Culinary French tarragon has sterile flowers and sets no viable seed, so it is grown only from division, cuttings, or a bought started plant - never from a seed packet. Seed sold as "tarragon" is Russian tarragon, a taller, coarser plant whose flavour is far inferior. Sow that seed and you get the near-flavourless plant, not the culinary herb.
Promising · suboptimal if ignored → advise
How it works
French tarragon's flowers are sterile and it seldom sets viable seed, so the only way to keep the true culinary plant is to propagate it vegetatively - by division or cuttings from an existing plant. The "tarragon" seed on the market is a different, seed-fertile type, Russian tarragon, which lacks the odour and flavour that make French tarragon worth growing.
What to do about it
Buy a started French tarragon plant, or propagate by division or cuttings taken from a known French tarragon plant. Do not sow a seed packet labelled "tarragon" expecting the culinary French herb.
How much it matters: No figure is stated or invented. Sowing seed does not kill anything; it simply yields Russian tarragon, a coarse and near-flavourless herb rather than the prized culinary one. Because the propagation method is entirely the gardener's choice, the rule advises rather than warns.
The evidence
Evidence: confirmed against 2 sources in the research-based literature.
the 2 sources
Univ. of Illinois Extension, 'Tarragon: French', extension.illinois.edu/herbs/tarragon-french (read 2026-08-22): 'True French tarragon is only available as plants grown from cuttings or root divisions'; 'Because French tarragon produces flowers that are sterile, it cannot be grown from seeds'; 'Seeds that are sold as tarragon at seed racks or in catalogs are seeds of Russian tarragon'; 'This is a much taller, coarser plant and its culinary use is considered to be inferior because it lacks the odor and flavor characteristics of French tarragon.'
Utah State Univ. Extension, 'How to Grow French Tarragon in Your Garden', extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/french-tarragon-in-the-garden (read 2026-08-22): 'French tarragon should be propagated through cuttings or root divisions from an existing plant. It does not produce viable seed, and growing from seed typically results in the less flavorful Russian tarragon'; 'Russian tarragon, while not classified as being a different species, has flavor vastly inferior to French tarragon.'
Where this rule stops
A STANDING CULTURAL ADVISORY (trigger.kind always, gated to artemisia_dracunculus by applies_to). It surfaces on the tarragon species page and can be cited by the herb and propagation guides; it gates nothing and docks no score. The corpus species is the culinary FRENCH tarragon; this rule separates it from the seed-grown Russian type sold under the same common name. The rule deliberately does not settle whether Russian tarragon is a separate species or a variety - the read sources disagree on that taxonomy - because the claim rests on the sterile-seed and flavour distinction, which both sources share.
Plants this fires on
Change history
Every change to this rule is one commit. This is what the project's version history records — the date and the reason — not a summary of it.
- French tarragon is grown from division, not seed
Cite this page
Milpa Gardens. "Culinary French tarragon has sterile flowers and sets no viable seed, so it is grown only from division, cuttings, or a bought started plant - never from a seed packet. Seed sold as "tarragon" is Russian tarragon, a taller, coarser plant whose flavour is far inferior. Sow that seed and you get the near-flavourless plant, not the culinary herb." Evidence grade: Promising. https://milpa.garden/rules/culinary-french-tarragon-has-sterile-flowers-sets/
A garden-planning corpus: every claim states its evidence grade and links its sources on the page. Cite it with the grade, and add the date you read it.