Basil 'Cinnamon'

Ocimum basilicum

How to grow Basil 'Cinnamon'

  • Full Sun

  • Medium

  • Pinch terminal shoots to encourage branching.
  • Harvest leaves before flowering occurs, or they will be bitter.
  • Soils needs to be kept moist at all times when kept indoors. Doesn’t handle drought at all.
Cinnamon likes a position of full sun and remember to water moderately. Keep in mind when planting that Cinnamon is thought of as half hardy, so it will need cloching or fleece protection when the temperature dips. Cinnamon needs a loamy, sandy and silty soil with a ph of 6.0 to 7.5 (weakly acidic soil to weakly alkaline soil).

Growing Cinnamon from seed

Cover with finely sieved compost.

Look to ensure a distance 0.5 inches (1.27 cm) between seeds when sowing - bury at a depth of at least 0.12 inches (0.3 cm) deep. Soil temperature should be kept higher than 10°C / 50°F to ensure good germination.

By our calculations, you should look at sowing Cinnamon about 20 days before your last frost date.

Transplanting Cinnamon

  • Plant out when frost risk has passed.
  • Will tolerate partial sun.
  • For square-foot gardening, plant 4 per square if you plan to harvest continually, or 1 per square if letting the plant grow to maturity
Ensure that temperatures are mild and all chance of frost has passed before planting out, as Cinnamon is a half hardy plant.

By our calculations, you should look at planting out Cinnamon about 21 days after your last frost date.

Harvesting Cinnamon

Pinch off flowers regularly to improve leaf flavour and encourage bushy growth.

This variety tends to be ready for harvesting by mid summer.

Basil Cinnamon Etymology

The word basil means “king” in Greek – it is believed to have grown above the spot where St. Constantine and Helen discovered the Holy Cross.

Cinnamon folklore & trivia

Jewish folklore says that basil adds strength while fasting.

Misspellings of Basil 'Cinnamon'

Cinamon basil, Cinamin basil

Other Names for Basil 'Cinnamon'

Vietnamese basil, Saigon basil, húng quế