GrowingHQ
Herbperennial herbStraightforward

Salad burnet

Sanguisorba minor

An evergreen perennial that gives cucumber-flavoured leaves through the winter, which is close to unique among herbs hardy enough to leave outside. Almost unknown now and worth more than its reputation: it asks for nothing, survives on chalk and thin soil, and is picked in February when the rest of the herb bed is bare.

Position
Full sun or Partial shade
Water
low demand
Drainage
Free-draining
Grows to
30–45 cm × 30–45 cm
Hardiness
H6
Harvest
January to December
Difficulty
Straightforward

August

Nothing to do

No sowing, planting, harvesting or pruning window falls in August.

Coming next month: sow outdoors, harvest.

Salad burnet’s year

Resolved for United Kingdom (general). Every window is stored against a climate event rather than a date, so a late frost pocket runs later than the band shows. What else August calls for.

ActivityJFMAMJJASOND
Sow outdoorsMarch. April. September.
HarvestJanuary. February. March. April. May. June. September. October. November. December.
DivideMarch. April.

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.

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.

Mediterranean woody herb

Growing regime
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — growing

Checked 2026-08-13

Wants sun, poor free-draining ground and very little water once established. Far more of these die from winter wet at the roots than from cold air, so drainage matters more than hardiness ratings suggest.

Treated the same way: bay, borage, chamomile, hyssop, lemon thyme, marjoram and 7 more in the same group. The herb bed, split by regime

Why winter wet kills a Mediterranean herbTwo soil cross-sections side by side. On the left, a well-drained planting: the crown of a rosemary sits slightly proud of the surrounding soil on a low mound, the root zone is open gritty soil with air between the particles, and arrows show winter rain moving down and away past the roots. The plant above is dense and well furnished. On the right, the same herb in heavy soil in a hollow: the crown sits level with or below the surface, the root zone is dense soil over a compacted pan, and winter rain has nowhere to go so a water table stands in the root zone from November to March. The roots there are drawn broken and dashed to show they have died, and the plant above is sparse and thin. The point is that the plant looks unharmed all winter because an evergreen with a full canopy asks almost nothing of its roots in January, so the loss only shows the following spring when it fails to grow.Sharp drainagecrown proud, water moves throughroots stay firm and paleair between the particles all winterWinter wetcrown in a hollow, water standswater table, Nov–Marcompacted pan — nowhere to goroots dark, soft and sourand the plant above still looks fineopen gritty soilheavy soilstanding waterliving rootsPlanting on a low mound, adding grit, or standing a pot on feet all do the same job: get the crown above the water.
The damage happens in January and shows in May. An evergreen herb asks almost nothing of its roots in winter, so a drowned root system stays invisible until the plant is asked to grow and cannot.
Indoors
Not worth growing indoors
Where the indoor assessment comes from
IndoorsSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — growing indoors

Checked 2026-08-13

Almost any herb will sit on a windowsill in July. This is about whether it is still there in March, which is the part a pot on a supermarket shelf does not tell you.

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.

Leaves coarsen
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — harvesting

Checked 2026-08-13

Cut the flower stems out as they appear and the plant keeps producing the young tender leaves that are the only ones worth eating. Left to flower it puts its effort into seed and the foliage turns tough.

source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — care

Checked 2026-08-13

Conditions it needs

Light
Full sun, Partial shade
Frost
Very hardy
Hardiness rating
H6 (RHS)
Grows best at
8–22 °C
Soil
Loam, Chalky, Sandy
Soil pH
6.5–8
Drainage
Free-draining
Water needs
low
Drought
good tolerance
Waterlogging
poor tolerance
Heat
good tolerance
Wind and exposure
good tolerance
Where these figures come from
LightSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — position

Checked 2026-08-13

FrostSourced guidancehigh confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — hardiness

Checked 2026-08-13

Hardiness ratingSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: RHS hardiness ratings

Checked 2026-08-13

Grows best atSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — temperature

Checked 2026-08-13

SoilSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — soil

Checked 2026-08-13

Soil pHSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Plant Finder — Missouri Botanical Garden: Sanguisorba minor — culture

Checked 2026-08-13

DrainageSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — soil

Checked 2026-08-13

Water needsHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

DroughtHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

WaterloggingHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

HeatHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Wind and exposureHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

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.

