What it is
Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) is in the Asteraceae (Daisy) family. Leaves are intensely sweet with no sugar. A tender perennial best protected or replanted each year.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it even, and give it rich, well-drained soil. Target a soil pH around 6.5–7.5. Space plants about 18 in apart. Expect roughly 40–60. Tender perennial.
How it's used
Stevia is used: fresh or dried as sweetener.
🔎 How to identify it
- Small toothed opposite leaves
- Bushy habit
- White flowers
Edibility
How to grow & propagate stevia
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate stevia
The daisy family is a seed family — those flower heads are seed factories, and most members come up fast and willing from direct sowing. The perennial members (coneflower, black-eyed Susan, the native sunflowers) also clump up over a few years and can be lifted and split in fall or early spring to make free plants and keep the center from dying out.
Growing stevia in Texas
Give it full sun and rich, well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
In a container it'll dry faster than in the ground, so check the top inch of soil daily in summer; pots on a hot Texas patio can need water every single day.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 40–60 before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting. The part you're after: leaves.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.