Shiso

Last year I grew shiso (perilla) for the first time.  I loved the strong unique taste of this herb and was grateful that I had been successful in starting it from seed earlier in the spring. ( I have had moderate success with herb seed starts indoors.)  In September, this plant produced gorgeous flowers.

I had a sneaking suspicion that so many flowers would produce lots of seeds that might just grow themselves all over my garden if I did not remove the flower heads.  So I removed some of them and saved some of the seed for the next year.

One of the two places I planted the shiso last year was in a small bed with some Bells of Ireland.  Each spring I look to see if the Bells of Ireland have self-sown.  When I looked a few days ago I found this. . . .

. . .  which is a small portion of the bed and represents the hundreds (thousands?) of self-sown shiso plants coming up, along with some Bells of Ireland.  Here’s a closer view of that wonderful shiso:

Today I ate an incredible salad from the garden, with an extra spark of flavor from some of these small shiso plants.