Coriandrum sativum Seeds | Leisure Cilantro
LATIN NAME: Coriandrum sativum
COMMON NAME: Leisure Cilantro
Plant Profile
‘Leisure’ cilantro was bred to laugh at heat, a slow-bolting cultivar that keeps cutting leaves long after an ordinary cilantro has rushed up a flower stalk and turned bitter. Where standard types bolt the moment the weather warms, this one holds a low, leafy crown for weeks more, which is why it became the go-to cilantro for summer growers and for patio pots that sit in full sun. The name promises exactly what the plant delivers: a leisurely harvest instead of a race.
The plant builds a compact, bushy crown of ferny lower leaves and fine upper foliage rather than sprinting to a seed head, and it tolerates warmth that would finish a standard type. The stems stay slender and the leaf mass stays tender, so a single sowing feeds the kitchen far longer than the quick varieties. In the flower garden it eventually lifts the familiar white umbels, but only after a patient, productive run in leaf.
The bolting resistance comes from a shifted response to long, hot days, the trigger that normally pushes cilantro to flower. By damping that response, the cultivar keeps resources in foliage, and the result is more cuts per plant and a softer, less sharp leaf than a stressed, bolting one. Growers value it precisely because the harvest window stops being a matter of luck.
Thin when the seedlings show their second true leaf, pulling the weakest to leave a finger’s width between plants; reach a final spacing near eight centimetres once they carry five true leaves and a sturdy stem. Cut often and the bed stays in leaf far longer than an unthinned, crowded row would.
Science & Biotechnology
The flavour chemistry of ‘Leisure’ follows the species pattern but with a profile shaped by its leaf-heavy habit, so the volatile load is dominated by the compounds that define fresh cilantro.
Crushed leaf releases the aldehydes (E)-2-decenal and (E)-2-dodecenal that give cilantro its signature scent, the same molecules that some eaters read as soapy through the OR6A2 receptor. Because ‘Leisure’ produces more leaf before flowering, the cook gets a steadier supply of that aldehyde character without the bitter edge that bolted plants develop.
As the plant finally runs to seed, the familiar linalool-and-geraniol profile of coriander appears in the fruit, and different cilantro chemotypes vary in how much linalool they carry. ‘Leisure’ fits the standard leaf-type pattern, so the seed it yields is usable coriander even though the plant was grown mainly for greens, giving the grower both crops from one sowing.
Uses & Benefits
This is a cut-and-come herb above all, equally at home in a window box and a market row, and its heat tolerance opens the summer kitchen that other cilantros abandon.
Snip the outer stems an inch above the base and the crown regrows, supplying salsa, tacos, and noodles from a single pot through the warm months. The bushy habit means a small container still yields a useful handful every few days. Because it shrugs off the heat that finishes ordinary cilantro, ‘Leisure’ keeps a patio cook in fresh leaf through July and August, the very weeks when standard types would have already bolted and turned bitter.
Let one or two plants run to flower at the end of the season and the rounded, ribbed seeds can be dried for the spice jar, closing the loop so the grower saves both herb and coriander from the same roots. The seed carries the sweet linalool note that defines the dried spice.
Growing from Seed
‘Leisure’ takes the same cool, loose, fertile medium as any cilantro, with extra value in pots where the grower can move it out of the hottest sun. A mix of loam, compost, and sharp sand drains fast and keeps the taproot straight.
Sow the seed in a shallow block rather than a single line, pressing it into firm, moist soil and covering lightly, because even spacing lets the crowns shade each other and stay cool. Sow in succession through the season so a fresh block is always leafing out as the previous one matures.
Our Take
‘Leisure’ is the cilantro I trust through a hot summer, and the long leaf run saves me constant resowing. The Cilantro Coriandrum sativum is the parent type to know, while the Santo Cilantro Coriandrum sativum and the Longstanding Cilantro Coriandrum sativum share the slow-bolting habit, and the Parsley seed keeps the carrot-family bed productive beside it.
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