How to Grow Coriander at Home in the UK

Coriander is one of the most useful herbs you can grow, and one of the most misunderstood. The leaves go into curries, salsas, dals and noodle soups; the dried seed is a warm, citrusy spice in its own right. The catch is that coriander has a reputation for racing to flower and abandoning its leaves just when you want them — but that reputation comes down to a handful of fixable mistakes. Get those right and a windowsill pot or a short row in the ground will keep you in fresh leaf all summer.

This guide covers everything a beginner needs: how to stop coriander bolting, which varieties to grow, where and how to sow it, how to keep it cropping, and how to harvest both the leaf and the seed. If you are new to growing herbs altogether, it sits comfortably alongside the other forgiving crops in our easiest crops for beginners guide.

Why grow coriander

Coriander earns its place in any kitchen garden because it does two jobs from one packet of seed. Sow it for the leaf — the soft, aromatic foliage sold in shops as "cilantro" — and you have a herb that wilts within hours of being cut, which is exactly why shop-bought bunches are never as good as a handful picked from your own pot. Fresh coriander, snipped straight onto a dish, tastes brighter and greener than anything you can buy.

Let some of the same plants carry on growing and they flower and set seed, and that seed is the spice. Coriander seed is the warm, slightly orangey note in curry powders, pickling spice and countless spice blends. Few herbs give you both a fresh leaf and a store-cupboard spice from a single sowing, which makes coriander unusually good value for the space it takes.

It is also genuinely quick. From sowing to your first leaf harvest is often only four to six weeks, so it rewards beginners fast. It needs no special kit, crops happily in a pot, and the flowers — if you let it get that far — are a magnet for hoverflies and other helpful insects, which we will come back to. The only thing standing between you and a steady supply is understanding why it bolts.

The bolting problem, up front

If you only take one thing from this guide, take this: coriander bolts when it is stressed, and almost everything about growing it well is about keeping it unstressed. Bolting is when a plant suddenly stops making leaves and shoots up a flower stem instead. Once coriander bolts, the leaves turn feathery and bitter, growth diverts into the flower, and the plant is effectively finished as a leaf crop.

Three things trigger it more than anything else:

• Heat and long days. Coriander reads hot, bright, midsummer conditions as a cue to flower and set seed before the weather turns. A sudden warm spell is the classic trigger.
• Dry roots. Letting the compost dry out, even once, stresses the plant and pushes it towards flowering. Coriander is far more sensitive to this than most herbs.
• Root disturbance. Coriander has a long taproot and hates being moved. Transplanting a seedling — or buying a supermarket pot and potting it on — is often enough on its own to send it straight to flower.

The good news is that all three are within your control. The fixes run through the rest of this guide: choose bolt-resistant leaf varieties, sow direct so the roots are never disturbed, water consistently so they never dry out, give them a little afternoon shade in high summer, and — most importantly — sow little and often so you always have a young plant coming on behind the one that is starting to flower. That last habit, successional sowing, is what turns coriander from a frustrating one-shot crop into a reliable supply.

Choosing a variety

Coriander varieties fall into two camps, and which you pick depends on whether you mainly want leaf or seed. For most beginners, leaf is the priority, so start there.

Leaf (cilantro) varieties are bred to grow plenty of foliage and, crucially, to be slow to bolt. These are the ones to grow for a steady supply of leaves:

• Calypso — probably the best leaf variety for UK gardens. It is slow to bolt, regrows strongly after cutting, and behaves almost like a cut-and-come-again crop, giving several harvests from one sowing. If you grow only one, grow this.
• Cruiser — upright, vigorous and notably slow to run to seed, with good clean leaf. A reliable choice for both pots and the ground.
• Confetti — a feathery, fern-like leaf variety. Slower to bolt, milder in flavour, and pretty enough to use as a garnish.

Seed (and dual-purpose) varieties are grown more for the seed harvest, and tend to flower sooner. Leisure is a popular all-rounder that gives a decent leaf crop but will happily go on to flower and seed if you let it. The standard, unnamed "coriander" sold cheaply in seed packets is usually a seed-type that bolts quickly — fine if you want the spice, frustrating if you wanted leaf.

