Growing Herbs

With its soft, round, downy leaves and minutely detailed flowers, dittany is a highly ornamental plant. Its slender, arching stems, each about a foot long, have opposite pairs of thick rounded leaves that look somewhat like beads on a string. Leaves are only 1-2cm long and are covered with a white, woolly hair. The tiny, rather inconspicuous flowers are pink to purplish in color and grow at the ends of the stems from summer through fall. The hop-like flower bracts hold on for a long time in the fall and are the most ornamental part.

Dittany used to be very highly regarded as a cure for wounds. Venus was supposed to have given the plant to Aeneas during the Trojan Wars to cure his soldiers, and afterwards people said that it was able to remove iron and splinters from any wound and cure it immediately.

Full sun, ordinary well drained garden soil, and routine watering are satisfactory for dittany. It can be propagated from seeds, cuttings, or root division. This is an especially attractive plant for hanging containers where it will drape over the sides. It must be brought indoors during cold winters.
As a culinary herb, dittany can be used in most of the same foods as marjoram and oregano.

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