We love to grow rare and colorful plants that you can’t always find on the store shelves. Purple basil is said to have a spicy clove flavor. It pairs will in dishes when it is not cooked but can also but cooked which makes the leaves turn black. It also looks amazing in a garden to add a little color. Here is how to grow some beautiful purple basil of your own.

Sun – Purple Basil needs 6-8 hours of full sun.

Soil – Moist well draining soil is best for purple basil.

Spacing – Basil needs a lot of space about 10-12 inches between plants.

Water – Purple basil likes moist soil and should be water with 1 inch of water once a week. It the soil starts to get to dry you will have to water it as the plant will start to droop.

Food – If you are growing purple basil outside it will only need fertilizer once when you first plant it. If you’re growing it in doors you will need to water it about once a month with an organic water based fertilizer.

Annual or Perennial – Purple basil is an annual plant. Once it starts to flower it will bloom and stop growing. You can keep a basil plant alive longer but trimming flowers before they start to grow and by propagating it’s steams.

Climate/Hardiness – Basil is a little cold hardy and can survive temperatures as low as 32°F/0°C. Although basil can survive that temperature it can’t survive it for to long. If the daytime and nighttime temperature stays that low the basil plant will die. If it isn’t always that cold it will have adverse effects on the plants growth.

Harvest – You can start to harvest basil leaves 60-70 days after it has been planted and if you only trim them they will grow new leaves very fast.

Transplant – Purple basil does not like to be transplanted and also has very delicate leaves that bruise easily. For this reason it is best to plant it somewhere where you will not have to move it or in a pot that you can bring indoors on the winter, if you care growing the plant outside.