Beautiful Basil
Also blooming: Gomphrena, Zinnia, Dahlia, Sunflower, Celosia, Nasturtium, Lonicera Vines, Pokeweed, Ornamental peppers, Various Woody branches.
Oh Basil How I Love You.
Two summers ago my neighbor passed me a handful of green and purple basil over the fence. It was so stunning that I left it in a mason jar on my counter for a week because I couldn’t bear to eat it. After that I tried to recreate the experience with grocery store basil and had failure all around—no amount of babying could keep it from wilting instantly, plus it’s too short for anything but the stoutest jelly jar.
Turns out grocery store basil is usually Genovese basil, which is not meant to be displayed—it’s delicious but delicate—plate-bound only, and totally unwilling to socialize.
So…last winter I made it my mission to find basil that could stand up tall and play nicely with others, while also delivering on the twin charms of good looks and tastiness. I am happy to have found four different varieties that are ready for their close-up.
Aromatto
Aromatto has a lovely, strong, basil + mint + hint of fennel fragrance. It’s leaves have a mottled, almost batik look to them—dark plum and pine colors swirled together on top of brighter, violet stems. These beauties can get up to two feet tall before the dainty pink spike flower politely blooms in the vase.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon Basil is also a fragrance champ that reminds me vaguely of horchata, alongside it’s heady basil freshness. In my garden it varies between straight kelly green, or kelly green with chocolate colored stems and leaf edges. The flower spike shoots up with chocolate/purple bracts. This variety is my favorite flavor profile of the four. It’s also tall, but not as tall as Aromatto.
Mrs. Burns Lemon
Another leggy beauty with light, spring green foliage and a pungent, citrusy scent. Adds a bright, tart note to salads and is great with yogurt sauces and cucumbers. I like that it has a different attitude from its basil peers—no brooding purples, chocolates, or pine greens—it’s all air, and light, and tra la la.
Dark Opal
Foliage is straight, almost black, red/purple but can sometimes also have blotches of kelly green, or a swirly, psychedelic mix of both, which reminds me of 60’s Fillmore posters. This variety smells like cloves, has a more earthy flavor than its colleagues, and grows shorter and bushier. Dark Opal is a great backdrop for vibrant blooms of Zinnia.
The Thing About Basil
Basil is super long lasting in a vase, as long as you pay attention to it’s fussiness about hydration and temperature.
The hydration piece is pretty straightforward—I harvest it as close to dawn as possible and put it directly into a hydrating solution. After that, as long as it stays out of the sun it’s pretty happy. I’ve had a fair amount of forgotten stems sprout roots right on my kitchen counter, even with murky, unchanged water.
The temperature piece is more confusing; put your vase of basil in the fridge and it’ll be black and wilted in a hour, BUT, once you cut off the leaves from the stem you can store them in the fridge for up to a week (and I’ve done it for more than two) and they’ll be fresh and turgid as a daisy as long as you:
1) Store them in an airtight container, and;
2) Wrap them in a wet paper towel or dish towel, keeping the towel well soaked, but without a puddle at the bottom of the container.
3) Alternatively, you could store stems in a vase with a plastic bag over it. It needs to be toward the front of the fridge, so that it’s not in a cold spot. This method doesn’t last as long as the above, though.
