Is Purple Basil a Perennial? Getting to Know this Vibrant and Aromatic Herb

Purple basil: origin and characteristics

Like its relative, the green-leaved basil, purple basil originates from the tropics of Africa, America and Asia, where it has been cultivated and used in cooking for centuries. Purple basil varieties stand out because of their bold colouring. Their flowers can be white, but most are pink or purple in colour. The reddish-purple appearance of the leaves is caused by a high content of dark blue pigments, i.e. anthocyanins, in the plant cells.

Tip: The pigments in the leaves develop more intensely when the plants are in a sunny location.

Purple Basil from Cuttings

Rooting basil cuttings is so easy and quick to do in a cup of water that it is worth a try; it’s a great way to keep basil plants going indoors under fluorescent lights where short, young plants perform best, or in a sunny window. I use 3-inch-high styrofoam or paper cups because I can write directly on them to identify the cuttings or make notes, but short glasses or jelly jars work as well. Cuttings taken from the tips of nonflowering stems in vigorous growth and grown in full sun will root most readily; avoid weak growth caused by lack of light. Cuttings should also be disease- and bug-free and should be taken before night temperatures fall below 60°F. Three or four cuttings will fit in a cup or glass without too much crowding. I cut stems about 4 inches long with a clean, sharp pair of scissors and then strip the leaves from the lower half of these stems. I fill the cups with water about halfway so that only the bare stems will be immersed in water. The cups with their cuttings go on my kitchen windowsill, which receives no direct sun but gets plenty of light; this is the one place in the house where I know I will look at them several times every day.

If there is any trick to rooting cuttings in water, it is to change the water daily, which helps to prevent diseases that cause stem rot. Purple basil cuttings root a bit more slowly than their green sisters, but it’s only a matter of two to three weeks before they are rooted well enough to pot. There is a notion, often repeated, that roots formed in water are weaker than those created in soil. It seems to me that, though they look different from roots that start in soil, they produce equally strong plant starts so long as they aren’t left in water too long. I plant my water-rooted cuttings in 2- to 3-inch pots, or if I have rooted only one cutting, I plant it in the cup in which it rooted (I punch three holes in the bottom of the cup for drain­age). I use a soilless growing medium composed of sphagnum peat, vermic­ulite, and perlite, and I take the potted cuttings to the sunniest place in the greenhouse or place them a few inches below double-tube fluorescent lights to grow. If your rooted cuttings are to be planted outdoors, pot them and leave them indoors under fluorescent lights for at least a week before putting them outdoors in a cold frame or other place protected from wind, direct sun, and cold; after at least another week, plant them in the garden. This process of acclimatizing the plants to the outdoors is important because even the sun of early spring can scald tender leaves that have been indoors or in greenhouses. Further, basils are very tender, and the wise gardener will not put in transplants until night temperatures are regularly in the upper 50s; even when hardened, they will become stunted if subjected to temperatures below 45°F.

Dark Opal played an important role in the creation of O. b. ‘Well-Sweep Miniature Purple’ by Cyrus Hyde of Well-Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray, New Jersey. Hyde remembers reading an article in the early 1970s in The Herb Grower by Gertrude B. Foster, an author and herb pioneer who has had a major role in the modern popularity of herbs in the United States. The article mentioned that Mrs. Foster grew a small-leaved purple basil on her farm near Morristown, New Jersey, in the 1940s; Mrs. Foster and her husband, Philip, produced herb seeds for many American seed companies and had an extensive selection of rare and unusual plants.

Thirty years later, Hyde could find no one who had the Fosters’ purple bush basil or seeds from it. As luck would have it, a customer came to Well-Sweep one day with a plant he wanted to share with Hyde: a compact green basil from Armenia with a rounded shape and small, pointed leaves. Hyde saw the possibilities and crossed the Armenian basil with Dark Opal and got a few small-leaved purple basil plants from the resulting seed. Hyde told me he spent several years breeding these dwarf purple basils with themselves, trying to improve the variety and stabilize it, but he was dissatisfied with the results. He heard of a purple basil in the collection of Helen Darrah, author of a monograph titled The Cultivated Basils, that he thought might help, but when he grew it, only the flower bracts were purple; the leaves were green. “I figured it carried the purple gene because it had purple bracts,” Hyde recalled recently, and he crossed the green basil that had purple bracts with his dwarf purple plants. This last cross satisfied him, but the seed line remained unstable. “From seed you’ll get everything,” he explained, and his purple bush basil must be propagated from cuttings.

Well-Sweep Miniature Purple, which exudes a sweet, spicy scent, is a striking annual shrublet about a foot high with pink flowers. Cuttings, when pinched back several times, mature into rounded plants with leaves that are pointed and about 1/2 inch wide and 3/4 inch long; older leaves lower on the plant tend to be green suffused with purple while leaves farther up the stems are dark purple; the undersides of all leaves are reddish purple.

The plant possesses a colorful, soft charm in the landscape. In 1983, the U.S. Arboretum in Washington, D.C., through its National Herb Garden, gave Hyde’s creation a rare honor by distributing it to herb growers and nurseries in the United States. (The plant was identified at the time as O. b. ‘Minimum purpurascens’, and Hyde was not credited as the developer.) This delightful little basil is rarely seen in mail-order plant catalogs today (probably because of growers’ unwillingness to propagate an annual herb from cuttings), and a decade after the plant was distributed, it is no longer in the collection of the National Herb Garden.

O. b. ‘Holly’s Painted’ was introduced in 1993 and is one of my own selections from a group of Purple Ruffles variants; the name honors Holly Shimizu, now of the U.S. Botanic Garden, who has done so much during her career to popularize herbs. I spent several years selecting variants from Purple Ruffles until I found one that would keep its color through the winter; one of the least charming characteristics of most bicolored variants I have handled is that they tend to revert to solid green after being carried over the winter in the greenhouse.

