Last edited on December 01, 2025. View history
Rue
Rue
How to sow rue: Direct seed or cuttings
Sun requirement for rue: Plant in Full Sun
Rue, or Common Rue, is a woody-based, shrubby perennial with aromatic, musty, blue-green leaves. Rue is cultivated as an ornamental plant (because of it's leaves) and an herb. It grows in a mounded shape and tolerates heat and drought well once it is established. Rue was used for culinary and medicinal purposes in Ancient Rome and during the Middle Ages, but has fallen out of use because it has a bitter taste and large doses can be toxic. Handling the plants or using extracts can cause skin blistering, so gloves are recommended. Avoid planting near cabbage, basil, or sage.
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Rue facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
90cm × 90cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For rue, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 4°C and a shortest growing cycle of 150 days at its best temperature, about 2625 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your rue will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow rues
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant rues with
raspberry
Photos
Photos
Rue crops
Video
Where rues grow
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What people are saying about rues
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Who's planted rues
- sjkasabi Garden
- jasond 4x4 raised bed by oak tree · Austin, TX
Rue harvests
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 150 to 365 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Ruta graveolens L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Sapindales Rutaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -2 °C |
| Life form | sub-shrub |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | light |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours) |
Learn more about rues
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