85 days.

Sweet marjoram is a close relative of oregano, but offers a more delicate flavor to cooking. It is best used fresh at the end of preparing a dish so the flavor will be enhanced and not overpowered. Most popular in Italian tomato cooking, sweet marjoram is also tasty in Greek dishes and to flavor oil and vinegar dressings.

This plant (a tender perennial, but grown as an annual for best flavor) reaches about 2 feet tall and 1½ feet wide. The wiry, red-brown stems support downy, gray-green leaves up to 1¼-inch long. Tiny white to pink flowers are produced in clustered spikes from late summer through fall.

Start the seeds indoors. Germination takes about 7 to 14 days, and the seedlings are ready to be transplanted into their final container or the sunny garden when they have at least 2 sets of true leaves. Best in well-drained to dry, neutral to alkaline soil. Pkt is 100 seeds.