Growing Rue: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Rue is a blue-gray, woody-based perennial with a long history as a medicinal herb, though it’s grown today mostly for its striking foliage color and as a larval host for swallowtail butterflies rather than for the kitchen. The leaves are toxic in any real quantity and can irritate skin in sunlight, so it’s a plant to handle with gloves, not eat.
Starting it
Start seed indoors about 7 weeks before your last frost, sown 1/4 to 3/8 inch deep and kept at 60-70°F, then transplant outdoors once seedlings are several inches tall. Direct-seeding works too, sown at the same depth, 6 to 12 seeds per foot in rows 18 inches apart, then thinned to final spacing. Germination takes 10 to 14 days. Space plants 12 to 24 inches apart, tighter in northern zones and wider in southern ones; mature plants reach 24 to 36 inches tall.
A caution worth taking seriously
Rue’s sap can cause phytophotodermatitis, a skin reaction that shows up after contact combined with sun exposure, similar to the reaction some people get from citrus peel or parsnip tops. Wear gloves when handling it, especially when pruning or harvesting on a sunny day, and never consume it without professional guidance; it’s toxic in quantity and historically used to induce miscarriage, which makes it a plant to keep away from anyone who might be pregnant.
Grown for looks, not the table
Prune annually in early spring to keep growth compact, and harvest, if at all, before the plant flowers. It self-sows readily once established and can also be propagated by stem cuttings or root division in spring.
Rue has no recorded companions or antagonists in our data. See the full companion guide for rue for how it’s tracked. As a long-lived perennial with striking blue-gray foliage, it works well as a structural accent in the Garden Designer, sited somewhere out of reach of pets, kids, or anyone likely to brush against it in shorts.
Source: Rue: Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Rue · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 4-9. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. Rue needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Rue plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2-3 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Straight-species rue (Ruta graveolens): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells it as the plain species; there's no real named-cultivar market beyond it and the occasional blue-leaved 'Jackman's Blue' selection sold by specialty nurseries as an ornamental. The species itself is what most gardens grow. (source)
Cited from the source shown next to each variety. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement.
Where to buy rue seeds
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links on this page also go to other retailers we may earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a genuine consensus of positive, independent reviews. See the sources cited on each item.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing rue" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Rue: A blue-gray, historically medicinal perennial grown for its looks and history more than any kitchen use, with a genuine caution: handle it with gloves and never eat it without professional guidance.
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