Propagating French Tarragon

Hello Folks,
A couple of years ago I was surprised to find someone selling French Tarragon,
Artemisia dracunculus, at a farmer's market in Orton, Cumbria. This is a herb with a much finer flavour than its hardier Russian cousin, so apparently it's not widely grown in the UK. I'd certainly not seen it in the UK before. I can recall it being a pastureland weed in my younger days - a roll in the grass would bring out this amazing smell

I was quite surprised at how pricey the plants were, so I've been keen to keep my stock of the 2 that I purchased. The problem is that the plants very rarely flower, and if they do, they rarely make viable seeds. Inevitably, I lost one, surprisingly, the one I over-wintered indoors! The one that was out in the planter outside my kitchen survived that horrendous 2010 winter and re-grew the following spring.

Anyway, I had a look at the plant today and it has a bit of a spread on it, with several strong branches. I went to pull out an adjacent weed and mistakenly grabbed one of these branches too. Having started to dislodge it, by the time I noticed, I thought, in for a penny and retrieved a plant with a good root system of its own and what looked like new suckers.

I managed to retrieve 2 plants, there's possibly one more, and transplanted them into a nursery pot.

They will probably go back into the planter once I do my autumn maintenence, There was a surprising "independent" root system on each branch, so I've little doubt that they'll survive this upheaval. I may have done this a month or so too early, but I now have at least 3 plants.

Regards,
Steve

 

I've had a similar experience, it's so difficult to find and so much better than the Russian tarragon it's worth holding on to if you can. Like you I searched for seed without success and eventually managed to find plants in a farmers market, pretty rare in garden centres etc.

The other rare herb which I love is Chervil, can't think why it's so hard to find although you can find seed sometimes and it germinates quickly. Maybe people just don't buy it because it's less familiar than parsley etc.