Sweet Mace
Item Details
(aka Spanish Tarragon, Mexican Mint Marigold) Beautiful glossy leaves with small anise-scented golden flowers. The darling of many renowned Southwestern chefs, some even make a pesto from it!
- Conventional
- Annual or perennial in zones 8-11
- Plants grow to 12-24 inches tall
- Glossy green leaves
- Orange, anise-scented flowers
This variety works for:
- Fresh eating
- Dried leaves
Sweet mace has a bright, fresh taste that pairs well with fish and chicken. You can also substitute it for any dish calling for tarragon. Try chopping the fresh leaves and adding them to a tossed green salad or brewing them into a tea.
Growing Instructions
Instructions - Sow seeds outdoors two weeks before last frost. Can also be started indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost. Thrives in warm sunny areas with well-drained soil. May be used in place of tarragon.
- Direct Seed: 1/8" Deep
- Germination: 4-10 Days
- Thin: 8-12" Apart
- Light: Full Sun
Ratings & Reviews
4 reviews
Not what I'd hoped for
by Cynthia
My plants are very long, spindly and lie on the ground. Looks more like a ground cover in my flower bed.
Great for the herb garden
by Max
Love this plant for the flowers..blooms late for the pollinators here in Rhode Island,rugged and tasty,prolific and pretty,smells good too
Perennial in Zone 4a
by Dr. Pamala Jacobel Ph.D, L.P.
This turned out to be perennial in Zone 4a, go figure. I use it to make a simple syrup to add to ice tea. I’ve never seen the flowers because I’m harvesting leaves but the internet suggests they make a beautiful dye out of the flowers with an alum mordant.
Fragrant but needs to be pinched back to make it bush out.
by Kim
This smells and tastes like tarragon but is much easier to grow that.
It does need to be pinched back when it is small to make it bushy. It's easy to grow and is good to plant between other row crops. Make sure that what you are inter-cropping it with will not shade it out.
I planted it along rows of parsnips in raised beds. They didn't interfere with each other.