Greek Columnar Basil - 4" Pot - Keeps Flavor All Season

I placed an order for one sweet basil plant, one genovese sweet basil plant, and this columnar basil plant. They arrived quickly all came in the same box and the first two mentioned looked pretty nice and healthy out of the box but the columnar basil plant looked terrible. Its pot was soaked and the roots seemed rotted, the plant looked very, very bad (there were only 2 leaves that even looked somewhat alive). I decided that it probably still had some life in it and planted it anyway in some organic potting soil/compost/worm casting mix. That was about 4 weeks ago and now it is thriving! Every few days it has new leaves growing and looks really healthy. So if your plant arrives wet, soggy and dead looking just give it some TLC and nice soil and it should be good in a month or so.

When I got it the stem was bent over and cracked a bit. I put it up straight and fastened the stem to a small stick with gardeners tape. Its a few months later and its 4 times larger and healed(nearly 2 feet). I recently upgraded to a larger pot and put it outside, it had been in a south facing window since I received it.

I've always purchased from Hirt's and was extremely pleased with my columnar basil. But this time, the plants arrived so soaking wet that the box was soggy. Two of them died immediately from rot and Hirt's replaced them. Those are the only two that are still alive. All the rest are dead. I will purchase my columnar basil from another nursery in the future. Their customer service requested that I send a photograph but I am visually impaired and unable to use a camera. They sent me a terse response stating the two were replaced... no apologies, not even a capital letter in the response. I have never experienced that from Hirt's before. The bottom line, do not overwater the plants so badly that the cardboard mailing box arrives soggy and the plants are sitting in a bog.

This Greek basil is very hard to find locally. I was so happy to find it online. Excellent quality. We parted it the day it arrived and it is thriving. Much smaller leaves than Italian basil. I was happy to find this not only for cooking but also because it is an important symbol of hospitality in Greek culture.

My basil plant arrived with a broken top and looking puny. I immediately planted it in fresh potting soil and have carefully watered it. After about 3 or 4 (?) weeks it has a few small new leaves, so it's going to survive.. I think maybe the company needs to improve its shipping techniques. I have not notified them about this. I probably should have. They may well have sent me a new plant. By the time I paid for shipping, this little herb cost me $11.00. I had higher hopes.

So pleased with this basil. I accidently stumbled onto this type of basil about 4 years ago. Love it. Beautiful plant that has strong basil flavors. You cannot grown this one from seed. It is a bit difficult to find. I will grow this one every year! It is the best.

I bought the basil plant in May 2012. It renders leaves quickly and is quite fragrant. I always pinch off three leaves for my pasta dishes. Caring for it is easy compared to the more broad leaf varieties. Just like mint, it tastes great in lemonade. I have bought at least twenty plants from Hirt's and this one is in my top three.

Arrived quickly, but the plants were in awful shape - and in scrutinizing the leaves a bit more - realized, they're NOT columnar basil but that cheep annual basil you can get anywhere. Ordered the columnar basil from this company last year and was tickled pink with the plants, they'd arrived healthy and grew beautifully (only they died over the winter months due to too dry conditions), quite the opposite this year as I didn't even get what I'd ordered.