Anise Care: Keeping a Weak Stemmed Plant Upright and Ripening

Heat and sun are not optional

Anise is a warm season annual from the eastern Mediterranean and it behaves like one. It wants full sun, all day, and it wants warmth in the soil as well as the air. In a cool cloudy summer the plant grows, flowers late and then sits with green heads that never dry, which is the standard disappointment for gardeners in northern regions. Nothing about watering or feeding compensates for a shortage of heat.

So put it in the warmest place you have and shelter it. A bed against a south facing wall, a raised bed that warms early, or a large container on paving all add usable degrees. Shelter matters twice over on a weak stemmed plant: warm and out of the wind serves both purposes at once.

If your summers rarely hold above 70F (21C) for long stretches, plan the crop around leaf and green seed and treat any dry ripe seed you get as a bonus. That is a more satisfying way to grow anise in a cool region than repeatedly failing at a seed harvest.

Water steadily early, then stop

The plant divides its season into two halves and wants opposite things in each. From germination to flowering it needs even moisture: the seedlings are small and slow for the first six weeks and a dry spell in that period stunts them permanently, giving short plants with light heads. Water deeply when the top inch (2 to 3 cm) of soil dries, rather than sprinkling daily.

Once the umbels have set seed the priority reverses. Water in the ripening period keeps the heads green, delays drying and encourages mold in a crowded stand. Ease off as soon as the flowers fade and stop altogether once the seed starts to color, unless the plants are actually wilting. Dry, bright, breezy weather at the end is exactly what you want.

1. Keep the seedling stage evenly moist The first six weeks decide the size of the plant and therefore the size of the harvest. Do not let a young stand wilt hard even once.
2. Water at the base, not over the heads Overhead watering on a dense stand keeps the foliage damp for hours and starts leaf spot and mold in the umbels. Direct the water at the soil.
3. Cut watering right back at flowering Once the flat white umbels are open the plant needs warmth and dryness far more than water. A stand kept lush at this point ripens late and unevenly.
4. Water containers deeply, not often A deep pot dries from the top down while the taproot sits low, so frequent shallow watering misses the roots. Water until it runs from the base, then wait.

Wilting at midday that recovers by evening is normal in hot weather and does no harm. Wilting still visible at dusk means the roots are genuinely dry, and in the first six weeks that costs you plant size you will never get back.

Feed almost not at all

Anise is a light feeder and rich ground works against it. Nitrogen gives soft, tall, dark green growth on a stem that was never strong to begin with, so a well fed stand flops earlier and harder than a lean one. It also delays flowering, which in a crop already short of ripening time is a serious loss. Ground that grew a well fed crop last season is ideal without any further feeding.

Lime matters more than fertilizer. Anise prefers neutral to slightly alkaline soil and sulks on acid ground, where it stays small and pale regardless of feeding. Free drainage matters too: the taproot rots in heavy wet soil, so on clay work in grit and coarse organic matter or grow the crop in a raised bed.

Weeding, and holding the stand up

Anise seedlings are small, feathery and slow, and they lose badly to weeds in the first six weeks. A stand that is smothered early never catches up. Hand weed carefully rather than hoeing close, because a hoe run alongside the row will slice taproots you cannot see, and every plant you check is a plant that will flower short and set little.

Support is the other running job. The plants grow to about two feet (60 cm) with a heavy head, on a hollow stem, and a summer downpour will lay a stand flat overnight. Once the heads touch the soil they stay damp, color badly and are often written off. Put the support in while the plants are small, when you can still push it in without breaking roots.

1. Weed by hand for the first six weeks Pull weeds small, holding the soil down around the seedling so you do not lift its root with the weed.
2. Push brushwood in at six inches (15 cm) tall Twiggy prunings among the plants are the traditional and still the best answer. The foliage grows through and hides them, and the whole block leans on the twigs instead of on the soil.
3. Or run string around the block on short canes Four canes at the corners with string at ten inches (25 cm) and again at eighteen inches (45 cm) contains a bed sized stand neatly. Put both lines in before flowering.
4. Mulch between rows, not over the crowns A thin mulch keeps the soil damp during the slow seedling stage and keeps mud off the lower foliage. Keep it clear of the stems, which rot if they sit wet.

Do not tie individual anise stems tightly to canes. The stems are hollow and a tight tie crushes and kinks them. Group support that lets the plants lean is better than individual staking in every way.

Reading the plant through the season

Anise changes leaf shape as it matures, and the change is a useful clock. The first leaves at the base are rounded, toothed and rather like a coarse parsley. As the flower stem rises the leaves become progressively finer and more feathery until the topmost are thread like. When you see thread like leaves and the stem starting to branch, flowering is about two to three weeks away and the leaf harvest is nearly over.

Write down the date the first flat white umbel opens. Ripe seed follows flowering by roughly four to six weeks, so that single date tells you immediately whether the crop will finish before your first autumn frost or not.