How to Grow and Use Hyssop

Hyssopus officinalis

Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) is a plant that boasts the ability to do wonders in the kitchen while bringing beauty to the garden and attracting bees, birds, and butterflies.

It is also hardy, adaptable, easy to grow, with a long history of use in food and folk medicine.

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H. officinalis is native to the Mediterranean region, including parts of southern Europe and western Asia.

But it has naturalized in North America, so you can find the plants growing on roadsides in southern Canada and parts of the northern US.

If you want to add this attractive, versatile herb to your garden, this guide will cover everything you need to know.

Here’s what’s ahead:

Hyssop leaves, flowers, and the essential oils they contain boast a variety of uses: both in the past as well as today.

A strong hyssop tea sweetened with honey appears in herbal medicine traditions as a remedy for nose, throat, and lung problems.

The nectar makes delicious honey, so beekeepers love it, too.

Hyssop doesn’t spread as aggressively as others in the same family (ahem, mint, definitely looking at you here), so you can interplant it without having to worry about the plant taking over.

Note that H. officinalis is often confused with anise hyssop, Agastache foeniculum. Both are edible and beautiful, but they are unrelated.

How to Grow

Hyssop is a hardy and adaptable plant that thrives in Zones 4 to 9.

Let’s take a look at its cultural requirements:

Soil

H. officinalis prefers well-draining, fertile loam, but it will tolerate poor, dry, sandy soil as well. Hyssop does well in a generous pH range of 6.6 to 8.5.

Light

Water

Hyssop requires regular water until it is established, after which point it is very drought tolerant.

Plants still appreciate watering when the soil dries out, so make sure to regularly check the soil moisture down to two inches.

If the soil is dry, water. If the soil is damp, check back in the next day or two.

Fertilizing

Fertilize in the spring with an all-purpose plant food.

AgroThrive Liquid Fertilizer

I like to use an organic product such as this 3-3-5 (NPK) formulation from AgroThrive, available at Arbico Organics.

Cultivars to Select

When searching for hyssop seeds or plants, make sure they are true H. officinalis, not anise hyssop! Both are beautiful but they are completely different plants.

H. officinalis Seeds

You can find seeds available in your choice of packet sizes at Eden Brothers.

H. officinalis is available in a variety of colors besides blue-violet, including deep blue, pink, and white. Keep a look out for these cultivated varieties at your local plant nursery.

‘Caeruleus’ bears deep blue blooms on a compact, two feet high plant with gray-green leaves.

‘Sissinghurst’ is another blue flowered variety that grows to one foot high and has large, bright leaves.

‘Roseus’ has pretty rose-pink flowers on dark green foliage, and grows up to two feet.

H. officinalis f. albus features white blooms on compact plants growing to two feet tall.

If you want a shorter variety, check out H. officinalis ssp. arisatus, which is also sometimes known as dwarf hyssop and only grows to about 12 inches tall.

While more compact, it still features those pretty flowers and aromatic leaves. It’s a great choice for rock gardens and as an edging plant, and does well in pots too!

Maintenance

Let the dried stems and leaves stand over the winter.

Cut everything back to two inches from the ground in the spring, and again after flowering if you wish, to encourage a compact habit and to prevent the plant from becoming spindly.

This plant self seeds readily, so it is a good idea to deadhead if you don’t want little hyssops sprouting up all over your garden.

Propagation

Hyssop is easy to propagate, you can divide mature plants, take stem cuttings, or start from seed.

We’ll cover each of these options.

From Seed

You can collect the dry seed heads from existing plants and store them in a dry, dark place over the winter.

Sow seeds outdoors in spring after the last frost, spacing the seeds an inch apart. Thin to six inches apart after seedlings sprout.

You can also start seeds indoors about eight to 10 weeks before the last average frost date in your area.

Hyssop seeds need light to germinate, so be sure to only cover them lightly with soil.

If sowing indoors, fill a seed tray or container with soilless seed-starting mix. Sow the seeds an inch apart, keep the medium moist, and place your pots in a well-lit space.

Harden off the seedlings first by setting them outdoors every day for a couple hours and slowly increasing the amount of time each day before bringing them back in.

From Cuttings

Take cuttings either in the late spring or early autumn. Snip six-inch stems, and strip the leaves from the bottom two inches. Pinch off the tops, to encourage branching growth.

Place individual cuttings in small pots filled with a moist soilless medium, or a combination of half builder’s sand and half soilless medium.

Keep the medium moist but not wet by misting regularly. Roots should form within about a month.

Allow spring-started plants to develop branches, and roots that stretch to the bottom of the pot, before planting into your garden.

If you took cuttings in the fall, keep them indoors through the winter before planting out the following spring.

By Division

Large, mature plants may be divided in spring. On a cool day, or early in the morning, use a shovel to dig up the fibrous root ball and divide it in half, or into three pieces.

Replant the parent plant. Dig a hole the size of the root ball of each division, and loosen the soil on the bottom before planting.

You can learn more about dividing perennials in our guide.

Managing Pests and Disease

Thanks to the aromatic oils this plant contains, it naturally repels most pest insects.

It will even help to keep pests such as cabbage moth larvae, flea beetles, and slugs away from nearby crops.

The diseases that do occasionally affect hyssop are mainly a result of poor soil drainage.

If your plant has yellow, wilting leaves, dig it up and check the roots. If root rot is the issue, the root ends will be brown and mushy.

Trim off any affected roots, and replant in soil amended with sand or small pebbles to improve drainage.

Although rare, powdery mildew can affect hyssop foliage as well. If it does, read up on organic ways to deal with powdery mildew for treatment options.

Harvesting

Harvest leaves from your plant before it blooms, preferably in the morning just after the dew dries for the best taste.

These are best used fresh, but they may be dried and frozen to use later too.

Harvest the flowers while they are still fresh and colorful.

To dry whole bundles of leafy stems and flowers, hang them upside down in a dark, well ventilated area. Read more about drying herbs.

Recipes and Cooking Ideas

The foliage can be used to flavor marinades, meats, soups, sauces, salads, and stews.

Use the leaves a bit like rosemary, but be aware that it has quite a strong flavor despite its sweet scent – a little can have a big impact!

To me it tastes a bit like mint but with a warm, slightly bitter, floral undertone.

When you add hyssop to soups and sauces, put the leaves into a cheesecloth bag and allow the flavor to infuse the food as it cooks rather than adding them directly.

Crunching down on an entire fresh leaf isn’t pleasant, but when infused it adds a nice flavor.

Use fresh or dried leaves and flowers to make tea. Or, if you prefer something stronger, hyssop oil is used to flavor Chartreuse and Benedictine liqueur, as well as absinthe.

The oil itself is antibacterial, insecticidal, and anti-fungal.

To make a hyssop tincture, fill a jar halfway with finely chopped leaves, cover with vodka or another high-proof spirit, and seal.

Leave the jar in a warm place for 10 to 40 days, shaking every day to agitate the mixture.

Filter with cheesecloth or something similar to remove all the bits. Store in dark-colored bottles in a dark, cool place.

Hyssop flowers have a milder flavor than the foliage, so you can add these to salads for a pretty and tasty garnish.

Pretty Tasty

Even if you don’t want to use hyssop in your cooking, this hardy plant deserves a place in your garden.

Give it that sunny, maybe rocky or dry spot that few other plants would be happy with, and let hyssop transform it into a fragrant area visited by the bees and birds.

If you already have hyssop in your garden, have you ever featured it as an herb in your cooking? Leave your favorite recipes in the comments section below!

And for more information about growing herbs in your garden, check out these guides next: