PlantFiles: Bronze Fennel
Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum'

My mum surprised us at Christmas with tiny bottles of what she called fairy dust, the flowers of fennel. Heavenly scent we use for cooking, and we had to have more! Fennel is grown all over the yard now.

Striking, bronze-purple foliage. It is a vigorous grower, and its color can be used very effectively in the border. Also known as Copper Fennel. It has the same licorice-anise flavor as Florence Fennel, and may be used in the same ways. It tends to reseed when well situated.

I garden in the Mid-Atlantic and it is perennial here in zones 6/7. This is a wonderful plant. It hosts a variety of caterpillars ever year and it's blooms provide nectar for butterflies. The seeds are good in baked goods, especially desserts and tea. They are also useful medicinally especially for stomach upsets and gas. Good natural breath fresheners. The leaves are outstanding, feathery and although bronzey with age, I find mine are often a blue/green/grey color. Yellow umbellic flowers perfectly compliment the foliage. It is a wonderful addition to the herb OR perennial garden! The leaves are useful in cooking, especially braised and served in soups and fish dishes. They are also useful cosmetically. Easy to grow and very easy to grow from seed, in fact you'll usually notice a few self-sown seedlings. But there are not enough to be a bother. It can be grown in dry to wet soil. It likes sun, and doesn't like to be transplanted when full-grown, (deep tap root). Transplant when young and water well untill established. Can reach towering heights in a few years, although usually at most four, my oldest is six feet! It is susceptible to no diseases and insects. Does best with minimal fertilizing. I highly recommend this plant. Pictures never do it justice, buy some and plant it and you will not be dissapointed!

Bronze fennel does not winter over in my USDA zone 3 climate, but we grow it as an annual. I mostly grow it as an ornamental, but have dried the fronds of leaves, as well.

Mine was more bronze last year but is now partly shaded by a red twig dogwood and a buddleia, and so more green. Easy to grow, and survives well in my zone 6b.

Host plant for Black Swallowtail larvae. Has aromatic foliage.

Clump forming biennial or perennial with deep roots.Has thread like purple-bronze foliage with a scent of licorice. Has tiny dull yellow flowers in the summer.This one is hardier than the other fennel's.