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.
