Wintering Herbs Indoors

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Preparing to bring plants indoors for winter should mirror the hardening-off steps we perform in the spring.

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Autumn. The harvest of herbs is winding down, and the frenzy of trying to stay ahead of the weeds has abated. It’s easy at this time of year to kick back, relax and forget about gardening until the new seed and nursery catalogs start arriving in January. Herb gardeners who live where winters are frost-free can get away with this, and so can those in more rugged climates who only grow annuals, such as dill, or tough perennials, such as garden sage. However that leaves a lot of gardeners unaccounted for, including those who grow rosemary, tender lavenders or other plants that will die at temperatures below 15 degrees, as well as those who have a yen for fresh herbs all winter. Those people (and I’m one of them) need to make some decisions now.

What Not To Bring In

Perhaps you love all the herbs in your garden equally, and you’d like to bring them all indoors. I suggest you don’t, even if you have a huge house with dozens of south-facing windows.

First of all, forget about the annuals, such as summer savory, chervil, cilantro, borage and dill. Their lives are about over; if you want them indoors in winter, you can start new plants from seed. I include basil in this group because it’s usually grown as an annual, even though it’s technically a short-lived tender perennial.

Don’t bother bringing in tough perennial culinary herbs whose dried leaves have good flavor — I’m thinking of sage, oregano and thyme — unless you think you can’t get along without the fresh leaves. Consider the size of the plant, too, and how many smaller plants you could put in their place in front of the window.

Don’t bring in huge tender plants if you don’t have room for them, no matter how badly you need them for next year’s herb garden. (There’s a way around this dilemma, discussed below for pineapple sage.) And if space is limited, abandon tender perennials that are easy to start from seed. Marjoram is a good example — unless you absolutely must have it for midwinter salads.

Lastly, turn your back on diseased or pest-ridden plants. Even plants that are healthy now can become afflicted in the harsh atmosphere of the indoor desert, but there’s no sense in helping disease and pests get off to a good start there.

What To Bring In

Several plants are worth bringing indoors. I suggest you keep tender perennials on which you’ve lavished special care and affection. These include unusual cultivars, plants of sentimental value, expensive plants, such as bay laurel, and herbs that you intend to propagate the next spring (such as scented geraniums). And bring in plants that will look great as houseplants, such as that prostrate rosemary in the hanging basket.

What about that pineapple sage that smells so good? It’s 4 feet tall and broad, your sunny window is only 3 feet across and the first frost is going to blacken it permanently. You can save it by taking cuttings right now (see “Disassembling an Herb” on Page 46). They’ll root in a couple of weeks and will occupy only a modest space by the window thereafter. If the new plants grow rapidly and show signs of taking over the windowsill, take cuttings from them, and so forth, until it’s time to set them outside in the spring, after the danger of frost is past. If you’re not sure about the hardiness of a large perennial plant, you can take cuttings now and winter them indoors in case the original plant doesn’t survive.

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