Growing Anise: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Anise is a licorice-flavored seed herb that needs a long season, at least 130 days, to mature its seed, so it’s worth planting as early as the last frost allows rather than waiting.
Fresh seed matters
Direct-seed only, sown in early spring 1 to 2 seeds per inch, a quarter inch deep. Use fresh seed if possible; anise seed loses viability quickly, dropping off noticeably after about two years in storage, unlike many herb seeds that hold up longer on the shelf. Germination takes 6 to 14 days at 70°F. Once seedlings reach 3 inches tall, thin to 6 inches apart.
Staking helps
Plants reach about 24 inches tall and can lodge, or fall over, especially in wind. Staking is worth doing rather than leaving the stand unsupported through a windy or rainy stretch.
Harvest
Harvest as soon as the fruit tips turn gray, before they turn black; waiting too long past that point loses seed quality.
Anise has no well-established companion pairings, and nothing it needs to be kept away from. At 4 plants per square foot, it needs a full season and an early planting slot in the Garden Designer to reliably mature its seed before frost.
Source: Anise: Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Anise · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 1.5-2 ft
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
When to plant anise, by zone
Every zone anise grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2a & 2b | Not usually | May 20–May 27 | Sep 27–Oct 4 |
| 3a & 3b | Not usually | May 30–Jun 6 | Oct 7–Oct 14 |
| 4a & 4b | Not usually | May 15–May 22 | Sep 22–Sep 29 |
| 5a & 5b | Not usually | May 10–May 17 | Sep 17–Sep 24 |
| 6a & 6b | Not usually | Apr 25–May 2 | Sep 2–Sep 9 |
| 7a & 7b | Not usually | Apr 10–Apr 17 | Aug 18–Aug 25 |
| 8a & 8b | Not usually | Mar 25–Apr 1 | Aug 2–Aug 9 |
| 9a & 9b | Not usually | Feb 15–Feb 22 | Jun 25–Jul 2 |
| 10a & 10b | Not usually | Jan 30–Feb 6 | Jun 9–Jun 16 |
| 11a & 11b | Not usually | Jan 1–Jan 8 | May 11–May 18 |
Harvest dates are about 130 days after the sow or plant-out date.
Zone 2 sows before zone 3 here, which looks wrong and is not. USDA zones rank winter cold, not season length, and zone 2 is mostly interior Alaska, where hard winters come with warm summers. More on what a zone measures.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Anise plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 1.5-2 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Straight-species anise (Pimpinella anisum): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this species plain, without competing named cultivars; it's a spice crop grown for its seed, not a plant with meaningful flavor variation between selections. (source)
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy anise seeds
True Leaf Market (each supplier's anise seeds)
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing anise" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Anise: A licorice-flavored seed herb that needs a long season, at least 130 days, to mature its seed, so plant it as early as the last frost allows.
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