Fresh Herb Plants
 

Hi Y'all,
I just purchased a small plant cart for the lanai. I want to grow some fresh herbs, maybe a cherry tomato plant. Rosemary, oregano, basil, cilantro, maybe something else as well.
Are there any nurseries near TV that would have the plants already started?
Anybody reading this who has done this?
Thanks,

You want to do some reading. Cherry tomatoes, off the top of my head, Sweet 100 is a popular cherry tomato. But it is an indeterminate variety-a huge plant. If, I recall there was one called tom thumb which has heavy stems and stays small. It does not produce that much fruit. Most herbs are basically weeds. Poor soil, stress from little water gives you the best flavor. You will probably do best buying seeds. Mint does well in pots and it is great in iced tea.

I think Rosemary here is a shrub, but I don't know a lot about raising herbs. I know that basil, oregano, thyme, mint do well. Have bought them as small plants from Lowe's.

I couldn't find any small herb plants in Lowe's today, also couldn't find anybody to ask. I'll look again. Thanks.

Check Amazon. Believe it or not you can get ANYTHING in the way of live herbs you could want. Seeds and live plants both available. I have ordered several nice plants from Amazon and have been very impressed with the size/health and quality of them.

I'll check them out, thanks.

Give Home Depot and Lowe's a try...they usually have a variety of herbs and veggies outside and inside....go early though as the sun and heat really wilt the plants that they have out front.

Basil, mint and thyme you can usually pick up as small plants at Publix...I had some luck with garlic chives in the ground, but the onion chives I've had trouble growing...mint just seems to get too leggy

We put the basil, rosemary and oregano in the ground...the latter two we now trim with the electric trimmer. The basil grows nicely in the ground with southern exposure. Parsley seems to get eaten by butterfly lava, so we've stopped leaving that outside. Tomatoes we grow in very large containers with a southern exposure...but put a net around them, as the bunnies will get at them.

we've also had good luck planting the tops of pineapples and the bottoms of onions (again in a southern exposure)...it'll take about `18 months for a pineapple plant to yield fruit, but when it does, it is the sweetest one that you've ever had.

happy gardening

Publix by the fresh fruits. N veges

On my Christmas wishlist.....Lettuce Grow - Meet The Farmstand

Thanks for all of that information. A few questions for you.
How large does a pineapple plant grow? How productive are they once they start producing?
Basil does well with southern exposure, do you recommend that for rosemary and oregano, as well?
Do the bunnies leave the herbs alone, generally?

There's some nurseries near The Villages....one is Fairfield Farms (or something like that) on 301 going north out of Oxford. It will be on the west side of the highway. Another is Burke's which is on Church Road in Wildwood. I don't know the other name of the road (it's a number) but you'd turn north at the stop-light on 466a and Powell Rd. and it's near the railroad tracks on the right side. Maybe someone at one of these could help you. Just know that growing stuff in FL is much different that "up north". So as someone else mentioned do some homework. I think there's also a "master gardener" class you could take or maybe the county extension people. Best wishes with your endeavor!!

I saw small herb plants for sale last weekend at the Farmers Market Saturday mornings at Brownwood.

Herbs
 

The farmers market at Brownwood has local growers that have quality herbs. At Lowers the herbs are outside at the left of the entrance to the garden center.

Publix has potted herbs in the produce department. I've grown basil and it does well from year to year. You need to keep it trimmed down or it becomes very large and woody. It can also die out if we get a freeze, but cheap to replant. Rosemary is hardy here and does well as a bush. Mint needs a pot or it will take over any open space it's planted in.

Pineapples I've seen at my villa for the last couple winters have been about 3' wide and 2' high and only 1 or 2 pineapples yield per year per plant. Crazy long time to get very small yield. They are pretty much maintenance free, but quite prickly when you have to take care of them.
Rosemary and oregano can be grown in sun like basil in my experience. Haven't seen bunnies get to herbs but insects like aphids, whiteflies, Japanese beetles, slugs and even grasshoppers love basil.
Good luck!