There are two main reasons that it’d better grow some herbs from cuttings or start from seedlings rather than from seeds:
- Compared to other ways, growing plants from seeds is 2x or 3x more time-consuming
- The germination rate (from seeds) is too low
Besides, some varieties are sterile hybrid plants and they don’t produce seeds at all. Below are the 9 herbs you’ll never want to start from seeds:
White Sage Plant
According to many experts, white sage has such a low germination rate that you need to put 10-15 seeds per cell to hopefully get 1-2 germinated plants.
The germination should take nearly 2-3 weeks and during this period of time, you need to pay a lot of attention to the lighting, watering, and other elements to ensure the seeds are in their best condition to sprout. In general, it is quite complicated!
Moreover, it takes around two years for the plant to reach its mature size (of 2’-3’ tall) if grown from seeds.
Rosemary Plants
Just like white sage, rosemary is a very slow grower, especially during its first year or two. Depending on the variety, it could reach the maximum size of 4’-5’ tall after two years of growth. Its mature size can be up to 8’ tall.
If grown from seeds, rosemary takes approximately 15-25 days to sprout if the growing conditions are ideal.
Therefore, many gardeners choose to start this herb with small but established plants.
Flavored Mint Plants
The fact that flavored mints (such as orange mints and chocolate mints) are sterile hybrid plants, meaning that they don’t produce seeds. Therefore, the only way to grow them is from cuttings.
Lavender Plants
While lavender can be grown from seeds, its germination process requires you to frequently and strictly check multiple elements as well as carrying out extra steps to get it going, which is too complicated and difficult for beginner gardeners.
Besides, lavender is notoriously known as a very slow grower (it usually takes around 28-31 days to germinate).
You can grow from cuttings instead, which takes 2-4 weeks for softwood cuttings and up to 6 weeks for hardwood. But in general, it requires fewer care steps while the propagation rate is higher.
The most reliable way of adding lavender plants to your garden is to buy seedlings.
Bay Leaf
While bay leaves are easy to care for and can be grown indoors or outdoors as trees and as shrubs, they’re a slow-growing plant that could take up to six months to sprout from seeds.
Propagating them from cuttings and buying seedlings are two easier and faster ways.
But buying bay leaf seedlings is commonly more expensive.
If you have time and are on a tight budget, try propagating bay leaves from a 6” long cutting; it will develop roots after 1-2 months of proper care.
Thyme
Thyme is difficult to be grown from seeds because of the low germination rate (only around 15% to 20%), meaning that you will have to sow 5-6 seeds per cell to try to have one plant sprout.
In addition to that, the germination process takes up to 12 weeks depending on the growing conditions.
If propagated from cuttings, it only takes around 3-4 weeks for new roots to develop and readily be grown in potting soils.
Sweet Woodruff
Sweet woodruff is easy to care for and grows fast once established, however, it is a super-slow starter – which takes 1 to 2.5 months to germinate from seeds.
It also requires pre-chilling 2-4 weeks before sowing.
On the other hand, the germination process is shortened significantly if it’s propagated from cuttings – around 2-4 weeks.
That’s why many people, especially impatient gardeners, would rather start sweet woodruff from cuttings than from seeds.
Bee Balm
Similar to sweet woodruff, bee balm is fairly straightforward to care for as long as the soil is kept reasonably moist.
But it requires pre-chilling (placed in the fridge) for 90 days before sowing and then 7-14 days more to germinate. In total, the whole process takes around 97-104 days (equivalent to 3-3.5 months).
Growing from cuttings needs 3-4 weeks for new roots to thrive.
Once the root system reaches 1” to 2” in length, your bee balm tree is ready to be potted up.
Tulsi
Tulsi is actually not a slow grower or slow starter as the herbs above but growing it from cuttings is twice shorter of time than that from seeds (from about three weeks to 7-10 days).
Not to say that young plants started from seeds are very frost-sensitive and they require special care.
Conclusion
Above are the 9 herbs you’ll never want to start from seeds. Hopefully, our article helped you save more time and effort in gardening as well as find out the optimal way to start growing these plants.
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