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Perilla/Shiso - - Easy/Prolific Reseeder

11 years ago

Need a dark foliage plant? I plant this Perilla/Shiso a few years ago (WS seed) and it has reseeded everywhere. Easy to pull but this year I will cut it down before it sets seed. I've left a row of it in this bed as a nice purple colored edge! Needs some sun but not all day sun.

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Comments (6)

trudi_d
11 years ago
It is nice! When your lilies bloom it will a lovely combo.

I am always happy to find its seedlings, they make great fillers in potted plants, love them with orange impatiens and purple sweet potato. It's also eye-candy with plain jane shasta daisies too.
hepatica_z7
11 years ago
How fussy is it about soil? I have an area of my yard that seems to be the worst of the fill dirt. I have layered other stuff on top, but many things still do poorly there. It's mostly red clay, but continues to look like subsoil, despite being on the surface for more than 50 years! I don't have time,nor energy,nor sufficient amendments to work it up as I have done in other areas of the yard. So, I am trying to grow things that do well there. Some things that have succeeded are shasta daisy Becky, nicotiana, Siberian Iris and lamb's ears. Any thoughts about Perilla?

Hepatica
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The gold finches are the reason I allow it to go to seed so I pay the price by having it spread everywhere. There's nothing prettier then a flock of gold finches visiting the garden. Is the purple variety edible? I bought the seed at the Korean market and it contained both green and purple. I use the green variety, mainly as a wrapper. I've never eaten it on it's own. The purple variety smells so much stronger to me but it is quite pretty. It looks a bit like Opal basil on steroids. lol I've attempted to grow true sesame a few times, with with poor results, even when started early. I don't think I have a long enough growing season.
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I have harvested a large amount of shiso leaves by now. The last thing I made was some shiso tea. I placed the washed leaves of both purple and green leaves in a large pot of water that I had heated to a boil, and added 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid. Steeped the leaves until the water was cooled, strained and refrigerated the amazingly colored liquid in a pitcher. It makes a nice refreshing drink. Some folks suggest adding sugar, I had mine plain. I also used it in a stir fry, with carrots, green beans, scallions, garlic and seitan. I shredded the shiso and added it towards the final steps of the stir fry, it greatly reduced in volume (like spinach) and gave the dish a nice interesting flavor. It is not invasive like mint, and I have transplanted my seedlings when they were growing in less than desirable spots. I now have scattered it all around the garden, but I also have basil scattered around and I see no harm in basil and shiso volunteers next spring....
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northforker
Original Author
11 years ago
Have to admit, soil is one of the "blank spaces" in my garden knowledge. I am blessed with sandy, easy to work soil and reading here the trouble folks have to go to to work with and amend their soil, I am not sure I could hack it...

But I do believe you should give perilla a try based on the fact that it germinate and thrives so easily in some old spare pots with really muddy old soil I had laying around near a real container planting last year. Also - have you tried amaranths? I find them reseeding everywhere too.
hepatica_z7
11 years ago
Thanks for the encouragement to try it, Nan. Where did you get seed?

hepatica
bakemom_gw
11 years ago
wonderful plant for all the reasons above, but I had to eradicate it b/c it was too invasive. I wasn't able to pinch off the blooms in time and it went everywhere. If you can handle this plant, you will really love it.

I like the idea of containers and juxaposed against shastas and sweet potato vine. Anything chartruse would look neato.
northforker
Original Author
11 years ago
Have to warn you, this actually started as a container plant! I had gotten the seeds in a "Round Robin" swap and the gardener was considerate enough to put a warning on it.....best in pots, reseeds like crazy in beds.

So I put the WS'd sprouts in a planter (where frankly I put my "least favorites" - - come on - you know what I am talking about. don't we all sort our plants for containers very carefully? Best plants on the front steps, etc. Well this got put in the planter sort of out of the way on the deck. When I saw it grow and that the foliage was so great, I moved some to other containers around the yard.

The rest is history. Seeds easily blew out of the containers and rolled into beds. But it has been "in beds" reseeding for about 4 years now and As long as I pull it where I don't want it early in the spring (when I am in there anyway, weeding..) it's great.

I kind of think that it depends on the kind of beds you have. My gardens are a mish mash, planted tight, no mulch (cause no ground..) I've got a patchwork of little bits of everything in every bed. It's a tossed salad. I like it, but it is not for the conservative. If you have 4.5 inches between each carefully mulched with dyed black pine bark beds, it's not the plant for you!!!!!

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