I have St. John's Wort for the lovely yellow flowers late in the summer. Also can't do without lavender or sage. Are they medicinal?

I go more for the culinary herbs (including lots of basil!), but have tried some medicinal ones as well. Many of them are attractive plants, in addition to their medicinal value. And of course some culinary herbs also do double duty as medicinal herbs. For example, I planted Mexican tarragon (also called Mexican marigold) this year for cooking purposes, since it is likely that the true tarragon I also planted might not do so well in our hot climate. But Mexican tarragon is also used by some for medicinal purposes. Likewise for mints, of which I have several varieties.

Horizon Herbs does have some really unique herb offerings. Last year I tried their bilberry and amaranth - of course amaranth is not really a medicinal herb. In the way of medicinal herbs, I also tried borage (from Seeds of Change). Due to the very hot and dry weather last summer, only the amaranth did well. The bilberry did not even germinate; central Texas is unfortunately probably not the optimal environment for bilberry, even in a non-drought year. The borage germinated and produced nice looking flowers, but did not grow anywhere near the proper size.

This year I have planted fenugreek and blessed thistle, both from Horizon Herbs. These were chosen because I am currently breastfeeding. They have just been planted, so I will have to see how well they do. We have had more rain this year, and I have added lots of compost, so am hoping for better luck than last year.

I have many culinary and medicinal herbs in other locations in my garden other than the food garden. My food garden area has some flowers in it, but mostly food right now in a front yard, the other front yard is almost totally landscaped with herbs and roses - medicinal and culinary herbs - medicinal I just use for teas right now as I need to learn much more about them. I will also put medicinals in some areas of my back yard. Many medicinal herbs have very specific cultural needs and I can not meet that need necessarily where I WANT them to grow, so I have to grow them were they NEED to be!

GGG

I've always been interested in herbs and hope to put in an herb garden next year. I want to include some old garden roses in the corners and have perennial and annual herb beds. I'd like to have areas that are medicinal, culinary, for tea and potpourri. There's probably some overlap there. Does anybody have any favorite herbs they would suggest? I have limited space, but I'd like to include some classics.