In article ,
Omelet wrote:

In article .com,
" wrote:

i am totally new to gardening so bear with me please. i have a small
basil plant (about 20 inches high) in a 8 inch pot outside. i am in san
diego. the recent freezing temperatures that killed 3/4 of the oranges
in the state appears to have killed my basil plant. all the leaves
turned dark brown/black and drooped. i have put it outside in the sun
and left it inside during the cold but it hasnt changed, in fact it
looks worse.

is my plant dead forever? or is it hibernating or something? do plants
survive being frozen and then come back to life at some point?

the stems are woody, if that means anything

Basil is an annual...

That means it has to be replanted annually (yearly).

Sorry. :-)

Perrenials are plants that come back every year.

Basil is not one of them.

I wish it was. sigh

You're right about basil being an annual, and yet I've lived in
California and Hawaii, and in both places been able to keep plants
growing for years. One Hawaii neighbor had a 14-year-old hedge of purple
basil, and kept it trimmed down to around 5 feet (by 20 feet wide). He
said it started out as a store-bought 4-inch container. Basil plants
would likely live indefinitely in a greenhouse environment, too. As they
age, the leaves are not nearly as tasty and the plants don't yield as
much; but the baby leaves are still delicious, and there's so much more
plant to pick from.