Plant · P-581

Oregano

Origanum vulgare

Oregano is a rhizomatous Mediterranean perennial grown almost entirely as a dried culinary herb, though the leaf can be used fresh too. Its highest-rated use is not food or medicine but everything else it does in a garden - the growing plant repels ants and many insect pests, its flowers draw bees and butterflies, and it is even said to improve the flavour of plants growing near it. It also works as a slow-spreading, sun-loving ground cover, creeping outward by rhizome and self-seeding at the same time, which is easily kept in bounds with an edged bed or a mown margin. It prefers dry, alkaline, well-drained soil and full sun, tolerates real summer heat and humidity, and is hardy to about -20 C.