Vietnamese coriander

Persicaria odorata

This Southeast Asian native is often used as a coriander substitute in Vietnamese cuisine. It adds a lemony coriander flavor to fresh salads, summer rolls, soups, and salads. In Zones 10 and 11, it can be grown outdoors in a moist, semi-shaded location as a perennial. Elsewhere, grow it as an annual or in a container to bring indoors over winter. The silvery leaves often develop a maroon blotch that makes the plant quite ornamental.

Light: Part sun, Shade

Type: Herb

Height: 6 to 12 inches

Width: 6-10 inches wide

Zones: 10-11

Tips for Growing Vietnamese Herbs

Every spring I plant a number of Vietnamese herbs in my home garden. Purple and green leaf tia to (red perilla) and lemongrass-y kinh gioi (Vietnamese balm) are my favorites. I feed and nurture my perennial rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) so that it will flourish when the summer heat hits.

Tia to and kinh gioi often get buggy when I plant them together so over the years I’ve learned to space them far apart. Tia to goes into a whiskey barrel and kinh gioi is planted in the ground outside my front door. Every morning, I look at the kinh gioi plant to make sure that it’s doing well. This morning, I had a feeling that our local gopher was going to attack the plant. Last year, the gopher ate the plant and I thought it was because it had been mistaken for a volunteer potato plant nearby, which the gopher ate too. I cleared the area this year of the potato but low and behold, there was a scrawny plant that popped up. “What is that thing next to the kinh gioi?” my hubby, Rory, asked yesterday.  I saw the potato plant but didn’t yank it. This afternoon, Rory awoke from his nap and something looked different outside the living room window. That darn gopher ate both the potato and kinh gioi! The lesson here? Yank the potato and/or plant the herb in a pot! All that’s left now is some roughed up soil.

Guess I’ll be heading back to the Thien Thanh grocery store in San Jose for another plant. If you’re looking for Viet herbs to plant, head to a Vietnamese market and ask. You may even find vendors selling starters right outside the door!

Gardening Tips

To keep pests away from my Vietnamese herbs, I sprinkle Sluggo — small white pellets made of natural stuff that won’t harm your pets but will keep pesky snails at bay. For bugs that like to gnaw on the heady leaves, I regularly spray the plants with Safer, a safe (get the name?!) insecticidal soap. To nurture the plants, I feed them with Dr. Earth, a fabulous dry fertilizer.  Of course, regular watering helps all of these plants.

Harvesting Vietnamese herbs

Pinch them back to get the plants nice and bushy. When harvesting, snip a good sprig so that the plant will bush out instead of get tall and leggy — which won’t yield many leaves. As the plants begin to flower, snip off the flowers to encourage the plants to put energy towards producing leaves, not flowers.