Live Plant - Creeping Oregano (STRATER PLANTS) humile

Origanum vulgare 'Humile' or creeping oregano is a prostrate herb with low growth. It's renowned for its aromatic flowers and leaves and is often used as a groundcover for its ornamental features. While edible, it is commonly used as a lawn alternative or in border plantings.

Edible Qualities

This perennial herb, Humile Creeping Oregano, is known for its edible qualities and can also serve as an ornamental plant.. The fragrant round green leaves are usually harvested from late spring to mid summer. The leaves have a pungent taste and a distinctive fragrance.

The leaves are most often used in the following ways:

• Cooking
• Seasoning

Features & Attributes

Humile Creeping Oregano features tiny lavender trumpet-shaped flowers in mid summer. Its tiny fragrant round leaves remain green in color throughout the year.

This herb is an evergreen perennial with a low spreading habit. It adds delicate texture to gardens and requires minimal care. Trim in late fall for winter. Attracts butterflies, not deer. No negative characteristics.

Aside from its primary use as an edible, Humile Creeping Oregano is sutiable for the following landscape applications;

• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Herb Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Humile Creeping Oregano will grow to be only 4 inches tall at maturity extending to 6 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 14 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 12 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain low and dense right to the ground. It grows at a fast rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 5 years. As an evegreen perennial, this plant will typically keep its form and foliage year-round.

This plant can be integrated into a landscape or flower garden by creative gardeners, but is usually grown in a designated herb garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil, and will often die in standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Humile Creeping Oregano is a good choice for the edible garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.