Salad Burnet: Pretty Landscape Edible

baby salad burnet plant

The photo that has been on the top of my website for the past year is salad burnet, which has thrived in my Virginia garden for 5 years. The toothed foliage is pretty, almost fern like, and from spring to fall I would cut the young leaves for green salads, egg salads, herbal vinegars, cheese spreads, and iced drinks. This week, when I was pushing away autumn’s leaves, I noticed that the mother plant had disappeared but left a few young seedlings. I remember that last summer the mother plant was flowering quite a bit for the first time, maybe it knew its end was near. I saved the seed: just cut the dried seed heads and put them in a paper bag. Today, I pulled the stems out of the bag and rubbed the seeds off so I could plant more salad burnet in the garden. I actually was pleasantly surprised at the amount of seed I have, I am anxious to grow more this year to replenish my supply. Salad burnet is a perennial culinary herb, hardy to zone 4. It is easy to grow; it only needs full sun and well-drained soil. The plant is about 6 inches tall and maybe a foot wide. The inch-long flowers bloom on wiry stems but they are so pale and small, they blend into the background. A landscape edible, salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) is a pretty addition to the garden. Either buy as a plant at the nursery or grow from seed.