Fennel is a favourite in everyone’s kitchen. It’s loved by gardeners and highly respected by herbalists for its calming effects on digestion – and life as a whole. Many people associate fennel with the bulbous base of the plant that is cooked as a vegetable. This is a modified variety that has been created through years of careful selection and breeding. Known as Florence fennel (or Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum), this variety is much shorter in height than the therapeutic sweet and bitter varieties. Fennel is as delicious as it is good for your digestion; use the sweet flavoured essential oils in the leaves and seeds can be used in herbal teas and as a cooking ingredient. Easy to grow, the plant reaches for the sky producing hundreds of yellow flowers.