Good information, Cinda and Arlene. (Gosh, it is so nice to be able to call people by their "real" names.
)
I grow all of those herbs as well as garlic chives and Italian chives. These both are perennials. In temperatures above the mid-20's, they might not die back, but below that, mine all die back. They are both just beginning to grow again.
As you both pointed out, cilantro does best in mild temperatures and mine don't do well at all when it gets into the 90's. I have a huge rosemary in the landscape and several others in pots. My wife uses rosemary all the time in cooking and marinades. I don't even remember where the huge rosemary came from, but all the potted ones were simply cuttings from that "mother" plant. I think the mother plant was probably a cutting taken from a plant I had at another house. If so, this plant would be about 5 years old. It is 7' tall and at least 5' wide now. We use the heck out of all our herbs/chives. If we have baked potatoes or potato soup, fresh-cut Italian chives will be used. The garlic chive is great for soups and salads.
Another great plant to grow (in full sun) is heirloom, gourmet garlic. That would be planted in the fall though and then dug up in late May/early June. If you have never had fresh, heirloom, gourmet garlic, it will knock your socks off. Store-bought garlic used to all come from central CA but now most of it comes from China :tongue_smilie:. Garlic is actually "rated" by experts on flavor and pungency (heat). The typical store-bought garlic (I don't even know what the variety is coming out of China) is rated at a 3/2 and heirloom, gourmet garlic is rated at anywhere from 5/5 to 8/8. I have never seen a garlic rated at a 9 or 10, but it may exist.