SoilVerdictWhy
Heavy clayWorks, with one conditionSalad burnet will crop on heavy clay, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. A plant that stays in the ground through winter with its roots in cold, saturated soil rots — which is what kills most of what fails on heavy ground, rather than the cold.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.
SandyPrefers this soilSandy suits Salad burnet as it stands: The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Sandy soil is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. It stands dry conditions better than most, which this soil will test.
Chalky and alkalinePrefers this soilChalky and alkaline suits Salad burnet as it stands: The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Chalky soil is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. It stands dry conditions better than most, which this soil will test.
LoamPrefers this soilLoam suits Salad burnet as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6.5 to 8, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Loam is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
SiltyPrefers this soilSilty suits Salad burnet as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6.5 to 8, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
Peaty and acidWorks, with one conditionSalad burnet will crop on peaty and acid, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. A plant that stays in the ground through winter with its roots in cold, saturated soil rots — which is what kills most of what fails on heavy ground, rather than the cold.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.
Shallow over rockPrefers this soilShallow over rock suits Salad burnet as it stands: The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Loam is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. It stands dry conditions better than most, which this soil will test.
Made ground and urban soilWorks, with one conditionSalad burnet will crop on made ground and urban soil, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. A plant that stays in the ground through winter with its roots in cold, saturated soil rots — which is what kills most of what fails on heavy ground, rather than the cold.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.

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

Space and spacing

Mature height
30–45 cm
Mature spread
30–45 cm
Rooting depth
30 cm
Spacing
30–40 cm apart
Where these figures come from
Mature heightHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Mature spreadHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Rooting depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

SpacingSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — spacing

Checked 2026-08-13

How far apart to plant salad burnetThree salad burnet plants drawn in a row at their recorded spacing of 30–40 cm between plants. The spacing is drawn to scale against a one metre rule; the plants themselves are symbols rather than scale drawings, so the distance between them is the part to read.30–40 cmone metre
Measured centre to centre. Plants set closer than this compete for light and water long before they look crowded, and the crowding cannot be undone once they are in.

In a container

Minimum volume
7 litres or more
Minimum depth
25 cm
Where the container figures come from
Minimum volumeHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Minimum depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Grows happily in a container and earns its place there by being evergreen — a pot by the door gives cucumber-flavoured leaves in January when nothing else in the herb bed is worth picking.

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.

MethodSuitabilityWhat it needs
Open groundWell suited
source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability

Checked 2026-08-13

Traditional dug bedWell suited
source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability

Checked 2026-08-13

Raised bedWell suited
source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability

Checked 2026-08-13

ContainerWell suited
source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability

Checked 2026-08-13

7 litres
GreenhouseWorkable
source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability

Checked 2026-08-13

PolytunnelWorkable
source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability

Checked 2026-08-13

HydroponicsWorkable
source

GrowingHQ editorial positionmoderate confidence

Perfectly workable and rarely worth a channel: it is evergreen and hardy outdoors, so a system is supplying something the plant already has.

  • GrowingHQ editorial synthesis — GrowingHQ

Checked 2026-08-13

WindowsillWorkable
source

Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Growing herbs and salads indoors

Checked 2026-08-13

Growing it

  • PruningCut the whole plant back to the crown in early spring and remove the flower stems as they appear. Both produce a fresh flush of the tender young leaves that are the only ones worth eating — older foliage is tough and tastes of very little.
  • PropagationDivide an established clump in spring, or let it self-seed — it does so mildly rather than aggressively. Seed sown fresh in autumn germinates far better than a stored packet in spring.
  • WateringAlmost none. Salad burnet is a chalk-downland plant with a deep taproot and it will sit out a drought that flattens everything around it. Water a new plant in its first season and then forget it. In a pot, water thoroughly but infrequently — it dislikes a permanently moist root run more than it dislikes going dry.
  • FeedingNo feeding. It thrives on thin alkaline soil that would starve most crops, and richer ground simply makes a coarser plant with larger, blander leaves. This is a herb that repays being ignored.
  • HarvestingPick the young inner leaves and leave the old outer ones — this is the whole trick with salad burnet, because mature leaves turn tough and bitter while the young ones taste distinctly of cucumber. It is evergreen, so there is something to pick in every month, and winter leaves from a plant cut back in autumn are among the best.
  • SowingSow direct in spring or early autumn where the plants are to grow, thinning to about 30 cm; the taproot means it transplants badly once past the seedling stage. It germinates readily and self-seeds freely afterwards, so one sowing is usually the only one needed.
Where this guidance comes from
PruningSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — care

Checked 2026-08-13

PropagationSourced guidancemoderate confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — propagation

Checked 2026-08-13

WateringSourced guidancehigh confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — cultivation

Checked 2026-08-13

FeedingSourced guidancehigh confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — cultivation

