A Little Greek in your Diet?

A little Greek Myrtle goes a long way!  What is Greek Myrtle you ask?  It's a great houseplant herb that the leaves can be used in place of Bay leaf.  I have tried numerous times to grow Bay in the house here and I have never been able to get one to harvest able size!  One got scale and had to be yarded out to the porch to die in the cold (they are zone 11 or something), and a few of them just died - it may be that it was never warm enough in the house for it even - we keep our house at about 68 degrees in the winter even so .... not really zone 11.

So I eventually found Greek Myrtle!  Its a beautiful plant and it replaces Bay without anyone noticing!  I never even pull it out of the hot dish like you should do with Bay (how much of a pain is that?).

Greek Myrtle is hard to germinate from seed - all the information says "slow to germinate", which says to me "Hard"!  I have never tried to grow it from seed, because of all the information that says its so hard to germinate.  So I bought a plant from Richters Herbs.  Check out the information at Richters Herbs for more information about it.  They show a picture of the plant blooming, which mine has never done, but I'm not letting mine get to 8' tall either - no room for that!  I only let it get about 3' tall.   The leaves also are a little waxy, so they dont really get that dusty look that some houseplants get - especially after an earthquake or a windstorm!  It is a beautiful plant!

This is the mother plant - this one is about 7 years old, and I have cut it back a number of times and I have also taken the cuttings and put them a jar of water and started other plants with it (thats what the upper photo is - a start from this plant).  The plant roots from cuttings really easily so I definitely recommend that route!

My plants are in the window on the North side of the house.  They really don't seem to mind being in the dark for a few months of the year - seems to have no effect at all on them.  This window is only about 2'x3' in size and doesn't get direct sunlight until June and July in the early mornings and late afternoons.  It also doesn't mind the cooler temperature in the house, and it likes to dry out (not desert dry) between watering and have good drainage.   The flowers are used in potpourri, essential oil for fragrance, and as I said before the leaves for cooking!  An easy care plant that is so useful! 

Blessed Be!