Holy Basil (Tulsi) Seeds

Holy basil, or tulsi, has a warm, clove-and-pepper scent quite unlike sweet basil, and it is the plant behind tulsi tea. Ocimum tenuiflorum makes a bushy plant with soft, slightly hairy green leaves and slender spikes of small, pale flowers. Steep the fresh or dried leaves for a fragrant herbal tea, or cook them the Thai way in pad kra pao, where its peppery heat earns it the name hot basil. Bees love the flowers, so let a stem or two bloom. It grows happily in a pot on a sunny windowsill, greenhouse or sheltered patio.

Sowing and growing

• Sow indoors March to May at about 20 to 25°C; it needs warmth to germinate
• Sow on the surface or cover very lightly, no more than 5 mm
• Germination takes 7 to 14 days
• Plant out or move outdoors only from June, after the last frost, into a warm, sunny, sheltered spot
• Grows to around 60 cm tall and wide
• Pick leaves from about six weeks after sowing; pinch tips often to keep it bushy
• Perennial in the tropics but frost tender, so grown as an annual in the UK

Browse our full range of herb and flower seeds, or try other spice-garden plants in our exotic edibles collection.