My Basil And Coriander

[Tilly2]

have bolted. What shall I do?

[frugalfred]

Insofar as coriander is concerned, cut it back. I have seen this grown commercially, and the farmer takes several cuts of the upper leaves during the season.

[woofgang]

start the basil off again.

[Psybbo]

Set the dogs after them

[Tilly2]

I have flowers on both of them. Shall I cut the flowers off?

[Tilly2]

Pysbbo, the dogs don't run after herbs. Just cats.....................and hedgehogs.

[Psybbo]

:-) a cat called Basil and a hedgehog called Coriander?

[woofgang]

its worth a try tilly, when you said they had bolted, I though you meant they had actually set seed.

[carrust]

Close the greenhouse door:-)

[Tilly2]

Should I let them set seed, or should I cut the flowers off?

[Fibonacci]

If at first they don't set seed try try and try again !! :-)

[Chipchopper]

You may want to allow the coriander to go to seed, as it is an annual and the seed is probably used more than the leaf is. You could grind up the seeds to add some spice to cooking.

[Tilly2]

Excellent, Fibonacci. That made me laugh. Funniest answer so far.
............................but what shall I do?

I know, I'll just leave them alone and see what happens.
Nothing ventured..................

[corylus]

sow some more seeds

[Tilly2]

That'll be a talking point at my next curry evening, Chip.

'Of course, I grow my own coriander seeds. None of that supermarket rubbish'.

Thanks for that. I didn't know it was an annual. What about the basil?

[Psybbo]

I have just realised that my coriander (widow box) has flowered (three pots, rosemary, thyme and coriander) so now I'm really interested in the replies and apologise for my frivolous answers.

[Tilly2]

You mean you weren't interested before? Well!

No need to apologise, Pysbbo.

[Tilly2]

My rosemary and thyme have also flowered, so has my parsley. The sage didn't make it.

[Chipchopper]

It appears that the basil can be a perennial or an annual variety (just looked it up) but in any case in the relatively cool UK climate it's treated as an annual, as that's how it will behave here.
I'm guessing that yuo will get a longer life out of the basil if you nip the flowers out.
Curry evenings sound great! you've got my gastric juices flowing now ;-)

[Tilly2]

Both my basil and coriander are supermarket pots which I planted when they began to look a bit sickly. They have done wonderfully well.