Annual garden basil (Ocimum basilicum) produces highly flavorful leaves suitable for both cooked and raw use. The leaves have the best flavor and aroma when they're harvested before the basil plant flowers, but flowering doesn't render the leaves inedible.

What do you do with basil after flowering?

Just pinch the flowers off! Pinching off these flowers helps keep the plant growing. I pinch them off at their base and put them in tiny bud vases in the kitchen, where they both look and smell beautiful. While pinching off the flower buds will help, it's even better to harvest half the plant and make pesto.

Does flowering ruin basil?

Fight the Flowers

Basil blossoms look good as garnish, but they ruin the flavor of leaves. Basil's maximum oil content, and best taste, happens right before the plant flowers. Once basil blooms, older leaves begin to deteriorate.