PlantFiles: Sweet Marjoram, Knotted Marjoram
Origanum majorana

From your friends at Botanical Interests: Marjoram has a sweeter, milder flavor than Oregano. It is wonderful used fresh in salads, and as a substitute for Oregano in cooked dishes such as pizza, tomato sauce, and Eggplant Parmesan. It is also a very popular ingredient in German sausage and herb breads. Marjoram retains its flavor when dried and can be picked at any time when the plants are at least 6" tall. A tender perennial, it will overwinter in USDA zones 9 or warmer.

Marjoram is one of my very favorite herbs. I have always brought it in to overwinter so I can continue to use it fresh. It would likely survive my zone 5 garden as other zone 6 plants do.

I like Marjoram a lot; but, find I have a hard time finding enough uses for it to justify the space the plant takes up. It is a very vigorous grower, and tends to flop rather than grow upright. I have to prune it fairly severely nearly bi-monthly, to keep it from taking over the small-ish area I have dedicated to perennial herbs. Given the prices grocery stores charge for fresh herbs, I wish I could get them to take some of my marjoram.

Hard to tell if this is the cultivar that came with my house in the mountains, but the picture and description sure sound right. It thrives here, on the border between zones 4 and 5, in soggy poor clay soil. It has taken over several patches of my garden, and I have replanted it in places where other things have trouble growing--my almost soil-less rock garden, in partial shade next to my kitchen door steps--and it has thrived everywhere, through short summer seasons and -23F in the winter.

Grows readily in Queensland-Australia although I grew them only up to 35 cm high and best grown as annual.
We would appreciate a sort of code for Australia as you have for USA.

An evergreen, subshrub from Southern Europe and Asia Minor.

Has ovate, grey to mid green, slightly hairy, scented leaves. Bears small, tubular, white or pink flowers.

Flowers Late May to Late September

Loves a well drained, poorish, preferably alkaline soil in full sun. Not very hardy so it's often grown as an annual or overwintered indoors. It also dislikes winterwet.

An excellent nectar plant as well as a culinary herb with a mildly spicy/sweet flavour.

Medicinally it was a very useful plant and it was once thought that the very smell of it could heal some minor complaints. There were many and varied uses but the main ones were in a tea for the treatment of headaches, colds, indigestion and to calm nerves. It was also used in baths to help relieve muscle tension and rheumatic pains. Also poultices included Marjoram to help heal sprains and bruises.

It can also be made into a furnature polish and was often used to impart the bitter flavour in ale before hops came along.