The basil variety called Pesto Party is your solution if your generic Genovese basil plants let you down each summer. I’ve been growing my Pesto Party plants for three months now and I couldn’t be happier. Why? Because this variety solves three common basil problems I have experienced in the past.

Cold Weather Tolerance

All generic, run-of-the-mill basil varieties I’ve grown just do not grow well in spring. They usually turn a chartreuse color—more yellow than green—and don’t grow a millimeter. Not until the very end of June do they even consider greening and growing. While Pesto Party did the same yellowing and stunting thing right when I planted them in late May, the plants did begin greening up and growing in early June. They not only grew, they grew really well, too.

Disease Resistance

It’s now mid-September, four months into their lives, and Pesto Party hasn’t had an inkling of disease. That’s because this variety has been bred to have intermediate resistance to Basil Downy Mildew, so no wet-looking brown spots that develop a fuzzy sporulation. Also, Pesto Party has intermediate resistance to Fusarium, which I have also not seen. If you’ve ever had basil plants that develop brown streaking on the lower portion of stems, yellowing and malformed leaves, and a sudden dropping of yellow leaves, that would be Fusarium.

Pesto Party is Late to Flower

There’s nothing more annoying than a basil plant that starts to flower long before it’s time (or before you think it’s time) for the plant to suddenly stop producing. And to keep the plant growing, you need to pinch off each and every flowering stalk. But then when its new leaves emerge, they are smaller and a bit tougher, especially in texture. This is all a sign that the plant wants to flower, reproduce itself and die. Pesto Party is a very late-flowering variety. Like I said, it’s mid-September and it’s still going strong without one single flower seen so far.

Pesto Party has two other minor attributes that I am loving so far this year.

• It’s a tall plant. I’ve been harvesting from the bottom up. It’s just a lot easier to pick off leaves when the plant is tall rather than wide.
• It has a ton of leaves. I’ve harvested several large batches off these two plants for pesto and also picked leaves here and there for individual dishes and you wouldn’t even know that I’ve taken anything from them.

All in all, I love Pesto Party and will look for the variety exclusively when shopping for basil plants in future growing seasons.