Herbs for Pots on Hot Patio
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Coco
Posted on: February 27, 2002

I am interested in growing herbs in large containers on my patio this summer. The patio faces west and gets direct sunlight and is very hot in the summer. I would like some herbs that will trail over the pot and grow down and some that grow up. Can you recommend some herbs for this?

As long as you keep the soil in the pot moist, the Mediterranean herbs will love it. You may have problems getting them to adjust to indoor conditions in the fall, but if you are prepared to be philosophical and treat some of them as annuals, you could have lovely pots in the summer.

Some examples of nice heat loving uprights are agastaches, basils, Young bays, bergamot (if you keep it quite moist!), curry plant, Mexican coriander, dusty miller, ephedra, sweet and bronze fennel, most scented geraniums (trailing ones mentioned below), silver and Tivoli germander, young strawberry guava, horehounds, kenikir, lavenders, lovage (if moist), golden marguerite, marigolds (except Mexican), marjorams, Jamaican mint, Korean mint, mountain mint, Roman mint, mullein, myrtles (if kept moist), oreganos (except Kent Beauty and microphylla), chili peppers, sweet pink, upright rosemaries (Arp, Benenden Blue, Blue Boy, pine, pink, pink Majorca, Rex, Sawyer’s select), Rehmannia, most sages, Syrian rue, silver sagebrush, santolina, winter savory, lemon savory, sea lavender, southernwood, siver speedwell, stevia, fernleaf tansy, upright thymes (for outside of pot), broadleaf thyme, turmeric, lemon verbena, wormwoods, yarrows, yucca (for center).

Trailers are Aztec sweet herb, dittany of Crete, trailing scented geraniums (apple, coconut, peppermint, staghorn oak), Austrian geraniums, variegated ground ivy, silver licorice, Kent Beauty and microphylla oregano, trailing rosemaries (Golden Rain, Lockwood, Majorca, Santa Barbara, Severn Sea), creeping sage, creeping savory, creeping thymes (Doone Valley, caraway, lavender, nutmeg, oregano, wild, woolly), yerba buena.

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