Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is a lovely herbaceous perennial with fragrant foliage and beautiful blooms Both the leaves and flowers can be used fresh or dried in teas, potpourris, desserts, salads and more But to get the best quality and highest yields from your plants, it’s important to know the proper harvesting techniques for this versatile herb.
In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about successfully harvesting the leaves, flowers, seeds, and oils from anise hyssop.
When to Harvest Different Parts of Anise Hyssop
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Leaves: Once the plant is established, anise hyssop leaves can be picked at any time. Pinch off fresh leaves as needed for cooking. To keep harvesting going, don’t take off more than a third of the leaves at a time. This will keep the plant from getting stressed.
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Flowers—Anise hyssop flowers should not be cut until they are fully open and showy. Cut off each stalk when at least half of the flowers on it have opened.
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Seeds – Allow the flowers to fade completely after bloom time ends. Seeds are mature when the dried flower heads turn brown and get brittle, releasing the seeds easily when crushed.
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Essential oils—To get the most essential oils, pick anise hyssop flowers and leaves right after they bloom, when the plants are at their strongest.
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Drying – Cut anise hyssop stems for drying when about half of the flowers per stalk are fully open. This ensures good color and flavor
How Often to Harvest Different Parts
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Leaves: To keep the plant healthy, pinch off the tips of new leaves no more than once a week. New growth will continually provide more leaves for harvests.
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Flowers – Deadheading spent blooms encourages reblooming. You can get a second flush of flowers by cutting back entire flower spikes after the initial bloom.
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Seeds – Seeds can be harvested just once at the end of the season when fully dry. Gently crush ripened seed heads and collect the released seeds.
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Essential oils – Anise hyssop leaves and flowers can be harvested up to 2-3 times per season for distillation if done carefully and not overharvested.
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Drying – Only harvest stems for drying one time per season. Remove any dead leaves from stems before drying to prevent molding.
How to Harvest Anise Hyssop Leaves
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Use clean, sterilized pruning shears or scissors to prevent spreading diseases.
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Select healthy, vibrant green leaves from established plants, ideally at least 2 feet tall.
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Snip off individual outer leaves near the stems, leaving at least one third of leaves still on the plant.
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Rinse and pat leaves dry before use. Store unwashed leaves in the fridge for 2-3 days max.
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Leaves can also be frozen, dried, or preserved in vinegar or oil. Freeze leaves in a single layer first before storage.
How to Harvest Anise Hyssop Flowers
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Use clean bypass pruners or floral scissors. Sterilize tools between plants.
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Snip off flower stalks when at least half of the individual blooms per stalk are fully open.
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For air drying, cut stems 6-10 inches long and bundle 3-4 together. Remove leaves from stems.
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Hang bundles upside down in a warm, dry, dark place until completely dried. Store in glass jars or tins.
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For distilling essential oils, process fresh flowers and leaves immediately after harvest.
How to Harvest Anise Hyssop Seeds
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Allow flowers to dry out completely once summer blooming finishes.
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Monitor dried flower heads daily and wait for them to turn brown and get brittle/crispy.
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Clip off entire dry flower spikes. Place in paper bags, then crush to separate the seeds.
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Spread seeds on a screen to dry further 1-2 weeks. Discard any moldy seeds.
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Store thoroughly dry seeds in labeled, dated glass jars in a cool, dark place.
Which Parts of Anise Hyssop are Used?
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Leaves – Used fresh or dried in teas, cocktails, jellies, fruit salads, marinades. Provides flavor and aroma.
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Flowers – Used dried in teas, potpourri, sachets. Can also be used fresh in salads or as a garnish.
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Seeds – Dried seeds used as a seasoning, similar to regular anise seeds. Often made into essential oils.
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Stems – The stems are not used. After harvesting leaves/flowers, the woody stems are discarded.
Proper harvesting technique, timing and care is key to getting the highest quality and maximum yields from anise hyssop. Follow these guidelines for the ideal harvest of leaves, flowers, seeds and oils. With some basic care, a single anise hyssop plant can provide abundant resources year after year.
Anise hyssop compaion planting
- Planting companions: Anise hyssop brings in honeybees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators. In late summer and early fall, it’s a good place to get nectar. It repels cabbage moths. Plant anise hyssop with chamomile and horehound.
Recommended Anise Hyssop Cultivars
- It has creamy-white flowers on three-foot-tall plants with lighter green leaves that aren’t quite as bushy as the species.
- “Black Adder” is a hybrid plant with dark buds and red-violet flowers. It is not as strong as the species, though.
- ‘Blue Blazes’ – a tall hybrid of A. High Country Gardens brought in Agastache “Desert Sunrise,” which has pinkish calyxes and glowing lavender purple blooms. Hardy to zone 5.
- ‘Blue Fortune’ – a sterile hybrid of A. foeniculum and A. rugosa bred at Arboretum Trompenburg in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It has huge, deep green leaves and very thick spikes of powder blue flowers. The plants get about 3 feet tall and 18 inches wide. It blooms most in the middle of summer and stays flowery for a long time since it doesn’t make seeds. In 2003, the Royal Horticulture Society gave it the Award of Garden Merit.
- “Golden Jubilee” was chosen as an All-American Selection Winner in 2003. It has lime-green to golden-chartreuse leaves that are especially bright yellow in the spring, and its flowers are a normal lavender-blue color. Self-seedlings are mixed with some golden ones.
- “Purple Haze” is a hybrid plant with narrow flower spikes that small native bees are less interested in but still attract a lot of other pollinators.
- “Red Fortune” is a hybrid plant with pink flowers that pollinators don’t like nearly as much as the species.
- There are three-foot plants called “Snow Spike,” which is also called “Album.” They have white flowers.
– Susan Mahr, University of Wisconsin—Madison Last Update: Bruce Spangenberg, UW—Madison Extension, 2025
Harvesting Anise Hyssop: When, how, and why.
FAQ
What part of anise hyssop do you use?
The aromatic leaves have a licorice-like (anise) scent and are used in herbal teas, to flavor jellies or eaten fresh in small quantities, such as in a salad with other greens. The dried leaves can be used in potpourri. The plant was used medicinally by Native Americans.
How to harvest and use hyssop?
To harvest hyssop for medicinal use, cut the stem just before the flowers begin to open. Hang the bunches upside down in a warm dark place. Dried leaves, green (not woody) stems and flowers may be chopped and stored for later use once dried.
How to harvest anise for tea?
Getting aniseed from the garden No matter what, you can tell when the seeds are ready because they turn brown. To harvest anise seeds, cut off an entire umbel in the morning, when it is dewy, and dry it indoors. It is important to do this in the morning, so that the seeds do not fall off the umbel.
What part of hyssop do you use for tea?
Leaves can be used as a seasoning, dried for use in tea, used fresh in salads, or made into jellies. As leaves maintain their scent well when dried, anise hyssop can also be used in potpourri.