Checked 2026-08-13

HarvestingSourced guidancehigh confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — harvesting

Checked 2026-08-13

SowingSourced guidancehigh confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — sowing

Checked 2026-08-13

Where to make a pruning cutFour stems compared. The first is cut cleanly on a slope about five millimetres above an outward-facing bud, sloping away from it, and is labelled correct. The second is cut too far above the bud, leaving a long stub that dies back. The third is cut too close, into the bud itself, which loses the shoot. The fourth is cut sloping towards the bud so rain runs onto it rather than away, which rots it. In every case the bud points outwards, away from the centre of the plant.Correct5 mm, sloping awayToo highstub dies backToo closebud lostSloping inrain sits on the bud
The bud you cut to becomes the new shoot, and it grows in the direction it points — which is why an outward-facing bud opens the plant up and an inward-facing one crosses the middle.
Four ways to make more plantsFour propagation operations compared, each showing where the separation is made and what must be present on both sides of it. Division: a clump cut between crowns, with roots and at least one growing point on every piece. Stem cutting: a shoot cut just below a leaf node, because the node is where roots form, with the lower leaves removed. Runner: a plantlet already rooting where it touches the ground, severed from the parent only after its own roots have taken. Offset: a young shoot at the base of the parent, separated with its own roots attached. In each case the cut is marked and the part that must be retained is labelled.Divisioncut between crownsroots on every piececut below a nodeStem cuttingroots form at the nodestrip the lower leavesRunnerlet it root firstthen sever the linkOffseta shoot at the basetake its roots with it
The rule is the same in all four: the new piece needs both a growing point and roots of its own. A cutting is the exception that has to make its roots afterwards, which is why the node matters so much.

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.

On a windowsill

Spring to autumn
source

GrowingHQ editorial positionmoderate confidence

How long the crop is actually productive on an ordinary British windowsill without added light.

  • GrowingHQ editorial synthesis — GrowingHQ

Checked 2026-08-13

 Productive from roughly March to October and not after. Growth stops when the light does, and a plant pushed through the dark months usually does not recover. Light. Evergreen and hardy outdoors, so the sill is a convenience rather than a necessity; it holds through winter indoors but makes almost no new growth to cut.

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.

Works with conditions

Succeeds when the conditions listed here are met and fails when they are not. The conditions are the answer, not a caveat.

source

GrowingHQ editorial positionmoderate confidence

Perfectly workable and rarely worth a channel: it is evergreen and hardy outdoors, so a system is supplying something the plant already has.

  • GrowingHQ editorial synthesis — GrowingHQ

Checked 2026-08-13

It stays green through a British winter outdoors, which is the whole reason people grow it.

Techniques that suit it

  • Ebb and flowA bed of inert medium floods and drains on a timer. The medium holds moisture between floods, which makes it far more tolerant of interruption than NFT.
  • Drip-fed mediumSolution is dripped into an inert medium around each plant. The most forgiving technique and the one that suits large, long-season, heavy crops.
source

Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Root space
Moderate; it makes a taproot.
Lighting
Needs supplementary light
pH band
5.5–6.5
Where these figures come from
Root spaceHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

LightingHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

pH bandSourced guidancehigh confidence

Outside roughly this band, individual nutrients become unavailable even when they are present in the solution — which is why a crop can starve in a full reservoir.

  • Purdue Extension — Purdue University: Hydroponic solution management — pH

Checked 2026-08-13

No nutrient recipes here

GrowingHQ records pH bands, which are measurable properties of nutrient availability, and deliberately records no EC or PPM targets and no mixing instructions. Published targets vary by cultivar, growth stage, water source and technique, and the figures that apply to your system are on the product you bought.

Harvesting

  • When it is readyThe young inner leaves are the crop and the old outer ones are not: young growth tastes clearly of cucumber, mature leaves are tough and bitter. Because it is evergreen there is something worth picking in every month, and leaves from a plant sheared over in autumn are among the best of the year.
  • How to pick itPick young leaflets from the centre of the rosette. Use fresh in salads and drinks; it neither dries nor cooks well.
Where the harvest guidance comes from
When it is readySourced guidancehigh confidence
  • Royal Horticultural Society: Salad burnet — harvesting

Checked 2026-08-13

How to pick itHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

What goes wrong

ProblemHow oftenNotes
Slugs and snailsuncommon
source

Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Sources for this page

GrowingHQ editorial synthesis · Plant Finder · Royal Horticultural Society

Each figure on this page carries its own citation, under the “where these figures come from” note in its section. Record last reviewed 2026-08-15.