What to know about perennial herbs

Perennial herbs can be perennial either due to woody stems or underground runners. Examples of woody stems include sage, thyme and winter savory. Thyme is a small plant, it can be grown as a border plant edging another planting. Thyme gets a few haircuts during the growing season since the leaves are small and it is a favorite herb in cooking. Stems are air dried then leaves crumbled from woody parts or removed manually as TV work. Thyme can be put in any soup or stew and is one of the herbs in herb bread. This year, one experiment will be making herb infused vinegars; classically tarragon is used but I'll try thyme, sage, dill, and rosemary. Two teaspoons of herbed vinegar go into the herb bread. Sage is used with anything pork and in many soups. It is left through the winter since it has a nice silvery foliage, then cut back after it blooms in the spring. Winter savory has an oregano fragrance and can be used as a substitute in an herb mixture. Marjoram is also like oregano and generally does not survive the winter. One of my "ooh, ahh" plants is lovage, a tall perennial that dies back each fall, then returns, with an intensely celery taste and fragrance. Use in moderation if using as a celery substitute and the seeds can be collected and used as a substitute for celery seeds in recipes. Many of the perennial herbs that are used to flavor tea, tisanes (infusion of herbs, no actual tea leaves) and pastries are from the mint family. Examples include mint itself (and all it's varieties), lemon balm, horehound, catnip, borage, and anise hyssop. All of these survive the winter as underground stems that spread outwards from where they were planted. You should plan to contain these plants by planting in containers or places they cannot escape from (mint is planted in a narrow strip of soil between my house foundation and a sidewalk). A container may be a flowerpot or a sunken pail. Leaves may be used fresh or dried. Lavender is woody and flowers are used for their fragrance in sachets, tea, dried arrangements, and infusing sugar for use in making pastries. Two herbs in the aster family are chamomile and feverfew, both with small, daisy-like flowers that are harvested and dried. Another category of perennial herb are plants you have growing for other reasons, but which have parts you can harvest and use for culinary, medicinal, or aromatherapy reasons. The petals of fragrant roses can be plucked, covered in boiling water, allowed to steep overnight, then used in iced tea, or whatever inspires you. It is amazing how you can taste the rose. Juniper berries can be picked, dried, and used whole or crushed in stews and cakes. Bee balm, Monarda, has beautiful red or lavender flowers, both flowers and leaves can be used in infusions. The flowers of linden/basswood are fragrant and can be used fresh or dried. Hops flowers are found in many old herbals and can be picked before the vines die back. There is a world of plants out there, waiting to please you, have fun trying something new this year. Enjoy. Susan Carty is professor emerita at Heidelberg University.