Growing Tarragon (French): A Complete Profile

By Growing Home Greens Team · July 29, 2026

True French tarragon is prized for its anise-like flavor, and it comes with a specific catch worth knowing before you buy: French tarragon is sterile and cannot be grown from seed at all. Anything sold as tarragon seed is the milder, less flavorful Russian tarragon instead.

Which type to plant

French tarragon and Russian tarragon are grown and sold under the same common name, but they’re different plants with a different point. French tarragon has smoother, darker, glossier leaves and the strong anise flavor that makes tarragon worth growing in the first place. Russian tarragon is taller and coarser, tolerates poorer soil and colder winters, and sets viable seed, but Illinois Extension describes its flavor as bland by comparison, missing the odor and taste that define the herb. The two aren’t interchangeable substitutes for each other; one is a kitchen herb and the other is closer to a hardy filler plant that happens to share a name. Since French tarragon can’t be grown from seed at all, the only way to end up with it is to buy a plant or division specifically labeled French tarragon.

Planting it

Because true French tarragon is sterile, it’s always propagated from a cutting or a root division of an existing plant, never from seed. Set it out about a week after your last frost, and expect about 65 days to a usable harvest.

What goes wrong

The most common disappointment is a bland-tasting plant that turns out to have been grown from seed. That’s Russian tarragon, not French, and no amount of good growing technique will give it French tarragon’s flavor. Confirm the specific plant or division you’re buying is labeled French tarragon before planting if flavor is the goal. French tarragon also won’t tolerate poorly drained soil, especially over winter, and established plants benefit from dividing every 3 to 4 years to stay productive.

A perennial corner, not a rotation crop

Tarragon isn’t linked to specific companions or antagonists in our data. See the full companion guide for tarragon for how it’s tracked. As a compact perennial herb, it fits easily into a spare square in the Garden Designer alongside other kitchen herbs.

Sources: Tarragon: French, Illinois Extension.

Companion planting guide for Tarragon (French) · Find your planting dates

Typically viable in USDA zones 3-10. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.

Method: Buy as a start: Buy as a nursery start and transplant outside. Tarragon (French) is slow or unreliable from seed, so most gardeners skip seed-starting it entirely.

See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →

How many Tarragon (French) plants fit per square foot?

Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 1.5-2.5 ft.

Varieties worth considering

• French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus, sold as French or 'Sativa'), never seed: Every seed packet labeled tarragon is Russian tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus var. dracunculoides), a taller, coarser, hardier plant that lacks the anise flavor people grow tarragon for. French tarragon is sterile, produces no viable seed, and only comes as a cutting or division. If it germinated from a seed packet, it's the wrong plant no matter how well it grows. (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 tarragon starts

Tarragon (French) is almost always bought as a nursery start rather than seeded. Check a local nursery or garden center; we haven't vetted online start/plant suppliers yet.

See it growing

Search YouTube for "growing tarragon (french)" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)

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Growing Tarragon (French): The good kind (French tarragon) can't be grown from seed at all. If it's sold as seed, it isn't the real thing.

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