In practice, the simplest plan for a beginner is to grow a bolt-resistant leaf variety like Calypso for your foliage, and then simply let a few of those plants flower at the end of the season to give you seed as a bonus.

Where and how to sow

The single most important rule for sowing coriander is to sow it direct, where it is to grow, and never transplant it. Because of that long taproot, a coriander seedling that gets moved usually bolts within days. This applies whether you are sowing into the ground, a raised bed, or a pot — sow into the final position and leave it there.

Position

Coriander likes a spot in full sun in spring and autumn, but appreciates a little afternoon shade in the heat of summer, which slows bolting. A position that catches the morning sun but is shaded by midday in July and August is close to ideal. The soil or compost should be free-draining but able to hold moisture — coriander wants steady damp, not waterlogging and not drought. If your ground is poor or compacted, working in some garden compost first, or generally improving your soil with organic matter, gives the roots an easier run.

Sowing in the ground or a bed

From April to August, sow thinly into drills about 1cm deep, with rows roughly 20cm apart. Water the drill before sowing if the soil is dry, cover lightly, and keep the surface moist until the seedlings appear — germination usually takes 1–3 weeks. Thin the seedlings to about 5cm apart for leaf, removing the thinnings carefully (you can eat them). If you want a denser cut-and-come-again patch of leaf rather than individual plants, sow more thickly and skip the thinning.

Sowing in pots and containers

Coriander grows very well in containers, which also makes it easy to move into a little shade when a heatwave hits. Use a pot at least 20cm deep to give that taproot room, fill with multipurpose or peat-free compost, sow thinly across the surface, cover with about 1cm of compost and keep it consistently moist. A deep pot beats a shallow trough every time. The general principles in our guide to growing food in containers all apply here — drainage holes, decent compost, and regular watering.

Successional sowing — the key habit

Because every coriander plant eventually bolts, the trick to a continuous leaf supply is successional sowing: sowing a small batch every three to four weeks through the season, so a new crop is always coming on as the last one runs to seed. A short row or one pot each time is plenty. This single habit does more than anything else to give you coriander on tap from late spring to autumn — our guide to successional coriander sowing sets out a simple month-by-month rhythm, and you can plan your sowings around the UK planting calendar.

Caring for coriander

Coriander is low-maintenance once it is up, and the care all comes back to keeping it unstressed.

Watering is the big one. Keep the compost or soil evenly, consistently moist — never let it dry out, because a dry spell is one of the surest ways to trigger bolting. In hot weather, pots may need watering daily; check by pushing a finger into the compost. Water in the morning where you can, and aim to keep things steadily damp rather than swinging between bone-dry and soaked.

Don't move it. It bears repeating: do not transplant, pot on, or disturb the roots. If you bought a supermarket pot and want it to last, the kindest thing is usually to keep watering it where it is rather than repotting — though home-sown plants will always do better. For more on rescuing shop-bought herbs, see our notes on keeping supermarket herbs alive.

Feeding is rarely needed for a leaf crop grown in decent soil or fresh compost — coriander is fast and doesn't want to be pushed too hard. A pot that has been cropping for several weeks can take a weak liquid feed, but go gently.

Shade in a heatwave. When a genuinely hot spell arrives, move pots into afternoon shade, or shade ground-grown plants with a bit of fleece or a neighbouring taller crop. Cooler roots and a break from the midday sun visibly slow down bolting.

Harvesting the leaf

You can start picking leaves once plants are around 10–15cm tall, usually four to six weeks after sowing. Harvest by cutting the outer, older leaves and stems from the base, leaving the central growing point to carry on producing — this is the cut-and-come-again approach, and slow-bolting varieties like Calypso will regrow for several pickings. Avoid stripping a plant bare; take no more than about a third at once and it will keep going.

