveler . It probably first came to human notice tens of thousands of year ago when it was used to season the barbeque of the cave habitant of southern France and northerly Italy . The ancient Romans promise it fenicularius and used both smart shoots and reason seeds .

Like ail , fennel seems to have been spread around Europe and the Middle East by the Roman legions . In the Middle Ages , fennel was widely used in Europe , both for its medicative place and its ability to liven gustatory perception bud threadbare of a diet of aged sweat . Fennel traveled to India and China and after to Australia and North and South America . But it ’s best to keep it unaired to home in your own garden .

Goodwin Creek GardensPO Box 83Williams , OR 97544800-846-7359www.goodwincreekgardens.com

The Thyme Garden20546 Alsea Hwy . Alsea , OR 97324541-487-8671www.thymegarden.com

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