
Chenopodium bonus-henricus
Chenopodiaceae
Chenopodium bonus-henricus, Good King Henry
Family: Chenopodiaceae
Genus: Chenopodium
Tiny greenish yellow flowers. Mid-green large goose foot shaped leaves. Culinary; steam flower spikes, use young leaves raw in salads, cook mature leaves and use in casseroles, stuffings and soups.
• Hardiness: H5 (-10 to -15C)
• Type: Herbaceous Perennial
• Height: 60cm
• Spread: 45cm
Can be seen in Jekka's Herbetum and available as both herb plants and herb seeds.
• Soil type: Fertile Loam
• pH: Universal pH
• Habit: Clump
• Flowering colour: Green, Yellow
• Flowering time: Summer
• Uses: Culinary & Medicinal
• Attracts pollinators: No
• Container suitability: Yes
• UK native: No
• Caution: N/A
• Indoor Sowing: In early spring, into prepared plug trays or pots, cover seeds with perlite.
• Outdoor Sowing: In late spring, into a prepared site where the soil is rich, moist and sunny. Thin seedlings to 25cm apart.
• Propagation: Division
• Maintenance: N/A
• Harvest: N/A
For information on growing herbs from seeds please see Jekka's blogs on sowing seeds, sowing your winter culinary herbs or how to grow vegetables.
Jekka's "How to Grow Herbs" videos, includes Jekka's video on how to sow seeds for an informative step-by-step guide to seed sowing.
Growing indoors? Check out Jekka's blog on indoor herb gardening for some advice.
If you require pots or compost, see Jekka's Herb Kits that includes Jekka's Seed Sowing Kit. This kit contains all you need to sow a collection of herb seeds.
For more information on growing herbs plants please see Jekkapedia, Jekka's blog or our FAQs page.
Happy Herbs!
At Jekka’s we sell herbs in 1 Ltr and 2 Ltr pots. These are established and hardy herb plants that are grown following organic principals and to survive the UK climate. Please read Jekka's blog that contains her top steps to growing on your herbs.
There is also ‘Jekka’s Seasonal Tips’ series that covers growing and maintaining herbs in early spring, late spring, summer and autumn & winter. Together they form Jekka’s guide on how to grow herbs.
Our herbs are designed to be grown in containers or planted in the garden. Although some herbs will be quite happy indoors, most prefer being outside. Please see our indoor growing blog for more information.
If you require pots or compost, we have developed Jekka's Herb Kits, which includes Jekka's "Grow On" Kit. These kits contain all you need to grow on your herbs.
If you think your herbs need a little more attention we always recommend an environmentally friendly solution, and these are Jekka's top three:
- Maxicrop liquid seaweed: 'Feed on Fridays' as Jekka always says for all round good plant health.
- SB Invigorator: a safe and effective insecticide and fungicide to help control a wide range of pest species
- Epsom salts: the horticultural equivalent of what you put in your bath to top up magnesium and stop orange leaves.
Please note, the compost in Jekka's Kits will have enough natural food for approximately 6 weeks.
For more information on growing herbs plants please see Jekkapedia, Jekka's blog or our FAQs page.
Happy Herbs!
One of our three core roots is that we are Environmentally Conscious and for the past 30 years all the herbs grown at Jekka’s have been raised following sustainable, environmentally friendly and organic approaches resulting in a remarkable biodiversity at the herb farm.
Our herb seeds are also untreated and can be used to grow organic herb plants.
You can read more about our sustainability approach to growing herbs in one of Jekka's Blogs or in Jekka's Guide to Climate Change.