Pick in the cool of the morning for the best flavour and the longest vase life. Coriander leaf wilts fast, so harvest it just before you cook — that immediacy is the whole advantage of growing your own. If you do need to store it, stand the stems in a glass of water in the fridge, or chop and freeze it in ice-cube trays with a little water or oil. To dry surplus leaf and other herbs for the store cupboard, see our guide to drying and storing herbs, though coriander leaf keeps its flavour far better frozen than dried.

Harvesting the seed

When a plant bolts, don't pull it up — let it run. The flowering coriander will produce flat, lacy white umbels, and after pollination these set round green seeds that ripen to beige. Once most of the seed heads have turned from green to pale brown and are starting to dry on the plant, the seed is ready.

Cut the whole seed heads on a dry day and finish drying them indoors. The classic method is to snip the heads into a paper bag, hang or stand it somewhere warm and airy, and let the seed dry fully and drop. Once dry, rub the heads between your hands to release the seed and pick out the stalks. Store the dried seed in an airtight jar — it keeps its spice flavour for a year or more, and you can grind it fresh as you need it. Set a few seeds aside to sow next year, and you have a self-renewing supply.

Growing coriander on a windowsill

Coriander is one of the better herbs for a bright kitchen windowsill, which extends your season at both ends — you can sow from late March, before it is warm enough outside, and keep a pot going into autumn. Choose a leaf variety, use a deep pot (remember the taproot), sow thinly and keep it consistently moist. An east- or west-facing sill that gets good light but isn't baked by all-day summer sun suits it well; a south-facing sill in midsummer can get hot enough to trigger bolting, so a little shade or a cooler spot helps.

Sow a fresh small pot every few weeks here too — the same successional habit applies indoors. Our guide to windowsill growing covers light, watering and pot choice for indoor herbs in more detail, and coriander makes a good companion to a windowsill of basil and parsley.

Once you've explained the method to yourself a few times, you'll find the only kit you really need is a deep pot, good compost and the right seed. A bolt-resistant leaf variety is genuinely worth seeking out rather than grabbing the cheapest generic packet.

Common problems

Most coriander troubles come back to the two issues already covered, plus the odd pest. Here is how to handle them.

Bolting (running to seed). The headline problem, covered in full above. Sow bolt-resistant leaf varieties, sow direct, water consistently, give afternoon shade in heat, and sow successionally so there's always a young plant behind the one that's flowering. When one does bolt, let it set seed rather than fighting it. For a deeper dive into every cause and cure, see why coriander bolts.

Aphids (greenfly). Soft new coriander growth can attract aphids, especially on stressed or indoor plants. Catch them early: a firm jet of water knocks most off, or wipe small clusters away by hand. Avoid feeding too heavily, as lush growth attracts more. Outdoors, the problem often solves itself once predators arrive — which is one more reason to let some plants flower, as we'll see below. If you'd rather encourage those natural controls, our notes on attracting beneficial insects explain how.

Patchy germination. Coriander can be slow and uneven to come up. Keep the surface consistently moist (never let it dry out during germination), don't sow too deep, and try cracking or soaking the husk as described earlier. A cold, dry seedbed is the usual culprit.

Damping off / rot in seedlings. Indoors especially, overly wet, stagnant compost can rot young seedlings at the base. Use fresh compost, don't overwater, and give pots some air movement.

Coriander flowers and your garden

There is a real upside to letting coriander bolt, beyond the seed harvest. Those flat white flower heads are excellent for wildlife: they're easy for short-tongued insects to feed from, and they're a favourite of hoverflies, whose larvae eat aphids. Leaving a few plants to flower puts a useful pollinator plant right in your veg patch, helping to draw in the very insects that keep pests like aphids down. It's a tidy example of how a productive plot and a wildlife-friendly garden pull in the same direction.

So rather than seeing a bolting coriander as a write-off, think of it as switching jobs — from leaf, to spice, to a small magnet for beneficial insects. That shift in mindset, plus the habit of sowing little and often, is really all it takes to grow coriander well in the UK. For more herbs to grow alongside it, browse the full herbs section, and if coriander has given you the bug, the wider getting started guides will take your growing further.