The light green ruffled leaves of this selection are splashed irregularly with purple across the surface and undersides. Plants grow to a little over 2 feet high and may spread to as much across; I produce all plants from cuttings to maintain the best character­istics. Flowers are a delightful pink on a dark stalk 3 to 4 inches long; the leaves give off a sweet anise scent that has olfactory echoes of the Italian green basil called Napoletano, which I suspect is somewhere in the background of Purple Ruffles. Holly’s Painted is excellent in salads and makes a colorful garnish for fresh fruits.

O. b. ‘New Guinea’ is a delightful little plant 12 to 16 inches high with narrow, pointed, anise-scented leaves that look like inch-and-a-half-long arrowheads; their dark purple centers fade gradually to green at the slightly toothed leaf ­margins. The undersides are reddish purple. The lavender flowers with dark violet throats grow in a loose purple spike. This basil’s background is mysterious. Kim Kuebel, a Texas herb collector, is apparently responsible for distribution of seed to commercial growers in the United States. According to Kuebel, the English botanist John K. Morton, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, mailed him a packet of New Guinea basil seeds in 1980. “All the packet said was ‘Lae, New Guinea’,” Kuebel told me. In a telephone interview thirteen years later, Dr. Morton, a precise man of few words, could not remember sending the seeds nor where they came from, but he speculated that a European colleague, since deceased, may have collected the seeds in New Guinea and shared them with him. New Guinea basil grown from seed (currently available from Companion Plants) produces a few variants, most of which resemble Dark Opal; others have ruffled leaves that are deeply ­serrated and have the appearance of a demure Purple Ruffles.

8 Basil Varieties You Might Not Know About…

FAQ

Does purple basil come back every year?

• Reddit  ·  r/gardening

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  I did not know purple basil would come back so aggressively. – Reddit

  Mar 26, 2024 — I did not know purple basil would come back so aggressively. : r/gardening. … This is a type of perennial purple basil. It isn’t the sweet basil,

• Quora

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  Will basil planted last year come back this year? – Quora

  Jun 8, 2019 — Basil is an annual, so the plant lives and dies in a one year cycle. However, if allowed to seed off at the end of the year, it is an aggressive self…

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  Purple Basil: Not a Perennial Plant – Greg

  Nov 8, 2024 — Purple basil is an annual herb, thriving for just 3 to 6 months. … Purple basil is a vibrant annual herb that thrives in warm conditions. … In …

  

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  Is Basil a Perennial That Will Come Back Each Year? – AOL.com

  Outdoor annual basil plants often self-sow if you don’t pinch back their flowers, so you may find that new basil plants sprout on their own in your garden every…

  

What is the difference between basil and purple basil?

• Color:

  The most obvious difference is the leaf color. Purple basil varieties, like Dark Opal or Purple Ruffles, have deep purple or almost black leaves, while most standard basil varieties have green leaves. 

• Flavor:

  While the flavor of purple and green basil can be similar, some purple varieties can have a more intense or slightly different flavor profile. For example, some purple basil varieties may have a clove or anise flavor, while green basil usually has a sweet, slightly spicy flavor. 

• Culinary Uses:

  Both types of basil can be used in many of the same ways, such as in pesto, salads, sauces, and other dishes. However, the purple basil’s color adds a visual element to dishes, making it a popular choice for garnishing or adding a decorative touch. 

• Health Benefits:

  Both purple and green basil offer similar health benefits, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Purple basil is rich in anthocyanins, which contribute to its purple color and are also antioxidants. 

Will basil come back year after year?

Basil is usually only a single year and then dies out never to return. After that length of time it can get legggy and lose flavor as well as lack decent foliage. Suggest that you start fresh again. The Genovese type is very short and bushy with smaller leaves. That type might be better suited for your zone.

Does purple basil spread?

Purple Ruffles Basil will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 18 inches.

Is purple basil a good plant?

(Some grow larger than others.) Remember that purple basil can be a great companion plant in a vegetable garden or an interesting addition to an edible ornamental garden. Some have found that purple-leaved herbs are less attractive to certain pests than green-leaved varieties, which could come in handy in certain areas.

Where does purple basil grow?

On the whole, purple basil will grow well wherever any other sweet basil will thrive. These plants like fertile and moist yet free-draining soil. One additional consideration, however, is that purple basil, often grown for its pigmentation, will often retain better color where there is plenty of light.

Is Basil a perennial or annual plant?

Rotting of roots, deficiency of nitrogen, slugs, aphids and thrips are other common basil plant problems that you may have to face while growing basil plant indoors. (3) Basil is an annual plant, but you can grow it as a perennial plant based on your location.

What is the darkest purple basil?

‘Amethyst’ (16-20 inches tall) is the darkest purple basil variety available with almost black stems and foliage. The leaves are turned downwards and have an intense basil flavor. The flowers are purple. It is also available as the cultivar ‘Amethyst Improved’.

What does purple basil look like?

This older strain of purple basil is bushy and grows around 2 ft high. It is characterized by dark purple leaves at the top of the plant, and green leaves towards the lower ends of the stems. This gem-like purple basil was developed by John Scarchuk and is one of the best-known purple basils available today.

What are the different types of purple basil?

Varieties of purple basil include: ‘Dark Opal’ (12-18 inches tall) is a popular cultivar that has been around for a long time—it was an All-American Selection (AAS) winner in 1962. It has violet-purple leaves with a hint of licorice. The flowers are pink. In university trials, it has shown resistance to downy mildew.