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Herbs and Vegetables

Notes:

-- indicates plants commonly available in nurseries and/or garden centers in south Florida
© indicates Florida native plants
indicates plants that can tolerate wet soils or occasional flooding.

Click on linked scientific names for photos and/or more information.

Common name *Scientific name*	Size	Light	Salt tolerance	Comments
Dill -- Anethum graveolens	3-5’	Full sun	None	Erect, freely branching, annual herb with fine, lacy, blue-green foliage. Seeds produce “dill” herb. Flowers small, yellow, and borne in large, rounded, umbrella-like clusters. May bolt quickly to flowering during prolonged drought.
Orach, French spinach Atriplex hortensis	2-6’	Full sun	Unknown	Usually grown for its tender, spinach-like leaves. Leaves can be green, yellowish-green, red or purple. Sometimes grown as bedding plant.
Caper bush Capparis spinosa	2-5’	Full sun	None	Elegant shrub often grown for its green capers—which are flower buds, pickled and salted. When allowed to flower, produces large, long-stemmed, pink or white flowers with long stamens. Leaves nearly round. Canopy open.
Cajanus cajan
Coriander, cilantro -- Coriandrum sativum	2-3’	Full sun	None	Fine, feathery foliage source of cilantro. Dried seeds are coriander. Small, white or pink flowers borne in flat-topped clusters. Requires well-drained soil. Suffers during humid, rainy weather; plant in fall or winter.
Sweet basil -- Ocimum basilicum	12”	Full sun	None	Mounding, perennial herb with densely branching, light green foliage and typical peppery-clove basil scent. Used as border plant. ‘Spicy Globe’ cultivar is best known ornamental basil. Continues to grow in summer if blossoms cut before setting seed.
Rosemary -- Rosemarinus officinalis	3’	Full sun	High	Evergreen, woody shrub with aromatic, needle-like leaves and gray, scaly bark. Easy to propagate from cuttings. Widely used as herb or nontraditional medicine. Upright forms perform best.
Mexican tarragon Tagetes lucida	18-30”	Full sun or partial shade	Unknown	Semi-woody, bushy subshrub with many smooth, upright, unbranched stems. Yellow flowers in late fall. Requires well-drained soil. Soothing, aromatic herbal tea made from leaves. Also used in herbal vinegars.