Enjoy it. As far as it has been established, Stevia has no side effects and has many health benefits. It is mostly used for sugar substitute. I have grown it in the past 3, 4 years at small quantity. It is probably perennial in zone 7. It was in zone 7b, GA.

I was wondering the same thing. I want to make some lip balms, and I ordered two flavor oils. They are horrible. Smell great, but I tasted them (to see what they would taste like) and I nearly choked. They were awful. I wrote and asked and they said the smell "fools" you into thinking it has a flavor. I am not sure if I buy that. At any rate, I am not going to use them in my lip balms (if I ever get around to making them). I just can't bring myself to now that I know how awful and bitter they taste. I have purchased good tasting lip balm, and I am sure that my nose was not fooling me into thinking that it tasted good! Susan

It attracts bees when it's in flower, which is always useful in the garden. The tea's not a great taste but it does help settle the innards after a dose of self-indulgence. (More for heavy things like bread than doughnuts, though.) Not bad in dry pot pourri but it doesn't last the distance as some leaves do (rose geranium eg) If the frost gets your lemon verbena, lemon balm is an ok substitute. It can be a Monster to extract once it gets to a couple of years old, though. A pick-axe job. It gangs up with buttercup to make life miserable in the shrubbery.

Carol: Your husband is a genius with his water pumps and pipes to draw rainwater for your roses. Husband is on vacation this week. He asked me what he should do. I told him to get horse manure for my roses. He broke out laughing. He always gets horse manure for my birthday in Sept., but he did not, so I ask him now 12/7/22. I have a sore in the corner of my lower lip. Thank God it's NOT cold sore, but vitamin Bs deficiency. That's from eating husband's Dove Dark Chocolate, I gained 5 lb., from 115 lb. to 120 lb. just from eating his sweets & croissants. I forget that I don't run, but he runs 6 miles per day, and 10 miles on weekend. I have to remind myself that if I eat sweets, then I have to do 1 mile on the treadmill. Easier to stop eating sweets & bread, than to torture my 61-year-old body on the treadmill. I haven't used lemon balm tea for a month since I'm saving it for my daughter's stressful final exams. She's in 2nd year of college and is going through 3 interviews this week for an actuary internship job in the summer. Last night I made lemon balm tea to ease the sore on the corner of my lip, and WOW, it was instant relief. I'm no longer in pain when I smile or brush my teeth from that sore. I also resume nutritional yeast for B vitamins, esp. B12. Sore on mouth is a sign of vitamin B deficiency, esp. B12. Best sleep ever from drinking lemon balm tea, and I'm happy when woke up. Lemon Balm tea is famous for healing cold sores, any inflammation and insomnia, see excerpt below from WebMD: " Applying a lip balm containing an extract of lemon balm (LomaHerpan by Infectopharm) to cold sores seems to shorten healing time and reduce symptoms if applied at the early stages of infection. Taking lemon balm (Cyracos by Naturex SA) twice daily for 15 days improves sleep in people with insomnia. " I would give up all my 150+ fragrant roses, but NOT below lemon balm plants in my garden. It rescues my daughter from stress in this Dec. week of final exams and job interviews. It also gives me fantastic sleep and happiness, despite life problems.