Kent Beauty Oregano in the Rutgers Gardens Herb Garden 2014

Now that the madness of Spring Flower Fair is over, I can get back to what I love most – growing and using herbs. But before I do that, I have one last story from the greenhouse.

One of the herbs I sell, which has also become a favorite of mine, is Kent Beauty Oregano.  It’s an ornamental oregano, grown for its flowers which look like hops flowers.  You should grow it in a container where its flowers can drape over the edge.  If planted in the ground, it just sprawls across the soil and the blooms don’t stand out as they do when draping out of a container.

Like other oreganos, it is a perennial hardy through zone 5 and therein lies my tale.  The contents of the container that was displayed in the herb garden at Rutgers Gardens last summer (2014) were discarded, soil and all.  We had an unusually cold winter 2014-2015 and the soil sat outdoors in zero and near zero temperatures all winter.

Kent Beauty Oregano which survived over the winter outdoors in a pile of discarded potting soil.

This spring (2015), the Kent Beauty Oregano demonstrated its toughness by sprouting from that pile of potting soil.  Its tenacity was rewarded by being potted up and brought into the greenhouse where I discovered it one April morning, blooming away on one of the benches.  It will be resuming its place in the container in the herb garden this summer.  Look for it when you visit Rutgers Gardens.