That Devilish Parsley

Oh, parsley. Why must you come with so much baggage? This seemingly innocuous herb is the subject of many a folklore warning of its dark and evil ways.

The ancient Greeks associated parsley with death, as the herb was spread over graves and used to make funeral wreaths. This gave rise to the phrase “He has need now of nothing but a little parsley,” referring to a person that had just died or was about to die. After death, their corpses were then garnished with parsley to help deodorize the stench. In Greek mythology, it was believed that the first parsley grew from the blood of Archemorus, son of Death, when he was devoured by serpents. Grieving over their loss, the Greeks founded the Nemean Games in his honor and presented the victors with crowns woven from parsley.

The Brits were no more optimistic. In the United Kingdom, it was considered bad luck to transplant parsley because it would offend the mythical guardian of the plants. And don’t even think about giving away a root of the herb, because that, too, will bring bad luck (I wonder if you could circumvent this by selling it instead?). If you dared to cut parsley, you would seal your fate in being crossed in love… but since only witches can germinate the seeds, perhaps love is fruitless anyway.

From what I can gather, these are the age-old tricks to growing parsley:

First, parsley grows best in a household where the woman wears the pants. (But if she’s a virgin, sowing parsley seeds would doom her to carrying the seeds of Satan’s child.)

Second, parsley grows best when seeds are sown on the only day that the immortal soul of the gardener is not put at risk — Good Friday — the day the devil has no jurisdiction over the soil.

And finally, parsley has to travel to hell and back seven times before it will sprout. Some sources actually say nine times, so to be safe, you should sow nine times as many seeds as you need, since the devil keeps the rest for himself.

This is all sounding like a lot more work than I want to do.

Parsley is notorious for germinating verrrrry slooooowly, or sometimes not germinating at all. And I can attest to that.

I started with Parsley Giant of Italy seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. With 400 seeds in the packet, I figured it was worth a try… even if I only got one plant out of it. I soaked a handful of seeds in warm water overnight. Supposedly this helps remove the protective coating on the seed that inhibits germination.

I filled a large terra cotta pot with organic potting mix, sowed a few seeds, then put the pot in a sunny spot outdoors. A few days passed… a week… then a few weeks… until I realized my parsley had permanently bunked up with the devil and there was no chance of germination after week five.

I debated cheating and buying a ready-to-wear parsley plant at the nursery.

I remembered that I still have 380 seeds left.

I decided to give it another go.

With new motivation, I started the seeds indoors on a south-facing windowsill, where I could better control the moisture and temperature. I scattered a few pre-soaked seeds into a six-pack, sprayed the soil with water to get them all nice and settled in, and waited. I even went out of town for a week, leaving them in the care of a friend who was instructed to simply spritz some water on the soil every other day.

After 10 days, I came back to a tray full of perky, healthy seedlings! Almost every seed had germinated and while I don’t quite understand it, I’m not questioning it. I’m just happy to have parsley without all the baggage.