It was Marseilles, a new introduction in this year's seed catalogs. I planted 8 different kinds of basil in early March, and Marseilles was the only one that melted and died when it got hot in May.

I didn't see anything indicating Marseilles was non-flowering, and the Herb Cottage was offering seeds (meaning it does bloom). However, there is a variety (seems to be just one, may be more) variously called Greek Columnar, Lesbos, and Aussie Sweetie that does not bloom, and must be propagated by cuttings.
According to some of the commentary I've seen, it's also more tolerant of heat and humidity, and also of pot culture, than many basils. Certainly it has far and away the most substance of any of the basils I'm growing (Genovese, Red Rubin, Spicy Globe, and Minette are the other ones). It tastes just fine in normal basil applications - haven't tried it in pesto yet.

gardenpaws,

Thanks for your answer. Once I had a plant name I could do a search and found several mail order sources. This is on my 'must try' list next year.

Correct about the names they are probably the same basil. My father named the 'Aussie Sweetie' and introduced it years ago. They do ocassionally flower eventually, just not a whole bunch. After all, somebody brought him seeds from Australia originally. It should be grown from cuttings however to maintain it's infrequent flowering characteristic.

Francescod,

I saw aussie sweet at the nursury this year. I was a bit confused by it. It has an upright growth pattern with few if any side shoots right? So how do you pick it? I mean with regular basil i'll just pick off a stem, which encourages bushing out so more plant to eat, but if there is only one stem do you pick leaves off do you only only harvest it once? It was interesting and I'd like to try it next year.

Kristi

Kristi,

I've never grown Aussie Sweetie (yet), but I think I'd pinch out the very tip early in the season, and see if that doesn't help it bush out. I usually don't harvest more that 1/3 of any stem's length at a time, anyway.

Julie