Winter savory
Satureja montana
also called satureja montana
Peppery evergreen 'bean herb' — sharpens legumes and turns beetle aside.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 9.8 in
- In-row spacing
- 7.9 in
- Between rows
- 11.8 in
- Square-foot density
- 4 per square
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Sow indoors
- 42 days before the last spring frost
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 60 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- 14 days after the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Herb · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Low
- Soil
- Poor, dry, free-draining
- Feeding
- Gentle all-organic
- USDA zones
- 5a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- July
Through the year
- Mar–Mar Bud Break
- Mar–Jul Spring Growth
- Jul–Oct Flowering
- Oct–Nov Growing
- Nov–Dec Winter Dormancy
- Jan–Mar Winter Dormancy
Harvest
- When
- A semi-evergreen perennial that can be picked nearly year-round in mild UK/US winters, with peak flavor in summer just before its white flowers open. Cut on dry mornings; go lightly outside the growing season when the plant can't replace what you take.
- What to look for
- Stiff, glossy, narrow dark-green leaves with a sharp, peppery scent — stronger and more resinous than summer savory. Flower buds forming mark the best moment for the main preserving cut.
- How to harvest
- Snip 5–10cm sprig tips above a leaf pair, cutting into leafy growth and never into the bare woody base, which regenerates poorly. A shear of the top third just before flowering provides the drying harvest and keeps the subshrub compact.
- How often
- Light picking as needed all year; one or two harder cuts in the growing season. Give the last substantial cut by late summer so regrowth hardens off before frost, and refresh woody plants from cuttings every few years.
- Storing the crop
- Fresh sprigs keep 1–2 weeks in the fridge. Winter savory dries very well — hang bunches, strip the leathery leaves, and store airtight for up to a year — though the year-round bush means many gardeners simply pick fresh whenever it's needed.
Pests & problems
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Spider mites
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Spider mites
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Spider mites
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Spider mites
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Predatory mites Phytoseiulus & AmblyseiusHunts Spider mites
Fast orange mites that hunt spider mites egg-by-egg, and cousins that clear thrips and fungus-gnat larvae. Sold as a biological control for greenhouses; outdoors they follow humidity — mist and mulch, don’t dust with sulfur.
- Rove beetle StaphylinidaeHunts Spider mites
Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.
Did you know?
A hardy evergreen 'bean herb' that's peppery all year, where summer savory dies back.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com