You get pollen and seeds for seasoning, a ferny looking plant that uses very little water and comes in bronze, a potential food plant for anise swallowtail butterflies and a year-round home for aphids – all in one plant. We use bronze fennel because it’s much more ornamental than the green stuff.
Why would you want a permanent aphid colony? To keep predators around, of course! As long as you have a food source and aren’t applying insecticides, you’ll probably have aphids, syrphid flies, soldier beetles, lacewings, tiny wasps… So when aphids decide to move to your ornamental plants, an army of predators will be there ready to deal with them, keeping infestations short.
Not all predators are insects. These guys are bushtits, who find aphids delicious. They move in small flocks from bush to bush, scouring the plants for insects. With all its bugs, fennel is a perennial favorite for the hungry birds (if you look closely at some of the images, you can see aphids stuck to the bird’s beak).
Fennel pollen is an expensive spice, easy to harvest in spring with a few taps on the flower heads and a clean bowl. The seeds are good for seasoning, too. All have a licorice flavor that complements fish, chicken and lamb. If you’re using bronze fennel, it doesn’t form nice fennel bulbs for cooking – that’s another variety.
As long as you’re in an urban area where your plants can’t spread, having some fennel around is a good thing for your garden. Odds are, even if you’re not in an urban area there are some feral fennel plants running amok nearby. There are stands of fennel in the American River Parkway, thick masses lining highway 37… still, if you’re in a Mediterranean climate next to a fennel-free natural area, best not to plant it in your garden.
