On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:18:01 -0400, "Davlo" wrote:

I'm new to the newsgroup and I'm hoping to find some advice about my
cilantro. I have a good looking plant going in my garden in afternoon sun,
but the leaves are wispy and thin, not full and hearty like cilantro I buy
at the supermarket. Am I supposed to pinch off the little flowers that form
(which is what I've been doing)? How can I get those full leaves growing?

You need to re-seed every few weeks, or try to keep the plant cool,
which is what keeps big leaves.

Cilantro has become a 'welcome weed' around my area. The seeds that
fell survived an extremely harsh winter and came back in the
springtime. I would keep the flowers and let the plant re-seed and
eventually naturalize to your own soil conditions.

The flowers also attract beneficial aphid-eating insects such as
hover-flys (although it's hilarious seeing a bumblebee land on the
flowers...he practically bends a 2 ft tall plant halfway to the ground
lol )

Dan