(Love-in-a-Mist)

The airy beauty of these short-lived annuals is fleeting and ephemeral but a treat while they last. The aptly named love-in-a-mist is a spring annual native to southern Europe, western Asia and parts of North Africa. It sets copious seeds that germinate in fall, overwinter as seedlings and bloom from mid-spring to early summer. After blooming, the plants immediately die and set seed for another cycle.

The leaves of love-in-a-mist are bright green and very fine and ferny, almost feather-like....

(Love-in-a-Mist)

The airy beauty of these short-lived annuals is fleeting and ephemeral but a treat while they last. The aptly named love-in-a-mist is a spring annual native to southern Europe, western Asia and parts of North Africa. It sets copious seeds that germinate in fall, overwinter as seedlings and bloom from mid-spring to early summer. After blooming, the plants immediately die and set seed for another cycle.

The leaves of love-in-a-mist are bright green and very fine and ferny, almost feather-like....

(Love-in-a-Mist)

The airy beauty of these short-lived annuals is fleeting and ephemeral but a treat while they last. The aptly named love-in-a-mist is a spring annual native to southern Europe, western Asia and parts of North Africa. It sets copious seeds that germinate in fall, overwinter as seedlings and bloom from mid-spring to early summer. After blooming, the plants immediately die and set seed for another cycle.

The leaves of love-in-a-mist are bright green and very fine and ferny, almost feather-like....

(Love-in-a-Mist)

The airy beauty of these short-lived annuals is fleeting and ephemeral but a treat while they last. The aptly named love-in-a-mist is a spring annual native to southern Europe, western Asia and parts of North Africa. It sets copious seeds that germinate in fall, overwinter as seedlings and bloom from mid-spring to early summer. After blooming, the plants immediately die and set seed for another cycle.

The leaves of love-in-a-mist are bright green and very fine and ferny, almost feather-like....

(Mrs. Edward Whitaker Waterlily, Tropical Day-blooming Waterlily)

The day-blooming tropical waterlily ‘Mrs. Edwards Whitaker’ is a very free-flowering cultivar with breathtaking light blue petals. These beautifully fragranced, huge star-like flowers are held above the water surface and begin to close in the early evening. The pollen-carrying anthers in the flower's center are yellow with blue tips. This waterlily has green floating leaves with infrequent small purple blotches. They are supported by flexible green stems that arise from a rhizome growing in mucky...

(African Blue Basil, Hybrid Basil)

Big, beautiful ‘African Blue’ basil is a hybrid of Ocimum basilicum 'Dark Opal,' a purple-leafed sweet basil and Ocimum kilimandscharicum, camphor basil. It is grown as much for its lovely leaves as it is for cooking. The large leaves are purple when they first emerge and mature to dark, shiny green with purple veins and undersides. The fragrance and flavor is spicy with hints of camphor. The upright, bushy plants are large and ideal for sunny garden spots.

In summer basil produces...

(Basil)

For many, this is the perfect culinary herb with a thousand and one flavorful uses. Sweet basil is a bushy annual, or short-lived evergreen perennial, that originates from Eurasia and Africa. It has been broadly cultivated for centuries and boasts a wide array of cultivars of varying sizes, colors, textures and tastes. Anyone who has compared the sweet, aromatic flavor of large-leaved Italian basil to the sharp flavor of purple-leaved basil can tell you they are profoundly different. Some basil cultivars...

(Basil)

A dense, mounding, small-leaved plant that does indeed resemble a dwarf boxwood, this basil has both ornamental and culinary value. It is one of hundreds of selections of Ocimum basilicum, an annual or short-lived perennial from tropical Asia that has long been cultivated for its aromatic, flavorful leaves.

Boxwood basil bears dense masses of tiny, green, opposite leaves on low, rounded plants. The sweetly spicy leaves taste great in salads, pesto or pasta sauce, and the plants are perfect...

(Basil, Cinnamon Basil)

Cinnamon basil is a spicy cultivar of sweet basil. It has purple stems, pink to lavender flowers and a compact habit. The spicy, cinnamon-like scent and flavor of the leaves comes from the same aromatic compound that gives the bark of the cinnamon tree its delicious bouquet. This garden selection was probably made from plants in Mexico and is popular for use in hot drinks or to give an exotic flavor to pasta sauces.

As summer warms up, cinnamon basil produces spikes of flowers. After blooming,...

(Basil, Curlyleaf Basil, Savoyleaf Basil)

This pungent but sweet basil has the added value of crisp, savoyed leaves that offer real visual appeal. It has a tidy, bushy habit and lots of bright green, large, curly or ruffled leaves. This pretty garden selection is favored for salads and cooked dishes. Some claim its flavor is not mellow enough for pesto, but flavor can vary depending on soil and growing conditions, so taste your own before reaching this conclusion.

For many, basil is the perfect culinary herb. It is a bushy annual, or...