Even when I buy them, they don't become bushy or lush. They grow taller without adding anything and bolt. It really destroys my chance of Pollyanna bliss when everyone else (or just my sister) seems to neglect herbs but they grow in bunches and batches often year after year. You know?
Dukat and Tetra are the two dill varieties I grow mostly for the leaf part - they would eventually go to seed, but not as quickly as others. The Tetra I tried once in hydroponics, but the roots grew so fast that I could hardly pull it out of the basket - after that, I only grew the Dukat in the hydro or potted. In the hydro, as long as I keep cutting it, it doesn't bolt, until over 5 months after planting. In the ground I'll plant the Tetra. I plant a lot for the swallowtails.
For basil, my favorite varieties are a couple of shorter, bushy varieties, that I grew originally because of the hydroponics, and later in those sub-irrigated planters I use as windowsill boxes, around with deck. One is Dolce Fresca, which is similar to Genovese basil in flavor, and the leaf shape. The other, a variety available from Burpee, is Spicy Saber basil, also known as Sawtooth basil. Both stay bushy, and only about 10-12" tall, and as long as I keep cutting them, they don't bolt, until very late in the season. And Siam Queen is the best flavored Thai basil - bolts a little earlier, but even the edible purple flowers are often used for garnish.
Parsley usually won't bolt the first season, unless something stresses it greatly, like extreme temperatures. Some perennials, like oregano, marjoram, and chives, flower early, and I just leave it for the bees - eventually, I snip the chives flowers off when harvesting some to use, and throw the hard stems away, with the flowers. Mint, oregano, and garlic chives are herbs that will become invasive, if grown with other herbs, the garlic chives, especially. I never understood why the regular chives didn't spread like the garlic chives, which spread not just from the roots, but the seeds; the regular chives, with the purple flowers, never show up far away from the plants. Sage and rosemary are two more perennials that don't need much attention, except for the rosemary, in colder areas - the sage I cut down to the ground, once it dies off from cold (only one season in 40 did the plant not die off for me, and only one extremely cold winter killed the sage that year), and it grows back larger every season.
The one herb I can't grow is cilantro. It bolts early, but let's face it, the regions where it is used the most are NOT cold areas, but more tropical areas, so I think it's a length of day thing, like with onions. Fortunately, cilantro is available almost everywhere these days, at least around here.
Today I set up my cloner, to root the cuttings from a few Red Epazote cuttings, and several each of the basil cuttings. In several days, I'll be able to plant those, and save a lot of time, compared to starting from seeds.
Cloning some basil and epazote cuttings. 5-3 by
pepperhead212, on Flickr