Fennel is a Mediterranean plant belonging to the Umbelliferae family. The leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds all have a sweet, licorice taste. Some types of fennel can grow over 5 feet high and most plants are perennial in zones 6-9. The yellow flowers of fennel are extremely attractive to all nectar-feeding beneficial insects. Ladybugs, lacewings, and syrphid flies will often be found hovering around the flowers or laying their eggs in the foliage. If you see large, black & green caterpillars on your fennel, don't be alarmed. Fennel is also a host plant for swallow butterfly caterpillars.
Unlike it's cousin, common fennel, which is prized for it's feathery leaves, Florence fennel, Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum, forms a bulb at the base of the plant that is harvested and eaten like a vegetable. The plant itself only grows 2-3 ft tall, which makes it an ideal candidate for smaller gardens. The plants can even be grown in containers, although a minimum 5-gallon container is needed to provide a highly fertile and consistently moist soil. Any check in growth will induce bolting, robbing you of the harvest of bulbs.
The best time to plant Florence fennel is either in early spring or in late June-July so that the plants can mature in cooler fall weather. Spring-sown plants are more likely to bolt so many gardeners will wait until July to seed their fennel and harvest the bulbs in the fall.
Florence fennel seed should be sown directly in the garden, as the taproots of the plant don't transplant well. Again, any disturbance of the root will tend to cause the plant to bolt. Sow seeds about 2" apart, ΒΌ" deep, in rows 18" apart. When the plants are about 2" tall, thin them to about 8-12" as they tend to be quite greedy feeders and will compete with any other plant that is forced to share space with it. Allow one plant to go to seed and you won't have to plant fennel in your garden for a few years again.
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