‘ Every year it seems as if some arbiter of taste and way anoints a fellow member of the immense flock family as “ sight of the import . ” Several years ago it was thyme – not just ordinary thyme but lemon thyme , halcyon thyme , and wooly-haired thyme , not to cite mother - of - thyme . Big name gardeners like Martha Stewart cultivate as many varieties as they could get into the earth . In England Prince Charles turned his care from public duties and private mayhem to work a “ thyme lawn ” at his country house . Thyme became more than just a plant and even transcended its time - honored role as a utilitarian herb . It became a status symbol , a carpet , and an all - round must - have item .
Then something similar happened to members of the salvia family , with pineapple plant sage posing as a centerfold one month in Garden Design magazine . Basil , in all its incarnations , also had a foresighted mo in the limelight . By all right America should have been drowned by a tidal undulation of pesto sauce about two geezerhood ago .
Somehow perilla ( Perilla frutescens ) got lose in all the ballyhoo . I do n’t get it on why — after all , it ’s a appendage in good standing of the enormous mint family , and it looks for all the human race like purple St. Basil the Great . It is no more or less rampant than Mentha spicata or applemint or any of those other briskly flavored herbs . Furthermore , the leaves of the coarse ornamental variety are moody purpleness , and anyone who watches horticultural movement will tell you that purpleness is the new leafy vegetable . Perilla would be correct at home in a garden that featured purple - leafed heucheras , pennesetum with violet “ foxtail grass ” and the sporty forms of its relative , flame nettle .
Perilla may be unheralded in the glistening magazines , but I regain it appealing . A admirer gave me several little starter plants a year ago , and now their young are kill up all over my garden . I do n’t mind that . Yesterday when I wanted to border the retentive bottom by my garage , and had no desire to make a trip to the garden center , I dug up a bit of perilla seedling and constitute them along the distance of the layer . In a month ’s sentence I will have quite an acceptable edging at absolutely no expense .
Several reference informant refer to perilla ’s bloom as “ insignificant ” . This is clearly an example of damning with weak kudos . Like most plenty , perilla sends up blossom stalk cover with petite blossoms . In the vitrine of my perilla , the prime are pink . They search quite endearing against the purple foliage , and they draw bees , butterflies and anything else that hap to be vaporize through the neighbourhood . I count all those things as positives , but if you are less than ravish by the heyday , cut off the stalks when they appear . The only time I perform this surgical procedure is when I am hold up to use the perilla bloom in small arrangements .
Perilla is sometimes call “ beefsteak plant ” , and I arrogate that the name comes from the passably beefy colour of the leaves . The foliage has a pleasantly fruity bouquet that prompt some people of ascendent beer .
In Asia , where genus Perilla originate , the plant has many names and a emcee of the States . The name that is most familiar to westerner is the Japaneses–“shiso ” . When perilla is originate commercially , the vegetable oil extracted from its seeds is used for cooking or as a “ drying vegetable oil ” , similar to flaxseed oil , to furnish a protective finish on wood or other surfaces . Both the source and the foliage can be eaten , and in Japan the leaves of the red - leafed variety are used in the production of pickled plums and plum tree sauce . The plant is also used in traditional Asian herbal medicine as a treatment for atmospheric condition range from coughs to seafood intoxication .
So why is perilla so underused in the United States ? Other than a disposition towards rearing growth , the flora has only one drawback , and that is its toxicity to cows . My reference work sources suggest that in the normal course of events , cattle will avoid genus Perilla , which apparently get wild in parts of the southeast United States . If , however , the dry plants are commix into hay used as cattle provender and ingested by cows , the animals will pass . Perilla is not toxic to other species , include pigs and pawl , though it is possible that deer and other undesirables might avoid it . This is something to consider if members of the peace-loving realm are nosh on a regular basis on your prized plant .
So , unless you are kick upstairs cattle on the northward forty , genus Perilla might be just right as an agreeable garden ornamental . It self inseminate readily , but if you do n’t want the seedling , they are easy to plunk out . On the other paw , you could pot up your extra genus Perilla and give the young plants to gardening friends . You might start a way drift .
