I grow a lot of perennial herbs—in fact, I have a few garden beds dedicated to them.
While they’re pretty low-maintenance as far as edible plants go, there’s one thing I do throughout the season to keep them healthier, bushier, and unbelievably more productive: pruning them.
You see, herbs like to be cut—scratch that, they love to be cut. And not only do they love to be cut, they demand it. When you trim your perennial herbs regularly, they reward you with bigger and better growth all season long.
It sounds almost counterintuitive—that a plant will grow back even faster and fuller after a haircut—but frequent trimming encourages more branching, and removing the flowering stems helps stimulate new growth.
Herbs like rosemary grow softer and larger leaves after they’ve been snipped, and perennial basil continuously produces lush new leaves year-round if you stay on top of pruning.
You should ideally be trimming your herbs as soon as they start growing in late winter to early spring, but if you’re like me and can’t resist the explosion of flowers in summer, cutting them back after they’ve flowered is fine too. (Just don’t prune too late in fall, as this can stimulate new growth that won’t survive the winter.)
But where should you start? Here are a few tips on how and what to prune right now.
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Anise hyssop
Anise hyssop benefits from regular pruning to create a fuller and bushier plant. Cut stems just above a set of healthy leaves every two to three weeks, removing up to one-third of the plant at a time. Deadhead spent flowers throughout summer to encourage more blooms.
Where to buy
Anise hyssop
Bay laurel
Bay can be grown as a full-sized tree (capable of reaching 20 to 30 feet tall) or it can be pruned to stay small, especially if you want to grow it in a pot. Harvest individual leaves as needed or snip a few inches off a stem if you need more (never taking more than one-third of the plant at any time).
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Bay laurel
Chives
Chives are extremely cold-hardy and will keep growing through the end of fall, so regular pruning will remove old leaves and make room for new ones.
Harvest onion chives and garlic chives by cutting them down to about 1 inch above the soil. Once they start blooming, cut the whole flowering stem down to about 1 inch above the soil as well (and use those chive blossoms in the kitchen to add flavor and color).
Recommended
Micro-tip pruners
The sharp blades, precise tips, and spring-action handle make easy work of light pruning and harvesting in the garden.
Lavender
Cut lavender stems when the fragrant flower buds just begin to open. You can prune about one-third of the plant while it’s in bloom or just after it blooms to maintain a tidy shape. I typically cut back to where the tall flowering stems emerge from the softer foliage.
Lemon verbena
After a hard prune in late winter to early spring (cutting back the top one-third of the plant), lemon verbena can be lightly trimmed throughout the growing season to encourage bushier growth. Snip the growing tips, just above a leaf node, and remove any dead, damaged, or crossing branches to improve air circulation and maintain the plant’s shape.
Lovage
This old-timey herb is highly underused but I love its celery-like flavor. And it’s a vigorous plant that can grow up to 6 feet tall if it isn’t trimmed!
To harvest lovage, cut entire stems down to the ground, removing up to one-third of the plant as needed. Remove any stiff flowering stems as they appear. If your lovage becomes too large and unwieldy, you can cut back the entire plant to stimulate a flush of new growth.
Where to buy
Lovage
Mint
With its invasive nature, mint needs to be cut back regularly to keep growth in check! You can snip the herb anywhere along its stem, or take whole stems (trimmed to about 1 inch above the soil) several times a season.
Recommended
Rotating shears
These versatile pruning shears have a rotating head that turns 360 degrees so you can trim at any angle. The blades are long enough to cut through many stems at once, and the spring-action handle makes it as simple as using scissors.
Oregano
Anywhere you cut oregano, more leaves will appear. This is a plant that can be trimmed pretty haphazardly, but I recommend trimming from the outside in, every two to three weeks, to keep its shape more compact. Otherwise, it likes to spread and flop.
Perennial basil
Before I get into pruning perennial basil, a disclaimer: while there are several varieties of perennial basil (such as my personal favorite, African blue basil) that don’t set seed and die back, they’re only perennial in warm climates (usually zones 10 and above). So if you live in a colder region, be sure to bring your perennial basil indoors once nighttime temperatures drop below 45°F.
Like annual basil, perennial basil tends to grow tall and gangly with woody stems if it’s not pinched back regularly. But there’s a trick to trimming basil so it gives you a seemingly endless supply of leaves!
When the plant is 6 to 8 inches tall, it likely only has a single stem with a few leaves on it. Go ahead and cut the top one-third of that stem, right above a set of healthy leaves. This will encourage early branching and effectively double your harvest!
A few weeks after this initial cut, start pruning your basil regularly (at least once every two weeks) to keep it bushy and stimulate new growth.
Find a main stem and snip that stem back to a lower set of leaves where you see two tiny leaf buds emerging from the leaf axil. Cut just above those leaf buds to stimulate more growth. Continue cutting the tops off your basil as needed; I’ve found that basil is pretty resilient and I’ll sometimes remove as much as half the plant when I want to make a large batch of pesto.
Where to buy
Perennial basil
Rosemary
If you want to use the long woody stems as skewers (for grilling—and there’s a variety called ‘Barbeque’ rosemary that’s perfect for that), go ahead and cut the stems close to the soil. But if you just need a few sprigs here and there, cut as needed anywhere on the plant.
Where to buy
Barbeque rosemary
Sage
Sage can be cut just about anywhere as long as you avoid cutting it back to the ground. You can trim the top one-third of the plant, making sure to leave a few leaf nodes on the bottom for new growth.
Tarragon
Remove the old woody growth in early spring and prune tarragon frequently, anywhere along the stem, to keep it from flowering. The plant is prone to flopping over, so I like to keep it around 2 to 3 feet tall with regular pruning.
Thyme
Thyme can be cut anywhere (and keep on growing!) but strategic pruning from the outside in will help maintain a more compact shape. It likes to spread and will grow more gangly if it isn’t trimmed at least once every two weeks.
Winter savory
Winter savory can handle an aggressive pruning to keep its shape and encourage fresh growth. You can pinch off the tips as needed to prevent the plant from becoming too leggy, as well as remove any stems that are old, woody, weak, or damaged.
Throughout the growing season, cut stems just above where you see new leaves emerging, and don’t be afraid to cut back the entire plant by up to half so it remains a low mound.
