🌍 Built for UK, USA, Canada & Worldwide Gardens Free Growing Guides for Every Region Love It or Your Money Back Secure Checkout Instant PDF Download Checked Against RHS, USDA & Agri-Food Canada Data Free Garden Layout Planner
🌍 Built for UK, USA, Canada & Worldwide Gardens Free Growing Guides for Every Region Love It or Your Money Back Secure Checkout Instant PDF Download Checked Against RHS, USDA & Agri-Food Canada Data Free Garden Layout Planner
How to Grow Sweet Cicely UK | Regional Planting Calendar
Move through the SoilCommander growing library like a course: keep the navigation in place, open the next lesson, and build your garden plan step by step.
In the UK, sweet cicely go in the ground early September to early November.
Sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) — perennial.
Timing is the decision that matters most in the UK: there are 4 separate regional sowing windows, ranging from early September in Southern England to early September in Scotland.
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural and university-extension sources — see References.
Gardener's Path: sow direct into a well-prepared seedbed in autumn (roughly September to early November), since the seed needs a cold period to germinate; a spring sowing is possible only after four weeks of artificial chilling. A single autumn window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since the sources give no UK-region-specific gradient; sweet cicely is H5-hardy and is naturalised in northern Britain, so it is, if anything, better suited to the cooler regions.
Midlands - detail & sources
Gardener's Path: sow direct into a well-prepared seedbed in autumn (roughly September to early November), since the seed needs a cold period to germinate; a spring sowing is possible only after four weeks of artificial chilling. A single autumn window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since the sources give no UK-region-specific gradient; sweet cicely is H5-hardy and is naturalised in northern Britain, so it is, if anything, better suited to the cooler regions.
Northern England - detail & sources
Gardener's Path: sow direct into a well-prepared seedbed in autumn (roughly September to early November), since the seed needs a cold period to germinate; a spring sowing is possible only after four weeks of artificial chilling. A single autumn window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since the sources give no UK-region-specific gradient; sweet cicely is H5-hardy and is naturalised in northern Britain, so it is, if anything, better suited to the cooler regions.
Scotland - detail & sources
Gardener's Path: sow direct into a well-prepared seedbed in autumn (roughly September to early November), since the seed needs a cold period to germinate; a spring sowing is possible only after four weeks of artificial chilling. A single autumn window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since the sources give no UK-region-specific gradient; sweet cicely is H5-hardy and is naturalised in northern Britain, so it is, if anything, better suited to the cooler regions.
Sow direct into a well-prepared seedbed in autumn so seed gets the cold it needs, or chill seed in a fridge for four weeks and sow into pots in spring, one seed per pot (Gardener's Path).
Seedling establishment
1
Thin seedlings to about 25cm as they grow, transplanting in spring if needed, or plant out pot-raised seedlings once all frost risk has passed; water regularly through the first season to root in (Gardener's Path).
Clump development
3
Plants build to 1-1.5m tall and 0.5-1m wide over two to five years in partial shade on moist but well-drained loam; keep evenly moist but not waterlogged (RHS, Gardener's Path).
Flowering, seed and harvest
6
White umbels open in early summer and are followed by large ridged spindle-shaped seeds; leaves are picked through the season, green seeds eaten fresh and ripe seeds used in cooking. Dead-head regularly, as sweet cicely self-seeds freely (RHS, Gardener's Path).
When to pick: RHS: leaves, seeds, and roots all edible raw or cooked; when grown as a culinary herb, "remove flower stalks as they develop to improve the quality of the leaves"; fresh green seed pods used to sweeten rhubarb.
Storage
Best used fresh
Sweet Cicely, the Aniseed Herb That Sweetens Sharp Fruit
2 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I sow sweet cicely in the UK?
In Southern England, from early September. In Scotland, wait until early September. Treat these as a guide rather than a fixed date — the governing rule is to sow only once frost risk has passed and temperatures are reliably warm enough.
When do I sow sweet cicely?
Sow early September to early November.
Plan next season before the problems start
Most of the advice on this page comes down to timing and spacing — sowing at the right moment, rotating beds, and giving plants enough airflow. The UK Garden Planner lays your plot out month by month so those decisions are already made before the season starts.
UK vegetable growing guides · Checked against RHS & Met Office guidance
Every SoilCommander guide is written and maintained by our editorial team for real UK growing conditions, and reviewed against Royal Horticultural Society growing advice and Met Office climate data before publication.
Sketch your exact plot shape, pick your UK crops, and get a spacing-accurate bed layout with companion pairings, a rotation plan and month-by-month sowing dates — every fact sourced from RHS and Garden Organic.
