This is such a commonly cultivated culinary herb that any plant you see may well have been planted sometime in the past and this one was a very old specimen. It is an introduced species from the Mediterranean and Stace claims it is not fully frost hardy. Of course we get fewer and fewer hard frosts and for shorter and shorter times so perhaps it isn't so surprising that this plant is seen surviving and flowering in very early Spring more often than it used to be.

Most of the naturalised plants are seen in the South of England with only a few in the north and North Wales and it is rarely seen in Scotland or Ireland.

Llandulas, North Wales 16th April 2007

Added on 16th April 2007