Here’s a short and simple tip for you: when cilantro is ready to bolt, let it. Cilantro is a cool season herb that thrives in fall and spring. Cilantro may be the herb of choice for my spicy shrimp taco at my favorite Tex-Mex place, but the plant can’t handle the heat and humidity of Atlanta summers.
When temperatures reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit, you can count on cilantro to send up its flower stalk and stop producing leaves. But instead of pulling out the plants, let them be. A border of flowering cilantro provides nectar and pollen for a host of pollinators, including ladybugs, lacewings, minute pirate bugs, parasitic wasps, syrphid flies, soldier beetle, and tachinid flies. (According to Penn State Extension).
I think it looks pretty draping over the edge of my keyhole garden.
And here’s a bonus: save the seeds from the cilantro flowers, let them dry, label and store them. Plant the seeds when the weather cools for a new crop of cilantro.
Cilantro is one of those genius plants that once you’re tuned into its life cycle, you’ll never have to buy seeds or (heaven forbid) seedlings ever again.
Sow cilantro seeds and in 45 to 70 days, depending on the variety and your conditions, you can harvest leaves for your black beans (and tacos and banh mis).
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