PlantFiles: Greek Column Basil
Ocimum basilicum 'Lesbos'

pot it,place it in the sun . water about every third day.

most importantly.....Leave it alone!!! The heat doesn't bother it even here in Tampa.

This basil is a mainstay every year in the Herb Garden at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. It has good basil flavor and produces abundant foliage on tall columnar plants. I take cuttings before first frost each year and easily root them in sterile potting mix in the greenhouse. By spring I have good-sized gallon plants to put back in the garden for the warm seasons. If I could have only ONE type of basil (and I normally grow around ten different types) this would be it.

I bought this from farther north as O. b. "Greek Columnar" last spring. I bought five, but I didn't need to. This plant here grows nearly 3' tall and is strictly columnar until the branches get too heavy. They break and flop over, I cut them away and hang them upside down to dry or stick them in the ground where they root very readily here.

If you love to cook with basil, this is your plant. You don't have to cut off flowers. You have to cut the plant back. It is accepting of pot culture, so would be easy to protect where not hardy. It is ridiculously easy to get more of. It is highly aromatic, stronger than annual basils (I've grown many kinds) and more complicated. I don't cook, but luckily I know lots of people who do! :-)

If you want a basil to grow year round this would be it. This basil does not flower or produce seed. Needs warm temperatures to do well.

A tender perennial basil that does not bloom. Small green leaves with purple veins. Propagated by cuttings. An unusual scented basil. The fragrance is spicy, of cinnamon, allspice and cloves,and even citrusy. Columnar growth habit.