Parsley

Timing that travels

The band above resolves this plant's windows into months for one region. These are the windows themselves, stored against a climate event rather than a date — which is the form that survives being carried to a colder garden, a frost pocket, or next year.

• Sow outdoors2–18 weeks after the soil becoming workable, twice a year — spring and midsummer — for a continuous supply
  ·source

  Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Parsley — sowing

  Checked 2026-08-13

• Germination5–23 weeks after the soil becoming workable, three to five weeks
  ·source

  Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Parsley — germination

  Checked 2026-08-13

What kind of herb this is

Herbs are a kitchen grouping rather than a botanical one, and the plants in it want opposite things. This is the one distinction that decides how to treat it.

What happens when it flowers

On a herb this is rarely a problem and rarely nothing. It is the point at which the plant stops being what you grew it for — by a lot, a little, or not at all.

Conditions it needs

On your soil

Computed by comparing this plant's recorded requirements against each soil's recorded characteristics. A recorded horticultural fact overrides the comparison where GrowingHQ holds one.

Not sure which you have? Four hand tests will settle it.

Space and spacing

Where and how you can grow it

Each way of growing is assessed separately, and “not assessed” is a real answer rather than a gap we have filled in with a guess.

Growing it

Is it worth putting under cover?

Whether it will grow there is on the methods table above. This is whether the space is well spent, which is a different question and usually the one being asked.

Growing it without soil

Nearly anything can be grown in a soilless system by somebody with enough equipment. The useful question is whether it is worth it, in which technique, and what goes wrong.

Harvesting

What goes wrong

What to look for

Views that settle something a description cannot. Where the photograph has not been taken yet, the description of what it will show is here instead — which is the useful half of it either way.

Grown with, grown after, grown instead

Every relationship states its mechanism. A pairing nobody can explain is a pairing nobody has checked, and it does not go in.

• Shares a problem withCarrot
  Both Apiaceae and both carrot fly hosts. A permanent parsley plant beside the carrot bed keeps the pest present between carrot crops, which undermines the rotation that would otherwise help.

  ·source

  Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Carrot fly — host plants

  Checked 2026-08-13

• Closely relatedCoriander
  Both Apiaceae grown for their leaves, both disliking root disturbance and both best direct-sown. Coriander bolts far faster, which is the practical difference.

  ·source

  Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Plants of the World Online — Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Apiaceae

  Checked 2026-08-13

Safety and edibility

• Contact hazardsensitised individualsParsley, like other Apiaceae, contains furanocoumarins that can cause skin sensitivity to sunlight after handling large quantities of foliage in bright conditions.
  ·source

  Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Plants that may cause skin reactions

  Checked 2026-08-13

  Cover your arms when clearing a large quantity of parsley foliage in strong sun if you know you react.